Spring Webinars from the WFA

Readers may well be interested in the following webinars* from the Western Front Association. To join, please register using the links below. Start time for all webinars is 8pm (UK time).  

1. Monday 15 May – Delayed in the Desert: The Gaza Stalemate and Beersheba Breakthrough

In this presentation, Robert Fleming will talk about how in 1917, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George ordered the Egyptian Expeditionary Force to capture Jerusalem by Christmas. This was – arguably – a diversion from the main focus of the war on the western front. He believed this would be a good ‘Christmas Present’ for the British people. However, the route to Jerusalem was across the Sinai desert and blocked by the Ottoman defences at Gaza and Beersheba. The eventual Allied victory at the Battle of Beersheba was a grave setback for the Ottoman Empire and led to the eventual defeat of the Central Powers in what was then Palestine.

To register for this webinar, click this link: Delayed in the Desert

2. Monday 22 May – Allenby’s Checkmate: Jerusalem to Victory in the Middle East, 1918

Robert Fleming will follow up from the previous week’s talk by picking up the story after the capture of Beersheba, and exploring how Allenby skilfully mustered and mastered his resources to defeat the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Megiddo and end the war in the Middle East.

To register for this webinar, click this link: Allenby’s Checkmate

3. Monday 5 June – The Road to 11 November: War and Politics in 1918

This presentation by Prof David Stevenson will reappraise the final stages of the First World War in Western Europe, analysing the factors that led Germany to seek an armistice and led the Allies and the United States to grant one. Particular attention will be given to the turn of the tide and to the sources of Allied superiority on the Western Front; and to the interaction of political and military considerations in shaping decision-making during the ceasefire negotiations of October-November 1918.

To register for this webinar, click this link: The Road to 11 November

---

*Webinars are also subsequently published on the WFA’s YouTube Channel.