Hussein would begin his campaign against the Ottomans on his own home turf in Mecca, where the Ottoman government maintained a modest garrison. Though outnumbered, the Ottoman troops were outfitted with state of the art German small arms and artillery, and were able to hold off Hussein’s rebels for the better part of the month as they fought for each house and street in the holy city. Still, Hussein was able to overcome the garrison and take Mecca once the British dispatched artillery of their own from Egypt.
Thereafter the Arab rebels drove to the sea, taking the port of Jidda, where they were able to increase the size of their force by recruiting Arabs who had been taken prisoner while fighting for the Ottomans. Still, the rebels would struggle to field enough men to push their revolt further, and often would have to draw upon the nomadic Bedouin tribes who roamed the region. To help the Arabs to overcome this deficiency, the British dispatched some of their own personnel to fight alongside the Arabs, the most notable of whom was T.E. Lawrence, since immortalized as “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Hussein’s forces were able to utilize Lawrence as an envoy to secure military aid from the British during key confrontations with the Ottomans. Lawrence also became a close friend and trusted advisor to Faisal, and was able to persuade Faisal to adopt a new approach to defeating the Turks. Whereas Faisal had wanted to confront the Ottomans directly, Lawrence recognized that while the Ottoman forces in Arabia were well equipped they relied upon a single rail line running south from Istanbul for their supplies. Disrupting this rail line through sabotage and hit and run attacks from camel back helped to weaken the Ottoman position.
As the Ottoman forces slowly began to starve, the Arab rebels went on the offensive. In May 1917 Lawrence led a small force across the desert to assault Aqaba, the last Ottoman port on the Red Sea and a threat to the Suez Canal. Once they emerged from the desert this small force was able to quickly recruit local Arab Bedouins to their cause, more or less creating an army on the spot which would be successful in taking the city.
The victory at Aqaba proved that the Arabs could win. Earlier they had been little more than a distraction to the Ottomans, a way of preventing them from threatening British control of the Suez Canal. After Aqaba they would garner a good deal more support from both the Arabs of the region and the British themselves. Now working in a close partnership, the British and the Arabs moved on Jerusalem, taking it just before Christmas in 1917. From Jerusalem they pushed northward, seizing Damascus and Aleppo from the Ottomans and driving the Turkish forces back into Turkey.