“After Lawrence and Allenby had captured Damascus, Beyrouth and Baalbeck, Allenby started these armoured cars north toward Aleppo. And when your men entered the gates of this great Syrian city of Aleppo they had taken one of the most important strategical points in the whole world as far was this war was concerned. Because with the fall of Aleppo Allenby's men were astride the Berlin to Bagdad Railway, and the dream of the Kaiser for a world empire had vanished into thin air. With the fall of Aleppo, Allenby's men had cut off all of Mesopotamia, all of Syria, all of Palestine and all of Arabia. They had smashed the backbone of the Ottoman Empire.”
-Lowell Thomas
“With Lawrence in Arabia” (1919)
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