The for Syria, 1918-1920, by John D. Grainger. Woodbridge and Rochester, The Boydell Press, 2013. viii, 261 pp. $45.00 US (cloth). The for Syria, 1918-1920 is a sequel to author's The for Palestine, 1917 (Woodbridge and Rochester, 2006) that covers British conquest of southern Palestine from Ottoman Empire up to Jaffa-Jerusalem line, which they reached in December 1917. Grainger, a prolific author of ancient and modem military history, continues here his examination of this campaign, and, contrary to title of volume under review, focuses again on battlefields in Palestine and not in Syria, dealt with in only three out of book's seventeen chapters. Although Ottoman considered Palestine part of Greater Syria, along with Lebanon and Jordan, misleading title cannot be dismissed as a mere technicality, as it might leave reader with a substantively mistaken sense of entire campaign. Historically, operations conducted by Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) under General Edmund Allenby in 1918 were aimed, first and foremost, at occupying northern Palestine and destroying Turkish armies there. Their expansion into Syria proper was an evolving process in form of the appetite came with eating with neither prior political directive nor military pre-planning. According to Grainger (p. 73), Allenby's original final objective in what was later called Battle of Megiddo, was Acre (Akko)-Tiberias line in northern Palestine. Only dramatic success of his troops and rapid collapse of Ottoman armies west of Jordan convinced him to advance northwards to Damascus and late to Aleppo (Halab). The book is a traditional military history, highlighting military aspects and chronologically examining unfolding of 1918 campaign. It first introduces protagonists: Ottomans, EEF, Arabs and French. Then come separate chapters on two failed British attacks across Jordan in March and April (labeled post-factum as raids for face-saving purposes); removal from EEF of experienced divisions sent to reinforce Western Front following German Ludendorff Offensive and their replacement by untrained Indian troops (resulting in postponement of Allenby's offensive for several months); British planning and preparations for Megiddo offensive; infantry breakthrough and cavalry's deep penetration and advance; encirclement and destruction of Ottoman formations in northern Palestine; occupation of Damascus (the controversy over who was first to enter--Australians or Arabs--is still much alive); advance to northern Syria (where main enemy was not Ottomans but epidemics of malaria and influenza); and armistice in October 1918. The last four chapters are devoted to nineteen-month period between armistice and French withdrawal from Cilicia in May 1920, examining rebellion in Egypt, tricky process of EEF's demobilization, problems created by conflicting agreements made by Britain with France, Arabs, and Zionists, and finally with status of France in Levant. Grainger describes military operations in detail, often down to smallest tactical echelons, tediously specifying each of many regiments and battalions that participated in every engagement. …