The diary of one of the British officers's colleages records the existence of the so-called ''X Flights'' led by Lt Col TE Lawrence across the former Ottoman empire. James Hynes, 80, discovered the documents after his cousin told him that her father served alongside Lt Col Lawrence during World War One. She revealed that she had kept typed up copies of his journal. The diaries describe everyday life in the Turkish desert during World War One, including how one of Lawrence's aristocratic men managed to burn breakfast for the squadron after being ordered to cook an English fry up. Lt Col Lawrence had led the '''X flight'' sorties in 1918 against the Turks accompanied by a handpicked team of colleagues which included the sixth Earl of Winterton who was then a sitting MP. The secret missions helped Lt Col Lawrence capture Damascus in 1918 where he became instrumental in setting up an Arab government. But the flights were so sensitive the RAF were said to have known nothing of them and they remained a secret - eluding depiction in the 1962 Hollywood movie Lawrence of Arabia starring actor Peter O'Toole. Now details of the flights have emerged in diaries complied by an aircraft mechanic George Hynes who was one of Lawrence's closest aides during the Arab revolts. In one entry Hynes flight sergeant air mechanic wrote: ''All who took part in the Desert Operations had a great respect for Lawrence the Amateur soldier.'' Mr Hynes's nephew James, 80, of Mold, North Wales, who has now written a book based on his uncle's diaries said: ''"As the years went by, I wondered what had happened to Uncle George's stuff. "When I got in touch with my cousin Ellen, she said she had a 220 pages of typed script pages. He had typed them from his original notes and they were very faint because he had typed them up on a typewriter in the 1930s. ''It is obvious George wanted to rush to Lawrence's defence because there were times when people dismissed him as a bit of a romancer. ''But it was amazing to see details of the X Flights. A lot people obviously know about Lawrence himself but nobody really knows about the X flight - not even the RAF. ''The only people that really knew about the X flights were the people conducting the war in the desert. As soon as they got orders to move after Lawrence had taken Damascus they were simply whisked away. ''It was so secret in fact that after George had been demobbed in 1919 he tried unsuccessfully for two years like the other flight members to get back pay for taking part in them but they didn't get it as the RAF knew nothing about it.'' 'X Flight' was a small group of planes used by Lt Col Lawrence and his company to carry out secret missions after taking the town of Aqaba in 1917 during the Arab revolts against the Turks, who had sided with Germany. Missions included bombing Turkish railway lines, cutting off supply routes and telegraph wires. George Hynes was responsible for keeping the aircraft airworthy. The crew worked in difficult desert conditions, living and working in temperatures that varied between freezing and 100 degrees. But the diaries detailed the camaraderie between the troop made up of people from different walks of life. One of his entries said: ''Lord Winterton said to one of Rigger mechanics: ''Wheeler what about breakfast this morning?'' in that English long drawn pronunciation as he would state the perfect English in that peerage manner. ''Lawrence said in his short but polite low voice: 'yes what about you Winterton making breakfast this morning? These men have a rough time getting here.'' Lord Winterton replied: ''Good idea give me the bacon etcetrah!'' and Wheeler settled down to light the fire built of scrubs in desert method and commenced operations. ''Winterton fried the bacon strips that they must have scrounged, for our parties never had such a luxury in advance operations. ''He was doing his best but it caused much humour that us British soldiers relish because Winterton had damned near burnt it all to a cinder as they say in Lancashire. ''That was an incident that Lord Winterton, Lawrence and our ranks fitted into the picture with a true spirit of comradeship on the desert for Lord Winterton was a recruit to desert warfare in Arabia.'' James Hynes a retired English and education lecturer, added: ''Their task on a daily basis was to take reconnaissance photographs to bomb, to machine-gun, and very often to convey Lawrence about to secret airbases. ''The only time the aircraft could fly was 4-6am when the air was cool. The Turks would be at their busiest in the latest time of day when they knew they weren't going to get attacked. The afternoon temperatures might be 100 degrees so it was too dangerous for them to fly. "Very often these young men would be sleeping in the desert with not only their grey coats but also blankets as it was so cold. "The x-flight aircraft would take pictures, they would bomb, they would machine-gun and they would attack. "'Very often Lawrence, would stay on the secret airfield with the fliers and their airmen. But it was made sure he was getting certain messages would dropped for him in bags. "At one time George had to go out to an aircraft that had gone down in the desert with Lawrence onboard. ''He got a message to go down, George went as a mechanic in charge they saw where the aircraft had come down with Lawrence as passenger. George then fixed the mechanical fault and helped to get the aircraft going again with Lawrence onboard. If he hadn't have fixed it Lawrence would never have survived. George Hynes maintained contact with Lawrence before the army officer died in a motorcycle accident in 1935 aged 46. George himself died in 1973 aged 78. "When the Lawrence of Arabia film was shown in Liverpool in 1962, George thought it was a pity nothing was ever shown about X flights. He died without knowing that people are reading about it now.''Lawrence of Arabia's secret 'X-flights' revealed in diary
Details of secret missions flown by Lawrence of Arabia almost
100 years ago have been uncovered by a retired lecturer.
Thursday, 26 August 2010
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