Arab Legion

Arab Legion 

army units of Transjordan (from 1946, Jordan), 1921–1956, created by the British mandate authorities.

The legion was supported by British subsidies; from 1921 to 1956 it increased from 100 men to 23,000. The actual commanders-in-chief were British officers (Peake from 1921 to 1939, General J. B. Glubb from 1939 to 1956). The legion participated in the suppression of an anti-British uprising in Iraq in 1941 and in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948–49; it was used to suppress the national liberation movement in Jordan as well. After Glubb was expelled from Jordan (Mar. 2, 1956, during an upsurge of the liberation struggle), Englishmen were dismissed from the legion, command passed to Jordanian officers, and the legion was renamed (July 1956) the Arab Army of Jordan.

REFERENCES

Glubb, J. B. The Story of the Arab Legion. London, 1948.
Glubb, J. B. A Soldier With the Arabs. London, 1957.
Lias.G. Glubb’s Legion. London, 1956.