Hell in the Holy Land

the long version

"In the modern popular imagination, the British Army's campaign in the Middle East during World War I is considered somehow less brutal that the fighting on European battlefields. A romantic view of this theater has been further encouraged by such films as Lawrence of Arabia and The Light Horsemen. In Hell in the Holy Land, David R. Woodward uses graphic eyewitness accounts from the diaries, letters, and memoirs of British soldiers who fought in that arena of the war to describe in rigorous detail the genuine experience of the fighting and dying in Egypt and Palestine." "Using archival records, many from the Imperial War Museum in London, England, Woodward paints a picture of the mayhem, terror, boredom, filth, and sacrifice that marked the daily life of British soldiers in the Middle East. In telling the story of these soldiers, Woodward provides a personal history of a campaign that laid the groundwork for the continuing turmoil in the Middle East."--Jacket.