Poll Time ! Lawrence of Arabia, pff More like Shmarence of Arabia

[The Twizzler]

Alright, here is the situation, It's WW1 and you are part of a special task force sent to stop  Lawrence and his band of merry men from attacking the trains traveling through the desert that are needed to keep the war effort going. You have been given command of a group of 100 men each capable warriors with a large diversity of useful skills but no replacements as they are needed elsewhere. Your job is to keep the trains safe and moving. You have chosen an offensive strategy as placing a few soldiers on the train hasn't worked so far (there is a man power shortage at the moment) . Pick one and discuss why you chose it. Here are your choices, choose wisely my son.

• Offensive
  1. Biplanes- Pros-can see from far away, the fastest mode of travel, can use small bombs. Cons- they break down constantly and when that happens it usually means death, no armor, will have to have resupply points hidden for fuel, ammo, parts
  2. Horses-Pros-can have several for each soldier, can carry extra supplies, flexible-so can use formations or fight dragoon style. Cons- the other side also uses horses and know the desert better than you, the trains are gonna be running real slow for the horses to catch up.
  3. Camels- see above but better suited to desert but even slower
  4. Trucks- Pros-fast, has some armor, can carry even more supplies.Cons- not very reliable, will need a lot of spare parts, easiest to get stuck
  5. Hot air balloons- Pro's- simple and reliable, a good shooting platform for riflemen, can see far away. Cons- kinda hard to sneak up on someone, limited steering, either very slow or much much too fast depending on the weather   

_{I don't know why the 2 is there at the bottom it just showed up}   

[woodsghost]

Biplanes. I have 100 pilots. They double as mechanics. They triple as engineers and some moonlight as machinists.

We sweep the deserts. Well, the 10 that are in working condition at any time.

We have amazing mustaches.

I look dashing in jodhpurs.

My machine guns rain down death and hate upon those desert bums and their train raiding horses.

Occasionally we toss hand grenades or drop those bombs.

[RoneKiln]

I'm staging my own train heists and blaming them on Lawrence. Eventually we use the trains to ship large numbers of Arab troops right past the outer defenses of cities in order to take them over from within.

That's what the Ottomans get for hiring an American to hunt down my own ally.

Though it's possible that portion of the world would be far more stable today if the Ottoman Empire had survived the aftermath of WW1.

[flybynight]

I'm rather disappointed the choices  don't include Rell the cyclops and Fire mares . BUT...

Can two of the biplanes be piloted by beagles ?And can I have a sound track ?....

This soundtrack ?

https://youtu.be/7wfYIMyS_dI

[Halfapint]

Definitely biplanes, as woodsghosst pointed out, back then pilots were kind of all around guys. Most tinkered with their planes and can have it rebuilt in a couple days.

[Mr. E. Monkey]

Death from Above!

[Raptor]

A combination of aircraft providing air cover the trains. Fly them in pairs of pairs out ahead of the train and another pair of pairs covering the train itself. Treat it like a merchant marine convoy with escorts.

The second part of this will be Q -ships (or trains) fat slow (preferably the older locomotive) running in tandem in front of the train carrying troops and possessing aircover. They hit the first train only to have the second train and air cover attack them.

Yes I have no replacements but then neither did Lawrence. 

Finally I would make the same deal with the locals that Lawrence promised, independence and local governance and gold if they assisted my side... I would also appeal the ethnic and religious preferences...though the Turks at that point were no friends of either the Arabs or their preferred religion...but then the truth never stood in the way of any government in wartime.

[MacWa77ace]

I would probably send small ops teams on camels to each of the well known water supplies within camel range of the train tracks and salt them.

This Arab army dashed from well to well across some extraordinarily inhospitable territory, stopping occasionally to blow up Turkish railroad tracks or create diversions to confuse the Turks about their ultimate objective. With the help of the British gold, Auda abu Tayi drew fighters from tribes along the way. Approaching Akaba after almost eight weeks in the desert, the band — riding dozens of horses and hundreds of camels — was now more than 500 strong.

I don't really think biplanes back then were that effective against infantry or cavalry, and they definitely couldn't carry enough armament to take out that cavalry that went against Akaba you'd have to have 40 or 50 planes, and their range would not allow complete coverage. So then you'd have to think how you could launch them from train cars and retrieve them. Or build air bases.

They were good against technicals though and for psyops.  https://firstworldwar.com/airwar/groundattack.htm



Re: a battle in turkey

When the smoke had cleared it was seen that the organization of the enemy had melted away.  They were a dispersed horde of trembling individuals, hiding for their lives in every fold of the vast hills.  Nor did their commanders ever rally them again.  When our cavalry entered the silent valley the next day they could count ninety guns, fifty lorries, and nearly a thousand carts abandoned with all their belongings.  The RAF lost four killed.  The Turks lost a corps.

[Raptor]

I would probably send small ops teams on camels to each of the well known water supplies within camel range of the train tracks and salt them.

That is a great idea. maybe have the ops teams wait in ambush with explosives near the water access points at one or 2 of them.

I don't really think biplanes back then were that effective against infantry or cavalry, and they definitely couldn't carry enough armament to take out that cavalry that went against Akaba you'd have to have 40 or 50 planes, and their range would not allow complete coverage. So then you'd have to think how you could launch them from train cars and retrieve them. Or build air bases.

They were good against technicals though and for psyops.  https://firstworldwar.com/airwar/groundattack.htm



Re: a battle in turkey

When the smoke had cleared it was seen that the organization of the enemy had melted away.  They were a dispersed horde of trembling individuals, hiding for their lives in every fold of the vast hills.  Nor did their commanders ever rally them again.  When our cavalry entered the silent valley the next day they could count ninety guns, fifty lorries, and nearly a thousand carts abandoned with all their belongings.  The RAF lost four killed.  The Turks lost a corps.

That is also a good point. The aircraft available to the Turks were generally inferior to the most modern (which were also not exactly high quality ground attack aircraft either by even early WW2 standards). The other issue with planes as spotters is the lack of comms air to ground and ground to air.  They communicated either with Flares, dropped notes and signal light. Not exactly quick or useful.

[woodsghost]

I would probably send small ops teams on camels to each of the well known water supplies within camel range of the train tracks and salt them.

That is a great idea. maybe have the ops teams wait in ambush with explosives near the water access points at one or 2 of them.

I don't really think biplanes back then were that effective against infantry or cavalry, and they definitely couldn't carry enough armament to take out that cavalry that went against Akaba you'd have to have 40 or 50 planes, and their range would not allow complete coverage. So then you'd have to think how you could launch them from train cars and retrieve them. Or build air bases.

They were good against technicals though and for psyops.  https://firstworldwar.com/airwar/groundattack.htm



Re: a battle in turkey

When the smoke had cleared it was seen that the organization of the enemy had melted away.  They were a dispersed horde of trembling individuals, hiding for their lives in every fold of the vast hills.  Nor did their commanders ever rally them again.  When our cavalry entered the silent valley the next day they could count ninety guns, fifty lorries, and nearly a thousand carts abandoned with all their belongings.  The RAF lost four killed.  The Turks lost a corps.

That is also a good point. The aircraft available to the Turks were generally inferior to the most modern (which were also not exactly high quality ground attack aircraft either by even early WW2 standards). The other issue with planes as spotters is the lack of comms air to ground and ground to air.  They communicated either with Flares, dropped notes and signal light. Not exactly quick or useful.

On that note, my pilot/engineer/machinists have excellent penmanship for note dropping.

[lurkedthere]

Well worth the read.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Pillars_of_Wisdom

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100111h.html

[Mr. E. Monkey]

That is also a good point. The aircraft available to the Turks were generally inferior to the most modern (which were also not exactly high quality ground attack aircraft either by even early WW2 standards).

Well, if we're talking WW1, and assuming we are with the Ottoman Empire against Lawrence, then we would have mostly German aircraft, including at least a few Gotha bombers:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/ot-air-history-2.htm

By 1916, that could include the Gotha G.IV:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotha_G.IV

The G.IV was capable of carrying up to 1100 pounds of ordinance, with a range of 810 km, a top speed of 135km/h and an endurance of 6 hours.


I'd still want several fighter/multi-role biplanes for scouting and just in case Lawrence manages to get a few aircraft of his own, but without enemy airpower, we could put up a respectable bombing campaign, I think.