27 April 1917

A meeting  to discuss the forthcoming attack on the railway at El Ula took Feisal and Auda away from Wejh for a week. Meanwhile, two BE2c aeroplanes from C Flight of 14 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps took off from Wejh to make an aerial reconnaissance of El Ula.

When one of them failed to return, a third BE2c piloted by Captain Thomas Henderson, of C Flight, took off on April 26 to search for the missing plane.

After the plane was located in Wadi Hamdh, where it had been forced to land due to engine trouble, a recovery crew drove out from Wejh in a Crossley tender on April 27 with replacement parts for the aeroplane. Among them was Lawrence.

The events which followed over the next two weeks would be
recalled by Lawrence as a “certain car adventure” in future years.

(Letter to B. E. Leeson written on 13 April 1934, reproduced from The Letters of T. E. Lawrence edited by David Garnett.)

Though not mentioned in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, entries in Lawrence’s pocket diary and notebook, along with Captain Henderson’s logbook, enable this adventure to be traced.