D. S. O. to a Legend

The D.S.O. was awarded last week to a legend. In flesh the legend is Major John Bagot Glubb, Commander of the Arab Legion in Trans-Jordan.

Small, shy, stooped like a tired schoolmaster, Glubb Bey (his Arab title) graduated first in his class from Woolwich Royal Military Academy. Son of a major general, he knew his war business, went to France in World War I as a sapper. There he received a chin wound which later inspired Arabs to nickname him Abu Huneik (Man with the Small Jaw). In 1920 he was sent to Mesopotamia; he has remained there, except for a few short trips, ever since. Before World War II, if he was not living quietly with his wife in a native-style house at Amman, capital of Trans-Jordan, he was roaming the desert with Bedouins, learning their habits and earning their esteem.

His job with the Arab Legion has been peacemaking. After learning Arabic so that he spoke it more fluently than the late great T. E. Lawrence, in 1930 he organized the Desert Patrol, part of Lieut. Colonel Frederick G. Peake's Arab Legion.

Major Glubb broke tribal distinctions as Lawrence never dared to do, had at least 40% of Lawrence's various tribal groups represented in his one unit. Unlike Lawrence, he worked on the Arabs' more peaceful characteristics. The Arabs' three loves--gold, rifles and raidings--were al ways satisfied by Lawrence, who had plenty of gold and rifles and whose job was to organize raids. Major Glubb had no money to spend and no rifles; his chief job was to stop raids. Typical of his peacemaking strategy was his handling during the 1937 trouble of Bedouin chiefs, who loved to cut telephone wires. Major Glubb installed telephones in the chiefs' tents; if they cut the wires they cut themselves off.

When Peake Pasha resigned command of the Arab Legion in 1939, Glubb took the whole force over. By World War II's outbreak, with the assistance of four English officers, he had formed the most potent Arab fighting force of the 20th Century. With some armored cars and Chevrolets carrying machine guns, Major Glubb organized his 5,000 Arabs into a desert blitzkrieg unit.

The deed that won him the D.S.O. climaxed the Legion's part in this year's Syrian campaign. Word came to Palmyra that an advancing Vichy motorized column had a good chance of capturing British headquarters there. "Glubb's Girls" were sent to head the Vichy column off. Major Glubb took a look at the column, realized he was hopelessly outnumbered. Leaving six armored cars to hold the attention of the Vichy unit, he skirted for a flank attack. Instead of sitting in defense, the Legion's armored cars attacked almost before Glubb came in on the flanks. The Vichy forces fled, leaving six armored cars, two trucks, 30 dead, five officers, 80 prisoners. Glubb's losses: one dead, one wounded Bedouin.

This exploit made his place in the Arab world secure. Feared and respected in Arabia even more than Lawrence was, Glubb Bey is now the rock under Britain's shaky Arab household. His quiet demeanor hides fighting anger which makes him deadly when aroused. Of all his colorful Arab nicknames Glubb prefers Rai el Boueidah (Guardian of the Little White Camel), which he earned for saving the life of a young camel during a skirmish.

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