Cap device of the Arab Legion
On this day in 1920 the British in Transjordan formed the Al Jeish al Arabi (أل جيش أل عربي), the Arab Army. In English it was much more commonly called the Arab Legion, although the unit was never officially called that.
Glubb in 1940, the year after his appointment as the commander of the Arab Legion.
The unit combined the policing and military functions for the Transjordan. It featured, at first, British officers and Arab enlisted men and was commanded from 1939 until March 1, 1956, by British career soldier and World War One veteran John Bagot Glubb, popularly known as Glubb Pasha. Up until 1956 the unit continued to have a significant contingent of British officers, although by that time it had Jordanian officers as well.
Arab Legion 25 Pounder in action during the 1948 Arab Israeli War.
This created the bizarre situation in the later years of the organization under that name as Jordanian forces fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War under British command at its senior levels, even though the UK was not a combatant in the war and British officers were not supposed to play an active role in the war in disputed territory, something that proved impossible to adhere to in reality. On March 1, 1956, cognizant of the problems this was creating, as well as the odd image it fostered, the Jordanians dismissed its British officers and renamed the unit into another variant of the term "Arab Army". Today it is termed the Jordanian Armed Forces.
The British influence formed the unit into one of the best armies in the Arab world, a distinction it retains to this day.
Seattle street, October 22, 1920.
On the same day, candidate Warren G. Harding was posing for a sculptor.
