The Tafas Massacre refers to the slaughter of civilians in the
Ottoman Syrian town of
Tafas
Tafas ( ar, طفس, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Maskin ...
following the retreat of the
Ottoman Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
in an attempt to demoralize the enemy.
Background
Nearing the end of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in the autumn of 1918, a retreating
Ottoman Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
column of roughly two thousand
entered Tafas. Its commander, Shereef Bey, ordered all the people massacred, including the women and children to demoralize the British and Arab forces in pursuit of the Turkish army.
[Murphy, 2011, p. 44.] The British commander leading the Arab forces,
T. E. Lawrence
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...
, arrived in the area shortly after the massacre and witnessed bodies mutilated and the majority of the town in ruins.
In retaliation for the massacre, Lawrence's troops attacked the withdrawing Turkish columns, and for the first time in the war
ordered his men to take no prisoners.
Around 250
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n soldiers traveling with the Ottoman troops that had been captured that day were
summarily executed
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
as they were gunned down by Lawrence's enraged men with machine guns.
Lawrence wrote in his diary, and in ''
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), of serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire o ...
'': "We left Abd el Main there and rode on past the other bodies, now seen clearly in the sunlight to be men, women, and four babies, toward the village whose loneliness we knew meant that it was full of death and horror. On the outskirts were the low mud walls of some sheep-folds, and on one lay something red and white. I looked nearer, and saw the body of a woman folded across it, face downward, nailed there by a saw-bayonet whose half stuck hideously into the air from between her naked legs. She had been pregnant, and about her were others, perhaps twenty in all, variously killed, but laid out to accord with an obscene taste. The Zaggi burst out into wild peals of laughter, in which some of those who were not sick joined hysterically. It was a sight near madness, the more desolate for the warm sunshine and the clean air of this upland afternoon. I said: "The best of you brings me the most Turkish dead"; and we turned and rode as fast as we might in the direction of the fading enemy. On our way we shot down those of them fallen out by the roadside who came imploring our pity."
See also
*
List of massacres in Ottoman Syria
References
{{massacre-stub
Massacres in 1918
Massacres in the Ottoman Empire
World War I crimes by the Ottoman Empire
Austro-Hungarian collusion with war crimes by the Ottoman Empire
Imperial German collusion with war crimes by the Ottoman Empire
Prisoner of war massacres
World War I massacres
Ethnic cleansing in Asia
Mass murder in 1918
1918 in Ottoman Syria