This is the exciting story of a forgotten war, fought out on the fringe of the great First World War campaigns. At its centre stands the tragic figure of Sayyid Ahmad al-Sharif, the Grand Sanusi, a charismatic Arab leader caught between the rival war aims of the Turco-German alliance and the British Empire. In November 1915 HMS Tara, a requisitioned ferryboat, is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Sollum on the north-west coast of Egypt. The ninety-two survivors, nearly all Welshmen from Holyhead, are handed over to Turkish and Sanusi soldiers across the border and sent as prisoners of war deep into the Libyan Desert. The Turco-Sanusi Army then overruns Sollum and pushes into Egypt. The British, who occupy that country, are caught off guard by the suddenness of these events and are forced to launch a military campaign to expel the invaders. Thousands of British and Colonial soldiers are rushed into the Western Desert, where, over the next few months, four battles are fought before Sollum is retaken and the threat is contained. Finally, the Duke of Westminster leads a large column of Rolls Royce armoured cars and Model T Fords into Libya and the Welshmen are rescued. Based on original source material, "The Sanusi's Little War" tells for the first time the full story of the Turco-Sanusi invasion and the subsequent military campaign. The author describes in detail secret missions by the Germans and, separately, by the Turks to win the Grand Sanusi over to their cause and get him to launch an invasion of Egypt. He reveals the fascinating role played in the campaign by certain British officers, particularly Leo Royle, formerly of the Egyptian Coastguard, and links them to the Military Intelligence Office in Cairo. And, most unexpected of all, is his discovery that T E Lawrence played a role in these events and even went to Sollum just days before the invasion, to meet the Coastguard officers who are the story's principal characters.

Reviews

"...Russell McGuirk's masterly study of the Sanusi campaign. The author provides the essential historical setting, the details of personalities, places and unfolding events, and the sympathetic understanding that this extraordinary but hitherto disregarded historical episode fully deserves...the author is to be congratulated on his choice of illustrations [and] the informative maps." John Wright, The Maghreb Review, 2008 "Russell McGuirk provides a new level of detail, based on thorough research of the available sources...[He] tells a grand story well...[This book is] a much welcome addition to the literature of the First World War and its aftermath in the Middle East and North Africa." Sean Kelly, Libyan Studies, 2007 "The author draws skilfully upon a wealth of primary sources both archival and oral in Arabic, English and German...The excellence of this history...lies in its intricate tapestry of detail concerning the setting and background to the conflict...In short, this is a well-told war story. Jay Spaulding, Sudan Studies Association Bulletin, Sept. 2007