ConfederateSS wrote:-------Seizure of Fallujah/Storyline-----
--------Part II: Sam. Off.-----
-----------March 19th,1917----
----------I Wayward Day find the morning of March 19th,1917 a some what peaceful one. Sandstorms that plagued our Anglo-Indian army force. Have seemed to have vanished for now. Like the top part of an hourglass, the time of bad weather has run out for now. As I drink from my canteen, through the corner of my eye I can see a messenger running towards me.
------"Major, here is a letter from General Maude!",he shouts,handing me the letter.
------"Thank You Sgt.",I reply.
------I ask him,"Do you know what it says?"
------"Yes",he answers, laughing
------"How do you feel about it?",I say.
------"Well Sir, it should be very interesting.",he says as he walks off.
------The note says I am to led a small command detail to seize the town of Fallujah. The Sgt.(O'Malley) who just dropped off the order. Is to me my aid. On the mission. He has just gone to get my horse. This is part of Gen.Maude's 4 part objective in Mesopotamia,his Samarrah Offensive. We are to capture Fallujah and secure the dams on the Euphrates river. To prevent the Turkish army from flooding the area. Well that is the gist of it anyway.
------As Sgt.O'Malley brings my horse and supplies. We head to the rest of the combat force. We are quickly briefed by Gen. Maude. Then off we go into a sea of sand. That's an understatement, for navigating your way through the Desert, is like a sea captain sailing the seas. I have a queasy feeling in my stomach, not from the travel through the Desert. More so, the fact that I am not a real officer. Well, I guess I am now, just like that.
------For hours on end we travel it seems. Through the SUN baked sands of The Syrian Desert. As I reach into my satchel and take out my field glasses. I head to the top of a little sand dune, off sparkling in the distance. I can see the town of Fallujah as it juts out on the bends in the Euphrates. As it sticks out like a sea port on the Syrian Desert. as I put my field glasses away. I look at a local scratching of some sort of map. I can see where we are, closing in on Fallujah.
------I can see a path on the map of dots and lines. It is an ancient trade route. That heads towards Fallujah. As the route and the town of Fallujah, links the Oasis towns of The Nerd Province, in my time,Saudi Arabia. With the great cities of Aleppo and Mosul to the north. The town of Fallujah is also on the desert highway between Baghdad and Amman. Fallujah is a crossroads, for 1,000's of years people have bene going up and down, that north-south desert highway. It reminds me of Route 66 back in THE USA. Fallujah is a place that binds together the people of wnhat is my time,Saudi Arabia,Iraq,Syria and Jordan.
------AsI stare at the map. I think, although longer and will take more time. I have decided to attack Fallujah by taking the ancient route. I believe the Turks will have the desert highway well protected. Our troops pull out heading down that old trade route. As we grow nearer to the town of Fallujah, I keep expecting our troops to come under attack. Closer and Closer we come towards the town.Still nothing. The silence is what scores me the most. I kinda would rather be under an artillery barrage right now.
------Wait could the Turks have fled like they have been doing. Nope, I see them. HOLD ON.
------"LOOK, up there a top the dome shaped tower! It is a white flag waving!",shouts Sgt.O'Malley.
------"I believe your right Sgt.",I reply.
------As our troops enter the town of Fallujah. We enter unopposed. The small garrison of Turkish soldiers. Await us in the town's square. Right in the middle of the city. All their weapons in a large pile. Their commander comes over to me, he unlatches his belt, with his sword on it. He hands me his sword. As he bows his head. He then proceeds to kneel before me.
------"Get up, I tell him, as I accept his surrender. You and your men will not be harmed.",I tell him,lowering my hand.
------The Turkish officer stands up, he smiles and shakes my hand. He and his men are allowed to go to a section of town. As long as they stay there in peace. They will not be bothered.
------WOW!,I think to myself. This is pretty easy. Commanding a combat force. I tell O'Malley to let the men rest and have fun. Well, not to much fun.
------As a few hours pass, I am in a small local drinking establishment. Who should come in? I nearly die inside. Standing before me, live in person. It is MR.ARABIA himself.Lt.Col.T.E.Lawrence.
------"Well Major,it see you and your men have had quite a battle.",he says chuckling.
------"Yes,Col. sit down , enjoy the festivities.",I say smiling.
------The 2 of us talk and drink for hours on end. The Col.Mr.Arabia, sees our Mesopotamia invasion a disaster. He believes the people of England have been led into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady with holding of information. The reports coming from Baghdad, are belated,insincere and incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told by our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our Imperial record and may soon be to inflamed for any ordinary cure. we are today not far from disaster. Our unfortunate troops, Indian and British, under hard conditions of climate and supply. Will be forced to police an immense area we take from the ottomans. Paying early everyday in lives for the willfully wrong policy of the civil administration in Baghdad and London. But the responsibility in this case, is not the army. Which has had acted only upon the request of the civil authorities. I think to myself. T.E.Lawrence might as well be talking about Fallujah 87 years later. as it sounds like Iraqi and USA relations in my time.
------Col. Lawrence goes on to tell of his bunk mate at Sandhurst Military Academy. Lt.Col.Gerald Leachman, who was sent to patrol an area controlled by local tribes men. He was killed by a tribal leader named Shaykh Dhari. For Fallujah is an area that embodies the inter related tribal, religious and national aspects of Iraqi History. As the Col. leaves. I think of what I have learned walking around town today.
-----People in the city are linked by tribe family or marriage to people in all of the surrounding countries of my time of, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Most of the people follow ideas that came out of the eastern part of Saudi Arabia in the late 18th century. Which in my time are called Wahhabi ideas. Ideas of a man called Muhammad Ib n' Abdal-Wahhab, which took root in Fallujah more than 200 years ago. In other words, it is a place where what we in the west would call Fundamentalist Salafi, or Wahhabi ideas. That have been implanted for 10 generations in the region.
------As I look around the town of Fallujah, before our troops head back to meet up with the main force of Gen.Maude. It looks so peaceful, I know what it will look like for the next 87 years. So sad. Well a trip that took 8 days, to secure a surrender in 8 minutes, not to shabby, for an American student, studying in Italy, but caught some how over a 100 years earlier in the heart of World War I. T.E.Lawrence waves bye to me, as our troops leave the city. I feel sad inside, I know Mr.Arabia will survive WWI, but not his own demons, that will cause him to take his own life...AWAY WE GO....
I was about to ask...
