PMCI - June 2019

pmcimagazine.com
PMCI
BOOK REVIEW
MASTERS OF MAYHEM:
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA AND
THE BRITISH MILITARY MISSION
TO THE HEJAZ
BOOK REVIEW
Every so often you stumble across a book purely by accident that
turns out to be that absolute gem that you can’t work out why
you’ve never read before! At a recent event I happened to run
into Connor from Casemate Publishing and whilst chatting to him
a new title offered by them really caught my eye.
In fairness it was the combination of the striking cover image
of Rolls Royce armoured cars accompanied by the tagline “The
Seeds of British Special Operations” that really piqued my curiosity.
Like many of you I have read and studied “The Seven Pillars
of Wisdom” (the autobiographical account of the experiences of
British soldier T. E. Lawrence while serving as a liaison officer with
rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of
1916 to 1918), but “Masters of Mayhem” looked to be chock
full of more information on a very specific part of “Lawrence of
Arabia’s” war, and I was not to be disappointed.
Strike where the enemy is weakest and melt away into the
darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force
directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and
demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence,
area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning
and executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors - this
is unconventional warfare. T. E. Lawrence was one of the earliest
practitioners of modern unconventional warfare. His tactics and
strategies were used by men like Mao and Giap in their wars of
liberation. Both kept Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” close
at hand.
“Masters of Mayhem” however looks in depth at the creation
of the HEDGEHOG force, the formation of armoured car sections
and other units, and focuses the Hejaz Operations Staff, the Allied
officers and men who took Lawrence’s idea and prosecuted it
against the Ottoman Turkish army assisting Field Marshal Allenby
to achieve victory in 1918. Lawrence states in his “27 Articles”
(his classic set of guidelines on military leadership in the Middle
East) that “The Hejaz confounds ordinary tactics” and “Masters”
goes some way to provide an understanding of why this was and
how the Allied forces at the time set about developing a new
style of warfare to cope with it.
James Stejskal is a former US Army Special Forces soldier
who served on special operations in many “interesting places”
worldwide before retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer 4. He was then
recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to serve again as a
senior Case Officer in
Africa, Europe, and
the Far East before
finally retiring from
active service and
this background
really shows in his
understanding of the
place, the conditions
encountered, the
men, and the tactics.
Do not expect
a dry account of
simply “who did
what, to whom,
when, and with
what” but instead
journey into the
hearts and minds
of the soldiers on
the ground who
unknowingly really did set the seeds for what we know now as
Combined Arms Operations, integrating different combat arms to
achieve mutually complementary effects on the battle space.
I have to say that I found “Masters” to be an utterly fascinating
read from start to finish, even learning more of the “geo-politik”
of the region along the way, and Stejskal concludes with an
examination of how HEDGEHOG influenced special operations
and unconventional warfare, including Field Marshal Wavell, the
Long Range Desert Group, and David Stirling’s SAS!
If you truly desire to look at how “thinking outside the box”
worked in a very practical way, and led to some of the tactical
concepts we hold as gospel today, then reading this gripping book
is a must!
Author: James Stejskal
Hardcover: 304 pages with numerous photographs and
maps
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1612005748
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