Battles of Latrun
Encyclopedia
The Battles of Latrun were a series of military engagements between the Israel Defense Forces
and the Jordan
ian Arab Legion
on the outskirts of Latrun
between 25 May and 18 July 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Latrun takes its name from the monastery close to the junction of two major highways: Jerusalem to Jaffa/Tel Aviv and Gaza to Ramallah. During the British Mandate it became a Palestine Police base with a Tegart fort
. The United Nations Resolution 181 placed this area within the proposed Arab state. In May 1948, it was under the control of the Arab Legion
. It commanded the only road linking the Yishuv
-controlled area of Jerusalem to Israel
, giving Latrun strategic importance in the battle for Jerusalem.
Despite assaulting Latrun on five separate occasions Israel was ultimately unable to capture Latrun, and it remained under Jordanian control until the Six-Day War
. Regardless, during the Siege of Jerusalem
, the Jewish population of Jerusalem could still be supplied by a new road, named the "Burma Road
", that bypassed Latrun and was suitable for convoy
s. The Battle of Latrun left its imprint on the Israeli collective imagination and constitutes part of the "founding myth
" of the Jewish State. The attacks cost the lives of 168 Israeli soldiers, but some accounts inflated this number to as many as 2,000. The combat at Latrun also carries a symbolic significance because of the participation of Holocaust survivors
.
Today, the battleground site has an Israeli military museum dedicated to the Israeli Armored Corps and a memorial to the Israeli War of Independence.
After the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in November 1947, a civil war
erupted in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Jews living in Jerusalem constituted one of the weak points of the Yishuv
and a main cause for concern to its leaders. With nearly 100,000 inhabitants, a sixth of the total Jewish population in the Mandate, the city was isolated in the heart of territory under Arab control.See War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem and Operation Nachshon
In January, in the context of the "War of the Roads", the Holy War Army of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
besieged the Jewish part of the city and stopped convoys passing between Tel Aviv
and Jerusalem. By the end of March, the tactic proved its worth and the city was cut off. The Haganah
then launched Operation Nachshon, 4–20 April, and managed to force through a number of large convoys. Following the death of Abd al-Qader al-Husayni at Qastal, the Arab League
's military committee ordered the other Arab force in Palestine, the Arab Liberation Army
, to move its forces from Samaria
(the northern part of today's West Bank
) to the road of Jerusalem and the areas of Latrun, Ramla
, and Lydda.
In the middle of May, the situation for the 50,000 Arab inhabitants of the city and the 30,000–40,000 in the outlying neighbourhoods was no better. After the massacre at Deir Yassin
and the Jewish offensive of April that triggered the large-scale exodus of the Palestinian Arabs
in other mixed cities, the Arab population of Jerusalem was frightened and feared for its fate. With the departure of the British on 14 May, the Haganah launched several operations to take control of the city and the local Arab leadership requested King Abdullah of Jordan
to deploy his army to come to their aid.
On 15 May, the situation in the newly-declared State of Israel and the remnants of Palestine was chaotic with the British leaving. The Jewish forces gained advantage over the Arab forces, but they feared the intervention of the Arab armies that had been announced for that day.
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was located at the crossroads between the Tel Aviv–Ramla–Jerusalem and Ramallah–Isdud roads in the area allocated to the Arab state by the United Nations Partition Plan. At that site, the Jerusalem road entered the foothills of Judea at Bab al-Wad (Sha'ar HaGai). It dominated the Valley of Ayalon, and the force that occupied it commanded the road to Jerusalem.See this picture of the valley taken from the hills of Latrun.
In 1948, Latrun comprised a detention camp and a fortified police station occupied by the British, a Trappist
monastery, and several Arab villages: Latrun, Imwas
, Dayr Ayyub
and Bayt Nuba. During the civil war, after the death of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, the forces of the Arab Liberation Army positioned themselves around the police fort and the surrounding villages, to the indifference of the British. They regularly attacked supply convoys heading for Jerusalem. At that time, the Israeli and Jordanian military staffs had not yet understood the strategic importance of the place.
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On 8 May, Haganah
launched Operation Maccabi against the Arab Liberation Army
and the Palestinian irregulars who occupied several villages along the Jerusalem road and prevented the resupplying of Jerusalem's Jewish community. The Givati Brigade
(on the west side) and Harel Brigade
(on the east side) were engaged in fighting, notably in the Latrun area.
Between 9–11 May, a battalion of the Harel brigade attacked and took the village of Bayt Mahsir
, used by Palestinians as a base for the control of Bab al-Wad. The "Sha'ar HaGai" battalion of the Harel brigade also took up a position on the hills north and south of the road. It had to withstand the fire of the Arab Liberation Army artillery and the "unusual"It is Benny Morris
who points out. one of British armoured vehicles, but succeeded in holding the position and entrenched there.
To the west, on 12 May, Givati brigade troops took the British detention camp on the road leading to Latrun, but abandoned it the next day. Between 14 and 15 May, its 52nd battalion took the villages of Abu Shusha
, Al-Na'ani
and al-Qubab
north of Latrun, thus cutting off the zone from Ramla, the main Arab town in the area. Lapierre
and Collins
report also that a platoon of the Givati brigade fired on and then penetrated the fort without encountering any resistance on the morning of 15 May. Again to the east, on 15 May, the troops of the Harel brigade took Dayr Ayyub
, which they abandoned the next day.
It is at that moment that the Israeli officers in the field understood the strategic importance of Latrun. A report was sent from OC Harel brigade to OC Palmach that concluded that "The Latrun junction became the main point in the battle [of Jerusalem]" [exact words must be taken from the source], but "that appreciation was not shared by the staff one week previously". Meanwhile, because of the Egyptian Army
's advance, the Givati brigade got an order to redeploy on a more southern front, and the Harel brigade to remain in the Jerusalem sector. This decision to leave the area, and the fact of not perceiving its strategic importance, would later be a source of controversy between Haganah chief of operations Yigael Yadin
and Yitzhak Rabin
, commander of the Harel brigade.
During the confusion of the last days of the British Mandate and with the "entry in war" of the Arab armies, the position at Latrun changed hands without combat. Firstly, around 14–15 May, an order was given to Fawzi al-Qawuqji
and his Arab Liberation Army to withdraw and to leave the place to the Arab Legion
. According to Yoav Gelber
, this departure occurred before the arrival of the Jordanian troops at Latrun and the position was held by just 200 irregulars. Benny Morris
nevertheless points out that a platoon of legionnaires of the 11th Company along with irregulars was there and took over the fort.
Indeed, as auxiliary forces of the British in Mandatory Palestine, several elements of the Arab Legion served in Palestine during the Mandate. The British had promised that these units would have withdrawn before the end of April, but for "technical reasons", several companies didn't leave the country. John Bagot Glubb
, the commander of the Arab Legion, formed them into one division with two brigades, each made up of two infantry battalions, in addition to several independent infantry companies. Each battalion was given an armored-car company, and the artillery was made into a separate battalion with three batteries. Another "dummy" brigade was formed to make the Israelis believe it was a reserve brigade, thus deterring them from counterattacking into Transjordan
.
On 15 May, the Arab states entered the war, and Syria
n, Iraq
i, Jordanian and Egyptian contingents deployed in Palestine. Among these, the Jordanian expeditionary corps was mainly constituted by an elite mechanized force "encadrée" by British officers and named Arab Legion. It comprised:
Glubb first understood ("pris conscience") of the strategical importance of Latrun in the Battle of Jerusalem. His objective was twofold: he wanted to prevent the Israelis from strengthening Jerusalem and from supplying the city, and he wanted to "make a diversion" to keep the strengths of the Haganah far from the city, warranting to the Arabs the control of East Jerusalem
. In addition to the 11th Company already there, he sent to Latrun the whole 4th Regiment. During the night between 15 to 16 May, the first contingent of 40 legionnaires seconded by an undetermined number of Bedouin
s strengthened the position, and the remainder of the regiment reached the area on 17 May.
On 18 May, the strength of the Arab Legion deployed around Latrun and Bab al-Wad was sufficient, and the road was blocked again. The Israeli general staff needed several days to asses the actual location of the Jordanian forces around Latrun and Jerusalem because these latter, particularly feared (redoutées ?) to have been announced at several places of the country.
At Jerusalem, after the successful offensives that enabled the Jewish forces to take control of the buildings and strongholds that had been abandoned by the British,see Operation Kilshon
Glubb Pasha
sent the 3rd Regiment of the Arab Legion to strengthen the Arab irregulars and fight the Jewish forces. After "violent" fighting, the Jewish positions in the Old City of Jerusalem were threatened (this felt indeed on 28 May). "We have surrounded the town": on 22 and 23 May, the second Egyptian brigade, composed mainly of several battalions of irregulars and several units of the regular army, reached the southern outskirts of Jerusalem and continued to the attack on Ramat Rachel
.
Glubb nevertheless knew that the Israeli army would sooner or later be stronger than his and that he had to prevent the strengthening of the Harel and Etzioni brigades to secure East-Jerusalem. He redeployed his strengths on 23 May to reinforce the blockade
. The Iraqi army, at that time seconded by tanks, relieved the Legion units in northern Samaria and these were redeployed towards the Jerusalem sector. The 2nd Regiment of the Legion moved to Latrun. A full Jordanian brigade was placed in the area.
On the Israeli side, several leaders of the Jewish city sent emergency telegrams to David Ben Gurion where they described the situation as desperate and that they could not hold out more than two weeks. Fearing that without a supply the city would collapse, Ben Gurion ordered the taking of Latrun. This decision seemed strategically necessary but was politically delicate, because Latrun was in the area allocated to the Arab State according to the terms of the Partition Plan and this attack was contrary to the non-aggression agreements, concluded with King AbdullahUntil the last days preceding the war, the Zionist authorities and the King Abdullah of Jordan maintained a dialogue. Some historians, such as Avi Shlaim
, consider that this dialogue went up to a tacit non-aggression agreement but this thesis is controversial. This decision was also opposed by the Chief of Operations, Yigael Yadin who considered that there were other military priorities at that moment, in particular on the southern front, where the Egyptian army was threatening Tel Aviv if Yad Mordechai
came to fall. But Ben Gurion set Israeli military policy. This difference in strategy influenced the outcome of the battle, and has been debated in Israel for many years.See section #Israeli historiography and collective memory.
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The task to lead Operation Bin Nun (lit. Nun's son, in reference to Joshua
, Nun's son, conqueror of Canaan
according to the Book of Joshua
) was given to Shlomo Shamir
, a former officer of the British army. His force consisted of 450 men of the Alexandroni Brigade
and 1,650 men of the 7th Brigade. Of these, about 140 to 145 were immigrants who had just arrived in Israel, nearly 7% of the total. Their heavy weaponry was limited to two French 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars of 1906 (nicknamed Napoleonchik), one 88 millimetres (3.5 in) mortar with 15 rounds of ammunition, one Davidka
, ten 3 inches (7.6 cm) mortars and twelve armored vehicles. Three hundred soldiers of the Harel Brigade
were also in the area but were not aware of the operation, but assisted after finding out about it by intercepting a radio transmission.
The Jordanian forces were under the order of Lieutenant Colonel Habes al-Majali. He "disposed" of the 4th Regiment and 600 Jordanian volunteers seconded by 600 local volunteers. The 2nd Regiment of the brigade, commanded by Major Geoffrey Lockett, had just left Jerusalem and arrived at Latrun during the battle. The brigade totalled 2,300 men seconded by 800 auxiliaries. It had at its disposal 35 armoured vehicles with 17 Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car
s each armed with an anti-tank 2 pounder gun. For artillery it had eight 25 pounder
Howitzers/Field guns, eight 6 pounder
anti-tank guns, ten 2 pounder
anti-tank guns also sixteen 3-inch mortars.
Zero Hour (that is, the start of the attack) was first fixed for midnight 23 May. But it was delayed 24 hours because it had not been possible to gather troops and weapons in time. Because no reconnaissance patrol was made the Israelis didn't know the exact composition of enemy forces. Intelligence reports just talked about "local irregular forces". On 24 May at 19:30, Shlomo Shamir was warned that an enemy force of around 120 vehicles, comprising armoured vehicles and artillery, was probably moving towards Latrun, urged an attack. The attack was postponed by 2 hours and fixed at 22:00. The attack was planned on two axes:
During the night, something unexpected happened: a roadblock on the road that had to be used by the brigade had to be dismantled. Zero hour was once more modified and set at midnight. At last, the troops fought battle between 2 am and 5 am but with no benefit of cover. The attackers were rapidly discovered, depriving the Israelis of the surprise effect. The battle started at 4am. The Israeli forces were submitted to a strong fire. The artillery tried to intervene but felt rapidly out of ammunition or was not within range to provide a counter-battery fire.Counter-battery fire is a military tactic that consists in targeting, with one's own artillery, the one of the adversary.
In front of the total failure of the attack, Shlomo Shamir ordered the retreat at 11.30 am. But this occurred on open ground under a heavy sun and the soldiers had no water. Numerous men were killed or injured by Arab fire. It was only at 2 pm that the first injured men reached the transport they had left in the morning. However, the Arab Legion didn't take advantage of this victory while, according to Benny Morris, it could easily have performed a counter-attack up to the Israeli headquarters located at Hulda
.
Jordanians and Arab irregulars had 5 deaths and 6 injured. The Israelis counted 72 deaths (52 from the 32nd Battalion and 20 from the 72nd Battalion), 6 prisoners and 140 injured. Ariel Sharon
, the future Prime Minister of Israel, a lieutenant at the time, headed a platoon of the 32nd Battalion and suffered serious injury to his stomach during the battle.
announced its intention to impose a ceasefire for 4 weeks, which would prevent further capture of territory and thus prevent resupplying the besieged city.
From a military point of view, the 10th Harel Brigade
required reinforcements and Ben Gurion dispatched a battalion of the 6th Etzioni Brigade
. He considered it imperative that the 7th Brigade join the forces in Jerusalem as well as a contingent of 400 new recruits to reinforce the Harel Brigade. Weapons and spare parts that had arrived in Israel by air were also now ready for combat on the Jerusalem front. The commander of the 7th Brigade wished to neutralize the negative effects of the debacle on the morale of the troops and on his prestige. The central front was reorganized and its command given to an American volunteer fighting on the Israeli side, Colonel David Marcus
, who was subsequently appointed Aluf
(Major General
). He took command of the Etzioni and 7th Brigades, and the 10th Palmach
Harel Brigade.
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Shlomor Shamir was once again given the command of the operation. He sent the 7th Brigade and the 52nd Battalion of the Givati Brigade that replaced the 32nd that had been decimated in the previous battle. The 73rd Battalion was an armored force of light infantry with flame-throwers and 22 "military cars" made locally.
The Israelis sent numerous reconnaissance patrols but they nevertheless had no clear idea of the adversary's forces. They expected to fight 600 men of the Legion and of the Arab Liberation Army, so a force was allocated that was not enough to hold the 4 km (2.5 mi) Latrun front. Transjordanians still had in fact a full brigade and are supported by several hundreds of irregulars. Taking into account the mistakes of the previous attacks, the renewed assault was organised with precision, and the area from where the units had to launch their attack had been cleared on 28 May. In particular the two hamlets of Bayt Jiz and Bayt Susin, where a counter-attacks had been launched by the Arab militants during the first battle, and Hill 369. The attack was once more foreseen on two axes:
Around midnight, the men of the 72nd and the 52nd passed Bab al-Wad noiselessly and then separated towards their respective targets. One company took Deir Ayyub, which was empty, but then were discovered as they did so by enemies on a nearby hill. They suffered the joint fire of the Legion's artillery and machines guns. Thirteen men were killed and several other injured. The company, composed mainly of immigrants, then retreated to Bab al-Wad. The 52nd Battalion was preparing to take the hill in front of Yalu, but received an order to retreat.
On the other front, the forces divided in two parts. The infantry of the 71st rapidly took the monastery and then fought for the control of the town. On the other side, the Israeli artillery succeeded in neutralizing the fort's weapons. The volunteers crossed the defence fence and their flame-throwers took the defenders by surprise. Nevertheless, the light coming from the fire they created lost their cover and they became easy targets for the 60 millimetres (2.4 in) mortars of the Jordanians. They were quickly knocked out and destroyed. The sappers succeeded nevertheless to make the door explode, but in the confusion were not followed by the infantrymen. Chaim Laskov, the chief of operations on that front, ordered company D of the 71st Battalion (that had been kept in reserve) to intervene, but one of the soldiers accidentally exploded a landmine, killing three men and injuring several others. They were then attacked by heavy fire from the Jordanian artillery and the men retreated towards the west in panic.
The battle was still not lost for the Israelis although the wake was coming, and Laskov considered that his men could not hold in front of a Legion's counter-attack and he preferred to order the retreat. It was also time for the Jordanians to regroup, their 4th Regiment was completely out of ammunition. 73rd Battalion suffered 50% losses and the whole of the engaged forces had counted 44 deaths and twice that number injured. According to the sources, the Legion suffered between 12 and 20 deaths, including the lieutenant commanding the fort. In contrast, the Jordanians reported 2 just deaths on their side, and 161 of the Israelis.
David Marcus
later attributed the responsibility for the defeat to the infantry, stating: "the artillery cover was correct. The armoury were good. The infantry, very bad". Benny Morris considers that the mistake was rather to disperse the forces on several objectives instead of concentrating the full brigade on the main objective: the fort.
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On 28 May, after they took Bayt Susin, the Israelis controlled a narrow corridor between the coastal plain and Jerusalem. But this corridor was not crossed by a road that could have let trucks supply the city. A foot patrol of the Palmach
discovered some paths that linked several villages in the hills south of the main road controlled by the Arab Legion. In the night of 29–30 May, Jeep
s sent into the hills confirmed there was a path suitable for vehicles. The decision was then taken to build a road in the zone. This was given the name of "Burma Road
", referring to the supply road between Burma and China
built by the British during World War II
.
Engineers immediately started to build the road while convoys of jeeps, mules and camels were organised from Hulda to carry 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars to Jerusalem. Without knowing the goals of these works, the Jordanians realised a game was afoot in the hills. They performed artillery bombings, that would anyway have been rapidly stopped under the orders of the top British officer, and they sent patrols to stop the works, but without success.
Nevertheless, it was mainly food that the inhabitants of Jerusalem needed. Starting 5 June, the Israeli engineers started to fix the road so that it let civil transport trucks pass to supply the city. 150 workers, working in four teams, installed a pipeline
to supply the city with water, because the other pipeline, crossing Latrun, had been cut by the Jordanians. In O Jerusalem, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins talked about heroic action, when during the night of 6–7 June, in fear of the critical situation of Jerusalem and to improve the morale of the population, 300 inhabitants of Tel-Aviv were requisitioned to carry on their backs, for the few kilometers not yet ready for the trucks, what would be needed to feed the inhabitants of Jerusalem one more day.
The first phase of these works was achieved for the 10 June truce and on 19 June a convoy of 140 trucks, each carrying three tons of merchandise as well as numerous weapons and ammunition, reached Jerusalem. The siege of the city was then definitively over. This Israeli success was punctuated by an incident that became marked in memory: the death of Aluf Mickey Marcus
, accidentally killed by an Israeli sentry during the night of 10–11 June.
Between 30 May and 8 June the status between the Israeli and Arabic armies became a stand-off. They were used to fighting small, violent battles and taking heavy losses of people and arms, and the United Nations
renewed its call for a truce on 11 June. It was in this context that David Ben Gurion took the decision to withdraw from Galilee the elite 11th Yiftah Brigade under the orders of Yigal Allon to launch a third assault against Latrun. He had at his disposal an artillery support composed of four 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars and four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns that were part of the heavy weapons recently delivered to Israel by Operation Balak
.
This time, the general staff decided on an attack concentrated on the centre of the Legion disposal, with several diversion attacks to the north to disrupt the Jordanians. While a battalion from the Yiftah brigade was performed some diversions attacks on Salbit, Imwas and Bayt Nuba, a battalion from the Harel brigade was to take Hill 346, between the fourth and second Legion regiments and a battalion from the Yiftah brigade was then to pass through it, take Hill 315 and Latrun village and the police fort by the East. The Israeli operation started with an artillery barrage on the fort, the village of Latrun and the positions around. Hills 315 and 346 occupied with a company from the Legion, were not targeted not to alert the Jordanians.
The men of the Harel brigade made leave on foot from Bab al-Oued but took a wrong way and mistakenly attacked Hill 315. Located by the Jordanian sentries, they launch the attack of the hill. The Legionnaires were outnumbered but counterattacked with violence, going as far as requiring an artillery bombing on their own position. The Israelis suffered some heavy losses. When the Yiftah arrived at the bottom of Hill 346, they are targeted by firearms, grenades and artillery. Thinking that Harel men were there, they called by radio to the headquarters to ceasefire, and laid down arms. They refused, not believing that account of the events and Harel soldiers stayed in place.
Confusion among Jordanians was as important as among Israelis with the attack on Hill 315 and those of diversion. With the incoming morning and unable to evaluate properly the situation, the Israeli HQ gave orders at 5.30 am for the soldiers to retreat to Bad al-Oued. The losses were also significant. Indeed the 400-strong Harel battalion numbered 16 dead and 79 injured, and the Yiftah an handful of dead and injured. The Legion numbered several dozen victims.
The following day, Jordan mounted two counter-attacks. The first was over Beit Susin. The Legionnaires took several Israeli guard posts but could not keep them more than a few hours. The fighting took lives and some 20 injuries on the Israeli side. The second was at Kibbutz Gezer from where the diversion attacks had been launched. A force the strength of a battalion, made up of Legionnaires and irregulars and supported by a dozen armoured vehicles, attacked the kibbutz in the morning. It was defended by 68 soldiers of the Haganah (including 13 women).
After the four-hour battle, the kibbutz fell. A dozen of the defenders escaped. Most others surrendered and one or two were executed. The Legionnaires protected the prisoners from irregulars and the next day freed the women. The toll was 39 dead on the Israeli side and 2 on the Legionnaires' side. The kibbutz was looted by the irregulars and the Legionnaires evacuated the area after the fights. In the evening the Yiftah brigade retook the kibbutz.
and Ramallah
and relieving the threat on Tel-Aviv on a side and West Jerusalem on the other.
To achieve this objective Yigal Allon
in entrusted 5 brigades: the Harel and Yiftah (now totalling five battalions), the 8th armoury brigade (newly constituted as the 82nd and 89th battalions), several infantry battalions from the Kiryati
and Alexandroni brigades, and 30 pieces of artillery. The 7th brigade was sent to the northern front. In a first phase, between 9 and 13 July, the Israelis took Lydda and Ramle and reasserted the area around Latrun by taking Salbit
, but the forces are exhausted and the High Command renounced to the objective of taking Ramallah
. Two attacks was launched against Latrun.
and Bayt Nuba. They carried on to the hills by way of the villages of Bayt Thul
and Nitaf
transporting their armoury using pack mules. After several hours of fighting and counter-attacks by armoured vehicles of the Arab Legion, they were finally pushed back but could keep control of several hills. In total, the Israelis lost 23 dead and numerous injured.
s driven by British deserters, seconded by a mechanised battalion of the Yiftah brigade and supported by artillery launched the attack of the police fort.
When the Israeli forces arrived 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) from the fort, they were shelled by Jordanian artillery. Around 6:15 pm. one of the tanks was hit by a shell (or sustained a mechanical damage) and had to retreat to al-Qubab for repairs. The remaining forces waited for its return and the attack resumed around 7:30 pm, but was abandoned around 8 pm. The Israelis counted between 8 and 12 victims. At the same time, elements of the Harel brigade took about 10 villages to the south of Latrun to enlarge and secure the area of the Burma road. The majority of inhabitants had fled the fights in April but those who remained were systematically expelled.
be taken by the Egyptians and keeping the Arabic enclave in Galilee
, held there with the force of the Arab Liberation Army
against the Samaria
n and Judea
n areas, taken by the Iraq
is and Jordan
ians. In the end, on 24 September, another incursion made by the Palestinian irregulars in the Latrun sector (killing 23 Israeli soldiers) started the debate. On 26 September, David Ben Gurion put his argument to Cabinet to attack Latrun again in order to complete its capture.
Following discussion however, the motion was rejected by 5 votes to 7. According to Benny Morris, the arguments which were discussed on balance were considered to have negative international repercussions for Israel after the recent assassination of Count Bernadotte; those thinking of the consequences of the attack against an accord with Abdallah, those who did not wish a defeat of the Arabic Liberation Army to provoke British military invention because of Britain and Jordan's common wish for defence, and lastly because consequences in surrounding countries could add hundreds of thousands of Arab citizens to Israel. Gurion ratified the decision by ("A cause of trouble for generations") in considering that Israel could never renounce its claim over Old Jerusalem and Samaria
.
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At the operational level, the five assaults on Latrun were solved with Israeli defeats and Jordanian victories: the Jordanians repelled all assaults and kept control of the road between the coastal plain and Jerusalem, with Israel losing 168 killed and many more injured.Taking into account the references given in the article, the sum of the Israeli losses for the five assaults gives numbers between 164 and 171 Israeli victims, without taking into account the 39 victims for the attack against Gezer, the 8 of the Jordanian counter attack against Bayt Susin and the 45 of Qirbet Quriqur Strategically, the outcome included:
At the discussions of the Israeli-Jordano Armistice at Rhodes
, the Israelis demanded unsuccessfully for the removal of the legion from Latrun. It subsequently remained under Jordanian control until the Six-Day War
.
. This is certainly the case for the battle of Latrun, which has become, in Israel, a founding myth
.
The first version of the battle of Latrun was contrived by David Ben Gurion and his entourage.
Initially, the governing power within Israel remained silent. However, on May 27, the Israeli daily Maariv
printed a sceptical coverage of Arab accounts which spoke of a great victory by the Arab Legion, involving some 800 Israeli dead. In response, the Israeli press stressed that the aim of the operation was not to take Latrun, but to strike the Legion and, on June Ist, it published casualty figures of 250 deaths for the Arab side and 10 deaths, with 20 badly wounded, and another 20 lightly wounded on the Israeli side.
From 14 June, the press shifted its focus to the 'opening of the Burma route' and, in the context of a conflict between the military's senior command and Ben Gurion, Yigael Yadin
called the operation a 'great catastrophe' while the latter replied that, in his view, it had been "a great, although costly, victory".
The "official version" entered in the historiography
in 1955 following the work of lieutenant colonel Israel Beer, whereas adviser and support of Yadin at the time of the events, who published 'The battles of Latrun'. This study, considered by the historian Anita Shapira
as "the most clever ever written on the topic", puts the battles in their military and political context. It concludes that given the strategic and symbolic importance of Jerusalem, "the three tactical defeats that occurred at Latrun (...) permitted the supply [of the city] and were a diversal manoeuvre (...) [and] are the consequence of the strategic clear-sightedness of the Commander-in-Chief, able to identify the key points and subordinate to his general sight the tactical considerations, limited, of the military command.
Ber put the responsibility of the tactical defeats on the failures of the intelligence services and on the "absence de commandement séparé sur les différents fronts." He also points out the badly trained immigrants, the defective equipment, and the difficulty for a new army to succeed a first operation targeting to capture an defended area that was organised by advance. He gives the first estimates for the losses: 50 deaths in the 32nd battalion of the Alexandroni brigade and the 25 deaths in the 72nd battalion of the 7th brigade (composed mainly of immigrants).
Finally, Ber founded the myth
and pictured the events of Latrun as "an heroic saga, as the ones that occurs at the birth of a nation or at the historical breakthrough of movements of national liberation".
Whereas many events in the war were more bloody for the Israelis, like the massacre at Kfar Etzion
with 150 deaths or the one of the Mount Scopus with 78, the Battle of Latrun is the event of the war to provoke most rumours, narratives and controversies in Israel. The main reason is that Latrun had still been the mainstay for the road to Jerusalem until the Six-Day War
, keeping the Israelis at the margins and having to go round and maintain the town, but struggling to bypass it, which played each day on their minds. According to Anita Shapira
, the primary reason was nothing but people's grievous memories, of David Ben Gurion and the veterans of the British Armies on one side and former Palmah and Haganah
soldiers on the other. In this sphere of influence during the 1970s and in the controversies that continued until the 1980s, the "Strategic Necessity" was said, if it were not done, it would be "Criminal negligence
", with a heavy toll on bring in immigrants to the battle, and forging a new founding myth
.
On one side, the opponents of Ben Gurion attacked his "Moral Authority". They said that the intrusion into Latrun by the "scum of the earth" immigrants who died had changed the situation for the worse. And the number of victims, and the proportion of immigrants, inflated in the narratives: from "several hundreds of dead" to "500 to 700 dead and even "1,000 to 2,000 dead". The proportion of immigrants making up this total of victims was up to 75%. His opponents accused Ben Gurion of wanting to take out the myth of the "invincible Arab Legion
" and to justify the abandonment of the city of David to Abdallah. (Anita Shapira
considers this story to be at the origin of the theory of Avi Shlaim
who brought forth what she considers as the myth of the collusion between Ben Gurion and Abdallah.) On the other side, those supporting Ben Gurion put everything to advance the case of the "historic sacrifice" by the immigrants, laying the failure to their poor training.
Many contemporary books about the 1948 War were published at this time: John and David Kimche, The two sides of the hill (the more reliable); Dominique Lapierre
and Larry Collins
, O Jerusalem (the best known internationally) and Dan Kurzman, Genesis, 1948 (the only that got reviews in the Israeli press). With this political writing, historical research on Latrun tends to concentrate on the 1980s with the work of Arié Itzhaki, "Latrun" (in 2 volumes). It gives the exact number of victims, but, at the contrary of Israel Beer (meanwhile caught as spying for USSR), it depicts the battle as "The hardest in the history of Tsahal", and it puts the responsibility of the defeat on Ben Gurion, who panicked about Jerusalem, and tactical errors on the brigade commanders and not on the immigrants who received (from his point of viewAnita Shapira, L'imaginaire d'Israël : histoire d'une culture politique (2005), underlines that Itzhaki thought wrongly that the immigrants had got training before in Cyprus) a sufficient training.
In the first years after its foundation, Israel met a problem with social integration
of new immigrants who had arrived after the war, who had received much trauma from their exodus from Arab lands or from the death camps, and had suffered six years of war. This integration was most difficult with Sabra Israelis
, born in the Palestinian Mandate, and taking the essential jobs and who Israel put first in an image of "Sabres, strong and courageous, fearless heroes, disdaining feebleness and trouble". The phenomenon rose up again with the Israeli victory of the Six-Day War
.
All the while, these uncertainties and the reparations from the Yom Kippur War
polished the sheen on the Shoah
. The collective memory resurfaced and looked to reconcile its past history of difficulties, suffering and sacrifices. A new elite arose from the Sephardic Jews and the "can-do" of Menahem Begin. In this context, the "myth" of Latrun derived from the frustrations and the death of the new immigrants and was catalysed by their integration in a society where "the survivor of Shoah carried the new collective memory, immigrant refugees who had troubled pasts, and then were confronted with hostility and threat and still took their place with their blood and taking part in the war".
This myth was founded in the factual knowledge of the immigrants' participation in the battles, and the mythical knowledge because of the differences in the number of victims, the leaving of the injured on the fields of battle, and that the Latrun battle was the hardest and most important in the war. The influence on written history appeared primarily in books and commentary, where "the immigrants wanted only to make sure that their contribution at the battle was written in the collective memory with a plus sign". It didn't bring new documents but it expressed itself in memoirs, reminiscences and obituaries by or of those involved in the events. It was a view that was seldom heard in polemics giving two preceding versions of events but that had a life of its own, given to it by the immigrants.
In the 1980s, a schism arose within the post-Zionism
movement, and the history of the battle of Latrun came to represent the culpability of the Israeli state and a way of pointing out that it was born in the context of massacres and the exodus of the Palestinian population
. It shouted "hypocrisy", "false truths", and "the blood of the escapees of Shoah
who came to find a new life and yet found death".
This version was put into several poems by the celebrated provocative poet Gabi Daniel (pseudonym of Benjamin Harushovsky-Harshav) and entitled "Peter the Great". Themes in the poem include dehumanisation and how Ben Gurion got Shoah into his pocket, by the work of the other "innocent young Jews of the Superior Race, who, without name or vision, found themselves the saviours of Israel".
Anita Shapira considers this "New myth" was necessary not to reject identity with the past and to be able to renounce their common memory. While Israel in the 1980s was under much criticism from myths about the state's founding, the reception of this idea was mitigated and "this version of Latrun that was destined to blow up the myth that the regathering was solely in the hands of a group of radicals in the middle of the [Israeli] intellectual community".
, an outpost protecting the only way for the Legion to get to Latrun located several kilometres to the north of the place. Intelligence services had not informed the responsible officer that nearby there was another outpost, occupied by a reinforced company of the Legion. From there the legionnaires could observe all the operations of the Israelis and called for reinforcements, notably armoured vehicles. When they mounted the counter-attack, the Israelis were taken by a lightning strike in an encircling movement. No troops were available there to reinforce them, so they had to retreat in plain daylight. 45 Israeli soldiers, nineteen of them aged 18 or less, lost their lives.
Despite this bloodbath, Anita Shapira underlines that this battle didn't remain in the Israeli collective memory. "If success has numerous fathers, [...] defeat remains an orphan. [...] The deaths of Qurikur did not enter into the pantheon of the Israeli national memory. [...] [While there were numerous polemics about Latrun], that 45 soldiers perished [...] should have begged a question. But they died in an side of the arena that proved to be unimportant, given it was not to decide the outcome of the campaign.
and the Six-Day War
, the army came to arm the most important place. For technical reasons (distance of communication with bases) and because new places of historical interest were accessible, the top brass debated whether to transfer the postings of new recruits at Massada to a more appropriate place. It was Latrun that was finally chosen. In the 1980s, a commemorative site and a museum was built on the old police site. The complex has a wall listing all the names of the fallen soldiers since the War Of Independence
, and a monument to the glory of the heroes and another for reverence. The museum has nearly 200 tanks and other armoured vehicles of many kinds.
. Jordanian historiography declares Latrun as a great success of the Arab Legion
in the defense of Jerusalem, where a contingent of 1,200 men resisted an assault of 6,500 Israeli soldiers, and claiming Israeli casualties of between 400 and 800 killed. Glubb claimed 600 deaths on the first assault and 600 others for the two after.
Habes al-Majali is quoted as the only Arab commander to have defeated the Israelis in 1948 and who restored a little honour to the Arabs. By his version of events, he would even have catch Ariel Sharon
in the course of the battle and it is Colonel Ashton (his British superior from 3rd Brigade) would have forbidden him to use the artillery against the Burma road, action by which he could have prevented its construction. After the war, he was appointed bodyguard of Abdallah and in 1957 Chief-of-Staff of the Jordanian army. He became Jordanian Minister of Defence in 1967.
The Palestinian account of the battle is much the same as the Israeli one. It is, after, all, based on the Israeli one but gives no weight or symbolic character to it. In his work "All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948" Walid Khalidi
refers to Operation Maccabi as the first assault. He reports that the resistance offered by the Arab Legion and the volunteer army were "inspired by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
" (who had been killed a month before).
Nevertheless, Palestinian historiography and collective memory point out that during the exodus of Palestinian Arab population
of the 1948 War
the massacres and forced expulsions that happened could be seen as ethnic cleansing
. In the Latrun zone, this affected about 20 villages and ten thousand Palestinian Arabs. Some inhabitants fled during the fights of April but most fled when the Israelis attacked their village during the following operations. After capturing a village, the Israeli soldiers systematically expelled the non-combatants, intimidating them to leave and demolishing houses. A massacre of between thirty and seventy Arabs took place some days after Abu Shusha was taken. Most villages were levelled, so as not to be used by the Arab volunteers and to prevent the inhabitants returning. In some cases Jewish settlements were established on village land.
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
and the Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
on the outskirts of Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
between 25 May and 18 July 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Latrun takes its name from the monastery close to the junction of two major highways: Jerusalem to Jaffa/Tel Aviv and Gaza to Ramallah. During the British Mandate it became a Palestine Police base with a Tegart fort
Tegart fort
A Tegart fort is a style of militarized police "fortress" constructed throughout Palestine during the British Mandatory period.The forts are named after British police officer and engineer Sir Charles Tegart, who designed them in 1938 based on his experiences in the Indian insurgency.Tens of the...
. The United Nations Resolution 181 placed this area within the proposed Arab state. In May 1948, it was under the control of the Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
. It commanded the only road linking the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
-controlled area of Jerusalem to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, giving Latrun strategic importance in the battle for Jerusalem.
Despite assaulting Latrun on five separate occasions Israel was ultimately unable to capture Latrun, and it remained under Jordanian control until the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
. Regardless, during the Siege of Jerusalem
Siege of Jerusalem (1948)
The Battle for Jerusalem occurred from 30 November 1947 to 11 June 1948 when Jewish and Arab population of Mandatory Palestine and later Israeli and Jordanian armies fought for the control of the city....
, the Jewish population of Jerusalem could still be supplied by a new road, named the "Burma Road
Burma Road (Israel)
The Israeli "Burma Road" was a makeshift bypass road between the general vicinity of kibbutz Hulda and Jerusalem. It was built by Israeli forces headed by general Mickey Marcus during the 1948 Siege of Jerusalem...
", that bypassed Latrun and was suitable for convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
s. The Battle of Latrun left its imprint on the Israeli collective imagination and constitutes part of the "founding myth
Founding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
" of the Jewish State. The attacks cost the lives of 168 Israeli soldiers, but some accounts inflated this number to as many as 2,000. The combat at Latrun also carries a symbolic significance because of the participation of Holocaust survivors
Berihah
Bricha was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post-World War II Europe to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939...
.
Today, the battleground site has an Israeli military museum dedicated to the Israeli Armored Corps and a memorial to the Israeli War of Independence.
1948 Arab-Israeli War
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
The 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine lasted from 30 November 1947, the date of the United Nations vote in favour of the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the UN Partition Plan, to the termination of the British Mandate itself on 14 May 1948.This period constitutes the...
erupted in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Jews living in Jerusalem constituted one of the weak points of the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
and a main cause for concern to its leaders. With nearly 100,000 inhabitants, a sixth of the total Jewish population in the Mandate, the city was isolated in the heart of territory under Arab control.See War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem and Operation Nachshon
Operation Nachshon
Operation Nachshon was an Jewish military operation during the 1948 war. Lasting from 5–20 April 1948, its objective was to break the Siege of Jerusalem by opening the Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem road blockaded by Palestinian Arabs and to supply food and weapons to the isolated Jewish community of...
In January, in the context of the "War of the Roads", the Holy War Army of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Organization for Holy Struggle, , which he and Hasan Salama commanded as the Army of the Holy War during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt and during the 1948...
besieged the Jewish part of the city and stopped convoys passing between Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Jerusalem. By the end of March, the tactic proved its worth and the city was cut off. The Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
then launched Operation Nachshon, 4–20 April, and managed to force through a number of large convoys. Following the death of Abd al-Qader al-Husayni at Qastal, the Arab League
Arab League
The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...
's military committee ordered the other Arab force in Palestine, the Arab Liberation Army
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army , also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji...
, to move its forces from Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
(the northern part of today's West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
) to the road of Jerusalem and the areas of Latrun, Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
, and Lydda.
In the middle of May, the situation for the 50,000 Arab inhabitants of the city and the 30,000–40,000 in the outlying neighbourhoods was no better. After the massacre at Deir Yassin
Deir Yassin massacre
The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Irgun Zevai Leumi and Lohamei Herut Israel Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Arab village of roughly 600 people...
and the Jewish offensive of April that triggered the large-scale exodus of the Palestinian Arabs
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
in other mixed cities, the Arab population of Jerusalem was frightened and feared for its fate. With the departure of the British on 14 May, the Haganah launched several operations to take control of the city and the local Arab leadership requested King Abdullah of Jordan
Abdullah I of Jordan
Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan [‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn] عبد الله الأول بن الحسين born in Mecca, Second Saudi State, was the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah...
to deploy his army to come to their aid.
On 15 May, the situation in the newly-declared State of Israel and the remnants of Palestine was chaotic with the British leaving. The Jewish forces gained advantage over the Arab forces, but they feared the intervention of the Arab armies that had been announced for that day.
Geography
LatrunLatrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
was located at the crossroads between the Tel Aviv–Ramla–Jerusalem and Ramallah–Isdud roads in the area allocated to the Arab state by the United Nations Partition Plan. At that site, the Jerusalem road entered the foothills of Judea at Bab al-Wad (Sha'ar HaGai). It dominated the Valley of Ayalon, and the force that occupied it commanded the road to Jerusalem.See this picture of the valley taken from the hills of Latrun.
In 1948, Latrun comprised a detention camp and a fortified police station occupied by the British, a Trappist
TRAPPIST
TRAPPIST is Belgian robotic telescope in Chile which came online in 2010, and is an acronym for TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, so named in homage to Trappist beer produced in the Belgian region. Situated high in the Chilean mountains at La Silla Observatory, it is actually...
monastery, and several Arab villages: Latrun, Imwas
Imwas
Imwas was a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of the city of Ramla and from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank. Often identified with the biblical Emmaus, over the course of two millennia, Imwas was intermittently inhabited and was ruled by the Romans , Arab caliphates,...
, Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 6, 1948 by the Givati and Sheva' brigades of Operation Nachshon. It was located 17.5 km southeast of Ramla, situated close to Bab al-Wad...
and Bayt Nuba. During the civil war, after the death of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, the forces of the Arab Liberation Army positioned themselves around the police fort and the surrounding villages, to the indifference of the British. They regularly attacked supply convoys heading for Jerusalem. At that time, the Israeli and Jordanian military staffs had not yet understood the strategic importance of the place.
Operation Maccabi (8–16 May)
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
launched Operation Maccabi against the Arab Liberation Army
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army , also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji...
and the Palestinian irregulars who occupied several villages along the Jerusalem road and prevented the resupplying of Jerusalem's Jewish community. The Givati Brigade
Givati Brigade
The Givati Brigade is an infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, and serves as its amphibious force. Givati soldiers are designated by purple berets...
(on the west side) and Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Northern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.- War of Independence :...
(on the east side) were engaged in fighting, notably in the Latrun area.
Between 9–11 May, a battalion of the Harel brigade attacked and took the village of Bayt Mahsir
Bayt Mahsir
Bayt Mahsir was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jerusalem. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 10, 1948 by the Har'el Brigade of Operation Makkabi. It was located 9 km west of Jerusalem....
, used by Palestinians as a base for the control of Bab al-Wad. The "Sha'ar HaGai" battalion of the Harel brigade also took up a position on the hills north and south of the road. It had to withstand the fire of the Arab Liberation Army artillery and the "unusual"It is Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
who points out. one of British armoured vehicles, but succeeded in holding the position and entrenched there.
To the west, on 12 May, Givati brigade troops took the British detention camp on the road leading to Latrun, but abandoned it the next day. Between 14 and 15 May, its 52nd battalion took the villages of Abu Shusha
Abu Shusha
Abu Shusha was an Arab village in Palestine, 8 km southeast of Ramle which was depopulated in 1948.Abu Shusha was located on the slope of Tel Jazar, which is commonly identified with the ancient city of Gezer....
, Al-Na'ani
Al-Na'ani
Al-Na'ani was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramle. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 14, 1948 by the Givati Brigade of Operation Barak. It was located 6 km south of Ramle....
and al-Qubab
Al-Qubab
Al-Qubab was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated in July 1948 during the Operation Dani led by the Yiftach Brigade.-History:...
north of Latrun, thus cutting off the zone from Ramla, the main Arab town in the area. Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre is a French author.-Life:Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France. At the age of thirteen, he traveled to America with his father who was a diplomat...
and Collins
Larry Collins (writer)
Larry Collins, born John Lawrence Collins Jr., , was an American writer.-Life:...
report also that a platoon of the Givati brigade fired on and then penetrated the fort without encountering any resistance on the morning of 15 May. Again to the east, on 15 May, the troops of the Harel brigade took Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 6, 1948 by the Givati and Sheva' brigades of Operation Nachshon. It was located 17.5 km southeast of Ramla, situated close to Bab al-Wad...
, which they abandoned the next day.
It is at that moment that the Israeli officers in the field understood the strategic importance of Latrun. A report was sent from OC Harel brigade to OC Palmach that concluded that "The Latrun junction became the main point in the battle [of Jerusalem]" [exact words must be taken from the source], but "that appreciation was not shared by the staff one week previously". Meanwhile, because of the Egyptian Army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...
's advance, the Givati brigade got an order to redeploy on a more southern front, and the Harel brigade to remain in the Jerusalem sector. This decision to leave the area, and the fact of not perceiving its strategic importance, would later be a source of controversy between Haganah chief of operations Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin on 21 March 1917, died 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life and military career:...
and Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
, commander of the Harel brigade.
The Arab Legion takes control
Fawzi Al-Qawuqji
Fawzi al-Qawuqji was the field commander of the Arab Liberation Army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in Palestine, and a rival of the principal Palestinian Arab leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.-Biography:...
and his Arab Liberation Army to withdraw and to leave the place to the Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
. According to Yoav Gelber
Yoav Gelber
Yoav Gelber is a professor of history at the University of Haifa, and was formerly a visiting professor at The University of Texas at Austin....
, this departure occurred before the arrival of the Jordanian troops at Latrun and the position was held by just 200 irregulars. Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
nevertheless points out that a platoon of legionnaires of the 11th Company along with irregulars was there and took over the fort.
Indeed, as auxiliary forces of the British in Mandatory Palestine, several elements of the Arab Legion served in Palestine during the Mandate. The British had promised that these units would have withdrawn before the end of April, but for "technical reasons", several companies didn't leave the country. John Bagot Glubb
John Bagot Glubb
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier, scholar and author, best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
, the commander of the Arab Legion, formed them into one division with two brigades, each made up of two infantry battalions, in addition to several independent infantry companies. Each battalion was given an armored-car company, and the artillery was made into a separate battalion with three batteries. Another "dummy" brigade was formed to make the Israelis believe it was a reserve brigade, thus deterring them from counterattacking into Transjordan
Transjordan
The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...
.
On 15 May, the Arab states entered the war, and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i, Jordanian and Egyptian contingents deployed in Palestine. Among these, the Jordanian expeditionary corps was mainly constituted by an elite mechanized force "encadrée" by British officers and named Arab Legion. It comprised:
- the 1st Brigade comprising the 1st and 3rd Battalions that lead to NablusNablusNablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
;In the Jordanian expeditionary corps, each brigadeBrigadeA brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
is composed of 2 regimentRegimentA regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
s each of them likely composed of 3 or 4 companies. This information is nevertheless "dubious" (sujette à caution ?). The sources are contradictory at that level. The divergences are likely to be due to the fact that the "battalion", which is generally the unit that subdivides the brigade is named regiment in the Arab Legion. - the 3rd Brigade under the orders of colonel Ashton comprising the 2nd Battalion under the orders of Major Geoffrey Lockett and the 4th battalion under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Habes al-Majali that took position at RamallahRamallahRamallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
; - the 5th and 6th Battalions acting independently.
Glubb first understood ("pris conscience") of the strategical importance of Latrun in the Battle of Jerusalem. His objective was twofold: he wanted to prevent the Israelis from strengthening Jerusalem and from supplying the city, and he wanted to "make a diversion" to keep the strengths of the Haganah far from the city, warranting to the Arabs the control of East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
. In addition to the 11th Company already there, he sent to Latrun the whole 4th Regiment. During the night between 15 to 16 May, the first contingent of 40 legionnaires seconded by an undetermined number of Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
s strengthened the position, and the remainder of the regiment reached the area on 17 May.
On 18 May, the strength of the Arab Legion deployed around Latrun and Bab al-Wad was sufficient, and the road was blocked again. The Israeli general staff needed several days to asses the actual location of the Jordanian forces around Latrun and Jerusalem because these latter, particularly feared (redoutées ?) to have been announced at several places of the country.
Situation in Jerusalem
Operation Kilshon
From May 13, 1948 until May 18, 1948 Jewish forces from the Haganah and Irgun executed Operation Kilshon . Its aim was to capture the Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem particularly Talbiya in central Jerusalem....
Glubb Pasha
John Bagot Glubb
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier, scholar and author, best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
sent the 3rd Regiment of the Arab Legion to strengthen the Arab irregulars and fight the Jewish forces. After "violent" fighting, the Jewish positions in the Old City of Jerusalem were threatened (this felt indeed on 28 May). "We have surrounded the town": on 22 and 23 May, the second Egyptian brigade, composed mainly of several battalions of irregulars and several units of the regular army, reached the southern outskirts of Jerusalem and continued to the attack on Ramat Rachel
Ramat Rachel
Ramat Rachel is a kibbutz located south of Jerusalem in Israel, as an enclave within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries. Overlooking Bethlehem and Rachel's Tomb and situated within the Green Line, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council...
.
Glubb nevertheless knew that the Israeli army would sooner or later be stronger than his and that he had to prevent the strengthening of the Harel and Etzioni brigades to secure East-Jerusalem. He redeployed his strengths on 23 May to reinforce the blockade
Siege of Jerusalem (1948)
The Battle for Jerusalem occurred from 30 November 1947 to 11 June 1948 when Jewish and Arab population of Mandatory Palestine and later Israeli and Jordanian armies fought for the control of the city....
. The Iraqi army, at that time seconded by tanks, relieved the Legion units in northern Samaria and these were redeployed towards the Jerusalem sector. The 2nd Regiment of the Legion moved to Latrun. A full Jordanian brigade was placed in the area.
On the Israeli side, several leaders of the Jewish city sent emergency telegrams to David Ben Gurion where they described the situation as desperate and that they could not hold out more than two weeks. Fearing that without a supply the city would collapse, Ben Gurion ordered the taking of Latrun. This decision seemed strategically necessary but was politically delicate, because Latrun was in the area allocated to the Arab State according to the terms of the Partition Plan and this attack was contrary to the non-aggression agreements, concluded with King AbdullahUntil the last days preceding the war, the Zionist authorities and the King Abdullah of Jordan maintained a dialogue. Some historians, such as Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim FBA is a British/Israeli historian. He is a professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the British Academy.Shlaim is especially well known as a historian of the Arab-Israeli conflict...
, consider that this dialogue went up to a tacit non-aggression agreement but this thesis is controversial. This decision was also opposed by the Chief of Operations, Yigael Yadin who considered that there were other military priorities at that moment, in particular on the southern front, where the Egyptian army was threatening Tel Aviv if Yad Mordechai
Battle of Yad Mordechai
The Battle of Yad Mordechai was fought between Egypt and Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, at the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai. The Egyptians attacked the communal village several times throughout May 19 and May 20, but failed to capture it...
came to fall. But Ben Gurion set Israeli military policy. This difference in strategy influenced the outcome of the battle, and has been debated in Israel for many years.See section #Israeli historiography and collective memory.
Operation Bin Nun Alef (24–25 May)
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
, Nun's son, conqueror of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
according to the Book of Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
) was given to Shlomo Shamir
Shlomo Shamir
Shlomo Shamir was the third Commander of the Israeli Navy , and the first Israeli Navy Commander to receive the rank of Aluf. He was the third Commander of the Israeli Air Force .- Biography :...
, a former officer of the British army. His force consisted of 450 men of the Alexandroni Brigade
Alexandroni Brigade
The Alexandroni Brigade is an Israel Defense Forces brigade that fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Along with the 7th Armoured Brigade both units had 139 killed during the first battle of Latrun - Operation Ben Nun Alef .The unit is currently a reserve unit.-Katz controversy:In 1998, Teddy Katz...
and 1,650 men of the 7th Brigade. Of these, about 140 to 145 were immigrants who had just arrived in Israel, nearly 7% of the total. Their heavy weaponry was limited to two French 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars of 1906 (nicknamed Napoleonchik), one 88 millimetres (3.5 in) mortar with 15 rounds of ammunition, one Davidka
Davidka
The Davidka was a homemade Israeli mortar used in Safed and Jerusalem during the early stages of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Its bombs were reported to be extremely loud, but very inaccurate and otherwise of little value beyond terrifying opponents; they proved particularly useful in...
, ten 3 inches (7.6 cm) mortars and twelve armored vehicles. Three hundred soldiers of the Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Northern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.- War of Independence :...
were also in the area but were not aware of the operation, but assisted after finding out about it by intercepting a radio transmission.
The Jordanian forces were under the order of Lieutenant Colonel Habes al-Majali. He "disposed" of the 4th Regiment and 600 Jordanian volunteers seconded by 600 local volunteers. The 2nd Regiment of the brigade, commanded by Major Geoffrey Lockett, had just left Jerusalem and arrived at Latrun during the battle. The brigade totalled 2,300 men seconded by 800 auxiliaries. It had at its disposal 35 armoured vehicles with 17 Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car
Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car
South African Reconnaissance Car, better known under as Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car, was a series of armoured vehicles produced in South Africa and adopted by the British Army during the World War II.-History:...
s each armed with an anti-tank 2 pounder gun. For artillery it had eight 25 pounder
Ordnance QF 25 pounder
The Ordnance QF 25 pounder, or more simply, 25-pounder or 25-pdr, was introduced into service just before World War II, during which it served as the major British field gun/howitzer. It was considered by many to be the best field artillery piece of the war, combining high rates of fire with a...
Howitzers/Field guns, eight 6 pounder
Ordnance QF 6 pounder
The Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt, or just 6 pounder, was a British 57 mm gun, their primary anti-tank gun during the middle of World War II, as well as the main armament for a number of armoured fighting vehicles...
anti-tank guns, ten 2 pounder
Ordnance QF 2 pounder
The Ordnance QF 2-pounder was a British anti-tank and vehicle-mounted gun, employed in the Second World War. It was actively used in the Battle of France, and during the North Africa campaign...
anti-tank guns also sixteen 3-inch mortars.
Zero Hour (that is, the start of the attack) was first fixed for midnight 23 May. But it was delayed 24 hours because it had not been possible to gather troops and weapons in time. Because no reconnaissance patrol was made the Israelis didn't know the exact composition of enemy forces. Intelligence reports just talked about "local irregular forces". On 24 May at 19:30, Shlomo Shamir was warned that an enemy force of around 120 vehicles, comprising armoured vehicles and artillery, was probably moving towards Latrun, urged an attack. The attack was postponed by 2 hours and fixed at 22:00. The attack was planned on two axes:
- The battalion of the Alexandroni brigade had to take the town of Latrun, the police fort and then ImwasImwasImwas was a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of the city of Ramla and from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank. Often identified with the biblical Emmaus, over the course of two millennia, Imwas was intermittently inhabited and was ruled by the Romans , Arab caliphates,...
in order to block any new Arab reinforcement, and also to protect the passage of supply convoys; - The 72nd Battalion would circle the position by the south to join the Jerusalem road at the level of Bab al-Wad; it would then cross the road and climb the ridges to take Dayr Ayyub, Yalu and Bayt Nuba, and would ambush there to cover the passage of convoys. It would be supported by three armored cars and two half-tracks of the 73rd Battalion.
During the night, something unexpected happened: a roadblock on the road that had to be used by the brigade had to be dismantled. Zero hour was once more modified and set at midnight. At last, the troops fought battle between 2 am and 5 am but with no benefit of cover. The attackers were rapidly discovered, depriving the Israelis of the surprise effect. The battle started at 4am. The Israeli forces were submitted to a strong fire. The artillery tried to intervene but felt rapidly out of ammunition or was not within range to provide a counter-battery fire.Counter-battery fire is a military tactic that consists in targeting, with one's own artillery, the one of the adversary.
In front of the total failure of the attack, Shlomo Shamir ordered the retreat at 11.30 am. But this occurred on open ground under a heavy sun and the soldiers had no water. Numerous men were killed or injured by Arab fire. It was only at 2 pm that the first injured men reached the transport they had left in the morning. However, the Arab Legion didn't take advantage of this victory while, according to Benny Morris, it could easily have performed a counter-attack up to the Israeli headquarters located at Hulda
Hulda, Israel
Hulda is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah near the Hulda forest and the Burma Road, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 332...
.
Jordanians and Arab irregulars had 5 deaths and 6 injured. The Israelis counted 72 deaths (52 from the 32nd Battalion and 20 from the 72nd Battalion), 6 prisoners and 140 injured. Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
, the future Prime Minister of Israel, a lieutenant at the time, headed a platoon of the 32nd Battalion and suffered serious injury to his stomach during the battle.
Reorganisation of the central front
At the end of May, David Ben Gurion was convinced that the Arab Legion expected to take control of all Jerusalem. Moreover, after the fighting, the situation there deteriorated: the Jewish community had very small reserves of fuel, bread, sugar and tea, which would last for only 10 days, and water for 3 months. In Glubb's opinion, the aim was still to prevent the Israelis from reinforcing the city and taking control of its Arab part. On 29 May, the UN Security CouncilUnited Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
announced its intention to impose a ceasefire for 4 weeks, which would prevent further capture of territory and thus prevent resupplying the besieged city.
From a military point of view, the 10th Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Northern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.- War of Independence :...
required reinforcements and Ben Gurion dispatched a battalion of the 6th Etzioni Brigade
Etzioni Brigade
The Etzioni Brigade , also 6th Brigade and Jerusalem Brigade, was an infantry brigade in the Haganah and Israel Defense Forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was founded in late 1947 as the Field Corps unit responsible for the defense of Jerusalem and its surroundings, where it operated during...
. He considered it imperative that the 7th Brigade join the forces in Jerusalem as well as a contingent of 400 new recruits to reinforce the Harel Brigade. Weapons and spare parts that had arrived in Israel by air were also now ready for combat on the Jerusalem front. The commander of the 7th Brigade wished to neutralize the negative effects of the debacle on the morale of the troops and on his prestige. The central front was reorganized and its command given to an American volunteer fighting on the Israeli side, Colonel David Marcus
David Marcus
David Marcus was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate and editor of Irish fiction.- Life and times :...
, who was subsequently appointed Aluf
Aluf
Aluf is the term used for General and Admiral in the Israel Defense Forces . In addition to the Aluf rank itself, there are four other ranks which are derivatives of the word...
(Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
). He took command of the Etzioni and 7th Brigades, and the 10th Palmach
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
Harel Brigade.
Operation Bin Nun Bet
The Israelis sent numerous reconnaissance patrols but they nevertheless had no clear idea of the adversary's forces. They expected to fight 600 men of the Legion and of the Arab Liberation Army, so a force was allocated that was not enough to hold the 4 km (2.5 mi) Latrun front. Transjordanians still had in fact a full brigade and are supported by several hundreds of irregulars. Taking into account the mistakes of the previous attacks, the renewed assault was organised with precision, and the area from where the units had to launch their attack had been cleared on 28 May. In particular the two hamlets of Bayt Jiz and Bayt Susin, where a counter-attacks had been launched by the Arab militants during the first battle, and Hill 369. The attack was once more foreseen on two axes:
- The 72nd and 52nd Infantry Battalions were to counter-attack on foot from the south up to Bayt SusinBayt SusinBayt Susin was a Palestinian Arab village in Mandatory Palestine, located southeast of Ramla. In 1945, it had 210 inhabitants. The village was depopulated during the 1948 war by the Israeli 7th Brigade.-Geography:...
and then take Bab al-Wad and attack respectively Dayr Ayyub and Yalu, then head for Latrun and attack this from the east; - The 71st Infantry Battalion and 73rd Mechanised Battalion were to assault the police fort, the monastery and the town of Latrun by south-west.
On the other front, the forces divided in two parts. The infantry of the 71st rapidly took the monastery and then fought for the control of the town. On the other side, the Israeli artillery succeeded in neutralizing the fort's weapons. The volunteers crossed the defence fence and their flame-throwers took the defenders by surprise. Nevertheless, the light coming from the fire they created lost their cover and they became easy targets for the 60 millimetres (2.4 in) mortars of the Jordanians. They were quickly knocked out and destroyed. The sappers succeeded nevertheless to make the door explode, but in the confusion were not followed by the infantrymen. Chaim Laskov, the chief of operations on that front, ordered company D of the 71st Battalion (that had been kept in reserve) to intervene, but one of the soldiers accidentally exploded a landmine, killing three men and injuring several others. They were then attacked by heavy fire from the Jordanian artillery and the men retreated towards the west in panic.
The battle was still not lost for the Israelis although the wake was coming, and Laskov considered that his men could not hold in front of a Legion's counter-attack and he preferred to order the retreat. It was also time for the Jordanians to regroup, their 4th Regiment was completely out of ammunition. 73rd Battalion suffered 50% losses and the whole of the engaged forces had counted 44 deaths and twice that number injured. According to the sources, the Legion suffered between 12 and 20 deaths, including the lieutenant commanding the fort. In contrast, the Jordanians reported 2 just deaths on their side, and 161 of the Israelis.
David Marcus
David Marcus
David Marcus was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate and editor of Irish fiction.- Life and times :...
later attributed the responsibility for the defeat to the infantry, stating: "the artillery cover was correct. The armoury were good. The infantry, very bad". Benny Morris considers that the mistake was rather to disperse the forces on several objectives instead of concentrating the full brigade on the main objective: the fort.
"Burma Road"
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
discovered some paths that linked several villages in the hills south of the main road controlled by the Arab Legion. In the night of 29–30 May, Jeep
Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
s sent into the hills confirmed there was a path suitable for vehicles. The decision was then taken to build a road in the zone. This was given the name of "Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
", referring to the supply road between Burma and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
built by the British during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Engineers immediately started to build the road while convoys of jeeps, mules and camels were organised from Hulda to carry 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars to Jerusalem. Without knowing the goals of these works, the Jordanians realised a game was afoot in the hills. They performed artillery bombings, that would anyway have been rapidly stopped under the orders of the top British officer, and they sent patrols to stop the works, but without success.
Nevertheless, it was mainly food that the inhabitants of Jerusalem needed. Starting 5 June, the Israeli engineers started to fix the road so that it let civil transport trucks pass to supply the city. 150 workers, working in four teams, installed a pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
to supply the city with water, because the other pipeline, crossing Latrun, had been cut by the Jordanians. In O Jerusalem, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins talked about heroic action, when during the night of 6–7 June, in fear of the critical situation of Jerusalem and to improve the morale of the population, 300 inhabitants of Tel-Aviv were requisitioned to carry on their backs, for the few kilometers not yet ready for the trucks, what would be needed to feed the inhabitants of Jerusalem one more day.
The first phase of these works was achieved for the 10 June truce and on 19 June a convoy of 140 trucks, each carrying three tons of merchandise as well as numerous weapons and ammunition, reached Jerusalem. The siege of the city was then definitively over. This Israeli success was punctuated by an incident that became marked in memory: the death of Aluf Mickey Marcus
Mickey Marcus
David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus was a United States Army colonel who assisted Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and who became Israel's first general . He was killed by friendly fire, when he was mistaken for an enemy infiltrator while returning to Israeli positions at night.Marcus is the best...
, accidentally killed by an Israeli sentry during the night of 10–11 June.
Operation Yoram (8–9 June 1948)
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
renewed its call for a truce on 11 June. It was in this context that David Ben Gurion took the decision to withdraw from Galilee the elite 11th Yiftah Brigade under the orders of Yigal Allon to launch a third assault against Latrun. He had at his disposal an artillery support composed of four 65 millimetres (2.6 in) mortars and four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns that were part of the heavy weapons recently delivered to Israel by Operation Balak
Operation Balak
Operation Balak was a smuggling operation, during the founding of Israel in 1948, that purchased arms in Europe to avoid various embargoes and boycotts transferring them to the Zionists...
.
This time, the general staff decided on an attack concentrated on the centre of the Legion disposal, with several diversion attacks to the north to disrupt the Jordanians. While a battalion from the Yiftah brigade was performed some diversions attacks on Salbit, Imwas and Bayt Nuba, a battalion from the Harel brigade was to take Hill 346, between the fourth and second Legion regiments and a battalion from the Yiftah brigade was then to pass through it, take Hill 315 and Latrun village and the police fort by the East. The Israeli operation started with an artillery barrage on the fort, the village of Latrun and the positions around. Hills 315 and 346 occupied with a company from the Legion, were not targeted not to alert the Jordanians.
The men of the Harel brigade made leave on foot from Bab al-Oued but took a wrong way and mistakenly attacked Hill 315. Located by the Jordanian sentries, they launch the attack of the hill. The Legionnaires were outnumbered but counterattacked with violence, going as far as requiring an artillery bombing on their own position. The Israelis suffered some heavy losses. When the Yiftah arrived at the bottom of Hill 346, they are targeted by firearms, grenades and artillery. Thinking that Harel men were there, they called by radio to the headquarters to ceasefire, and laid down arms. They refused, not believing that account of the events and Harel soldiers stayed in place.
Confusion among Jordanians was as important as among Israelis with the attack on Hill 315 and those of diversion. With the incoming morning and unable to evaluate properly the situation, the Israeli HQ gave orders at 5.30 am for the soldiers to retreat to Bad al-Oued. The losses were also significant. Indeed the 400-strong Harel battalion numbered 16 dead and 79 injured, and the Yiftah an handful of dead and injured. The Legion numbered several dozen victims.
The following day, Jordan mounted two counter-attacks. The first was over Beit Susin. The Legionnaires took several Israeli guard posts but could not keep them more than a few hours. The fighting took lives and some 20 injuries on the Israeli side. The second was at Kibbutz Gezer from where the diversion attacks had been launched. A force the strength of a battalion, made up of Legionnaires and irregulars and supported by a dozen armoured vehicles, attacked the kibbutz in the morning. It was defended by 68 soldiers of the Haganah (including 13 women).
After the four-hour battle, the kibbutz fell. A dozen of the defenders escaped. Most others surrendered and one or two were executed. The Legionnaires protected the prisoners from irregulars and the next day freed the women. The toll was 39 dead on the Israeli side and 2 on the Legionnaires' side. The kibbutz was looted by the irregulars and the Legionnaires evacuated the area after the fights. In the evening the Yiftah brigade retook the kibbutz.
Attacks organised during Operation Danny
After the month of truce, during which Tsahal increased forces and re-equipped, the weakest point of the Israeli dispositions were on the central front and the corridor to Jerusalem. The High Command decided to launch "Operation Larlar" with the objective of taking Lydda, Ramle, LatrunLatrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
and Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
and relieving the threat on Tel-Aviv on a side and West Jerusalem on the other.
To achieve this objective Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party, and acting Prime Minister of Israel, and was a member of the Knesset and government minister from the 10th through the...
in entrusted 5 brigades: the Harel and Yiftah (now totalling five battalions), the 8th armoury brigade (newly constituted as the 82nd and 89th battalions), several infantry battalions from the Kiryati
Kiryati Brigade
The Kiryati Brigade was formed in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion and was one of the original nine brigades that made up the Haganah. The Kiryati Brigade was initially responsible for securing the area in and around Tel Aviv...
and Alexandroni brigades, and 30 pieces of artillery. The 7th brigade was sent to the northern front. In a first phase, between 9 and 13 July, the Israelis took Lydda and Ramle and reasserted the area around Latrun by taking Salbit
Salbit
Salbit was a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of al-Ramla. It has been identified with the biblical town of Shaalabbin which was located northwest of biblical Aijalon . Salbit was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war after a military assault by Israeli forces...
, but the forces are exhausted and the High Command renounced to the objective of taking Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
. Two attacks was launched against Latrun.
On the east of the Jordanian positions (16 July)
On the night of 15–16 July, several companies of the Harel brigade laid on an assault against Latrun by the east, around the "artillery ridge" and the villages of YaloYalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
and Bayt Nuba. They carried on to the hills by way of the villages of Bayt Thul
Bayt Thul
Bayt Thul was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jerusalem. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 1, 1948 under Operation Nachshon. It was located 15.5 km west of Jerusalem....
and Nitaf
Nitaf
Nitaf , Natâf, was a small Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jerusalem. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 15, 1948 during the second stage of Operation Dani. It was located 17 km west of Jerusalem...
transporting their armoury using pack mules. After several hours of fighting and counter-attacks by armoured vehicles of the Arab Legion, they were finally pushed back but could keep control of several hills. In total, the Israelis lost 23 dead and numerous injured.
Frontal assault against the police fort (18 July)
One hour before the truce, the High Command decided to try a frontal assault against the police fort. Intelligence indicated that, in effect, it was "more likely than not" that the Legion's forces in the sector were "substantial". In the morning, reconnaissance patrols had sized up the sector, but could not confirm or deny the information that had been gathered by the intelligence. At 6 pm two Cromwell tankCromwell tank
Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell ,The designation as the eighth Cruiser tank design, its name given for ease of reference and its General Staff specification number respectively and the related Centaur tank, were one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second...
s driven by British deserters, seconded by a mechanised battalion of the Yiftah brigade and supported by artillery launched the attack of the police fort.
When the Israeli forces arrived 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) from the fort, they were shelled by Jordanian artillery. Around 6:15 pm. one of the tanks was hit by a shell (or sustained a mechanical damage) and had to retreat to al-Qubab for repairs. The remaining forces waited for its return and the attack resumed around 7:30 pm, but was abandoned around 8 pm. The Israelis counted between 8 and 12 victims. At the same time, elements of the Harel brigade took about 10 villages to the south of Latrun to enlarge and secure the area of the Burma road. The majority of inhabitants had fled the fights in April but those who remained were systematically expelled.
The final assault
During the ten day battle, the Israelis were militarily superior to their enemies, and the Cabinet subsequently considered its options. The choice was between letting the southern NegevNegev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
be taken by the Egyptians and keeping the Arabic enclave in Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
, held there with the force of the Arab Liberation Army
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army , also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji...
against the Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
n and Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
n areas, taken by the Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
is and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ians. In the end, on 24 September, another incursion made by the Palestinian irregulars in the Latrun sector (killing 23 Israeli soldiers) started the debate. On 26 September, David Ben Gurion put his argument to Cabinet to attack Latrun again in order to complete its capture.
Following discussion however, the motion was rejected by 5 votes to 7. According to Benny Morris, the arguments which were discussed on balance were considered to have negative international repercussions for Israel after the recent assassination of Count Bernadotte; those thinking of the consequences of the attack against an accord with Abdallah, those who did not wish a defeat of the Arabic Liberation Army to provoke British military invention because of Britain and Jordan's common wish for defence, and lastly because consequences in surrounding countries could add hundreds of thousands of Arab citizens to Israel. Gurion ratified the decision by ("A cause of trouble for generations") in considering that Israel could never renounce its claim over Old Jerusalem and Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
.
Aftermath
- The opening of the Burma RoadBurma Road (Israel)The Israeli "Burma Road" was a makeshift bypass road between the general vicinity of kibbutz Hulda and Jerusalem. It was built by Israeli forces headed by general Mickey Marcus during the 1948 Siege of Jerusalem...
to the Israelis to bypass Latrun and supply the 100,000 Jewish inhabitants of West Jerusalem with arms, munitions and equipment; - If the control of West Jerusalem by Israel hold some of their forces, the Arab Legion control of Latrun, 15 kilometre from Tel Aviv, was a thorn in the side of Israeli forces;
- Latrun was a pivot point of the Legion's deployment; Glubb PachaJohn Bagot GlubbLieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier, scholar and author, best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
massed a third of his troops there; its fall would have caused the one of Jerusalem and probably of Cisjordan as a whole.
At the discussions of the Israeli-Jordano Armistice at Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, the Israelis demanded unsuccessfully for the removal of the legion from Latrun. It subsequently remained under Jordanian control until the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
.
Israeli historiography and collective memory
There is a gap, at times quite wide, between the 'facts established by historical research' and the image of the battle as retained in collective memoryCollective memory
Collective memory refers to the shared pool of information held in the memories of two or more members of a group, and was coined by the philosopher and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs. Collective memory can be shared, passed on and constructed by groups both small and large...
. This is certainly the case for the battle of Latrun, which has become, in Israel, a founding myth
Founding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
.
The clear-sightedness of the Commander-in-Chief
Initially, the governing power within Israel remained silent. However, on May 27, the Israeli daily Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
printed a sceptical coverage of Arab accounts which spoke of a great victory by the Arab Legion, involving some 800 Israeli dead. In response, the Israeli press stressed that the aim of the operation was not to take Latrun, but to strike the Legion and, on June Ist, it published casualty figures of 250 deaths for the Arab side and 10 deaths, with 20 badly wounded, and another 20 lightly wounded on the Israeli side.
From 14 June, the press shifted its focus to the 'opening of the Burma route' and, in the context of a conflict between the military's senior command and Ben Gurion, Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin on 21 March 1917, died 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life and military career:...
called the operation a 'great catastrophe' while the latter replied that, in his view, it had been "a great, although costly, victory".
The "official version" entered in the historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
in 1955 following the work of lieutenant colonel Israel Beer, whereas adviser and support of Yadin at the time of the events, who published 'The battles of Latrun'. This study, considered by the historian Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira is an Israeli historian. She is the founder of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, a Ruben Merenfeld Professor of the Study of Zionism and head of the Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University...
as "the most clever ever written on the topic", puts the battles in their military and political context. It concludes that given the strategic and symbolic importance of Jerusalem, "the three tactical defeats that occurred at Latrun (...) permitted the supply [of the city] and were a diversal manoeuvre (...) [and] are the consequence of the strategic clear-sightedness of the Commander-in-Chief, able to identify the key points and subordinate to his general sight the tactical considerations, limited, of the military command.
Ber put the responsibility of the tactical defeats on the failures of the intelligence services and on the "absence de commandement séparé sur les différents fronts." He also points out the badly trained immigrants, the defective equipment, and the difficulty for a new army to succeed a first operation targeting to capture an defended area that was organised by advance. He gives the first estimates for the losses: 50 deaths in the 32nd battalion of the Alexandroni brigade and the 25 deaths in the 72nd battalion of the 7th brigade (composed mainly of immigrants).
Finally, Ber founded the myth
Founding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
and pictured the events of Latrun as "an heroic saga, as the ones that occurs at the birth of a nation or at the historical breakthrough of movements of national liberation".
Criminal negligence
[About the First Battle of Latrun:] "the Jordanians broke the attack by noon, with fewer than two thousand Israeli deaths."Whereas many events in the war were more bloody for the Israelis, like the massacre at Kfar Etzion
Kfar Etzion
Kfar Etzion is a religious Israeli settlement and kibbutz located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem and Hebron in the southern West Bank. It has a population of 400 and falls under the jurisdiction of Gush Etzion Regional Council...
with 150 deaths or the one of the Mount Scopus with 78, the Battle of Latrun is the event of the war to provoke most rumours, narratives and controversies in Israel. The main reason is that Latrun had still been the mainstay for the road to Jerusalem until the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
, keeping the Israelis at the margins and having to go round and maintain the town, but struggling to bypass it, which played each day on their minds. According to Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira is an Israeli historian. She is the founder of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, a Ruben Merenfeld Professor of the Study of Zionism and head of the Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University...
, the primary reason was nothing but people's grievous memories, of David Ben Gurion and the veterans of the British Armies on one side and former Palmah and Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
soldiers on the other. In this sphere of influence during the 1970s and in the controversies that continued until the 1980s, the "Strategic Necessity" was said, if it were not done, it would be "Criminal negligence
Criminal negligence
In the criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offense. It is defined as an act that is:-Concept:...
", with a heavy toll on bring in immigrants to the battle, and forging a new founding myth
Founding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
.
On one side, the opponents of Ben Gurion attacked his "Moral Authority". They said that the intrusion into Latrun by the "scum of the earth" immigrants who died had changed the situation for the worse. And the number of victims, and the proportion of immigrants, inflated in the narratives: from "several hundreds of dead" to "500 to 700 dead and even "1,000 to 2,000 dead". The proportion of immigrants making up this total of victims was up to 75%. His opponents accused Ben Gurion of wanting to take out the myth of the "invincible Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
" and to justify the abandonment of the city of David to Abdallah. (Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira
Anita Shapira is an Israeli historian. She is the founder of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, a Ruben Merenfeld Professor of the Study of Zionism and head of the Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University...
considers this story to be at the origin of the theory of Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim FBA is a British/Israeli historian. He is a professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the British Academy.Shlaim is especially well known as a historian of the Arab-Israeli conflict...
who brought forth what she considers as the myth of the collusion between Ben Gurion and Abdallah.) On the other side, those supporting Ben Gurion put everything to advance the case of the "historic sacrifice" by the immigrants, laying the failure to their poor training.
Many contemporary books about the 1948 War were published at this time: John and David Kimche, The two sides of the hill (the more reliable); Dominique Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre is a French author.-Life:Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France. At the age of thirteen, he traveled to America with his father who was a diplomat...
and Larry Collins
Larry Collins (writer)
Larry Collins, born John Lawrence Collins Jr., , was an American writer.-Life:...
, O Jerusalem (the best known internationally) and Dan Kurzman, Genesis, 1948 (the only that got reviews in the Israeli press). With this political writing, historical research on Latrun tends to concentrate on the 1980s with the work of Arié Itzhaki, "Latrun" (in 2 volumes). It gives the exact number of victims, but, at the contrary of Israel Beer (meanwhile caught as spying for USSR), it depicts the battle as "The hardest in the history of Tsahal", and it puts the responsibility of the defeat on Ben Gurion, who panicked about Jerusalem, and tactical errors on the brigade commanders and not on the immigrants who received (from his point of viewAnita Shapira, L'imaginaire d'Israël : histoire d'une culture politique (2005), underlines that Itzhaki thought wrongly that the immigrants had got training before in Cyprus) a sufficient training.
The drama of alienation
Social integration
Social integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
of new immigrants who had arrived after the war, who had received much trauma from their exodus from Arab lands or from the death camps, and had suffered six years of war. This integration was most difficult with Sabra Israelis
Sabra (person)
Sabra is a term used to describe a Jew born in Israeli territory; the term is also usually inclusive of Jews born during the period of the establishment of the state of Israel. The word "sabra" is Arabic and Hebrew. Immigrants to Palestine began using it in the early 1930s, according to the The...
, born in the Palestinian Mandate, and taking the essential jobs and who Israel put first in an image of "Sabres, strong and courageous, fearless heroes, disdaining feebleness and trouble". The phenomenon rose up again with the Israeli victory of the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
.
All the while, these uncertainties and the reparations from the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
polished the sheen on the Shoah
Shoah
Shoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
. The collective memory resurfaced and looked to reconcile its past history of difficulties, suffering and sacrifices. A new elite arose from the Sephardic Jews and the "can-do" of Menahem Begin. In this context, the "myth" of Latrun derived from the frustrations and the death of the new immigrants and was catalysed by their integration in a society where "the survivor of Shoah carried the new collective memory, immigrant refugees who had troubled pasts, and then were confronted with hostility and threat and still took their place with their blood and taking part in the war".
This myth was founded in the factual knowledge of the immigrants' participation in the battles, and the mythical knowledge because of the differences in the number of victims, the leaving of the injured on the fields of battle, and that the Latrun battle was the hardest and most important in the war. The influence on written history appeared primarily in books and commentary, where "the immigrants wanted only to make sure that their contribution at the battle was written in the collective memory with a plus sign". It didn't bring new documents but it expressed itself in memoirs, reminiscences and obituaries by or of those involved in the events. It was a view that was seldom heard in polemics giving two preceding versions of events but that had a life of its own, given to it by the immigrants.
Myth of guilt
Post-Zionism
Post-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israelis, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered at an end...
movement, and the history of the battle of Latrun came to represent the culpability of the Israeli state and a way of pointing out that it was born in the context of massacres and the exodus of the Palestinian population
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
. It shouted "hypocrisy", "false truths", and "the blood of the escapees of Shoah
Shoah
Shoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
who came to find a new life and yet found death".
This version was put into several poems by the celebrated provocative poet Gabi Daniel (pseudonym of Benjamin Harushovsky-Harshav) and entitled "Peter the Great". Themes in the poem include dehumanisation and how Ben Gurion got Shoah into his pocket, by the work of the other "innocent young Jews of the Superior Race, who, without name or vision, found themselves the saviours of Israel".
- Peter the Great
- Paved the city of St Petersburg
- In the northern seas
- On the backs of his serfs.
- David Ben-Gurion
- Paved
- The Burma Road, which turned around
- The road, by the road to the capital Jerusalem,
- With the backs of the young refugees from Shoah.
Anita Shapira considers this "New myth" was necessary not to reject identity with the past and to be able to renounce their common memory. While Israel in the 1980s was under much criticism from myths about the state's founding, the reception of this idea was mitigated and "this version of Latrun that was destined to blow up the myth that the regathering was solely in the hands of a group of radicals in the middle of the [Israeli] intellectual community".
Qirbet Quriqur
A battle fought in this zone and tragic for the Israelis was completely eclipsed from their collective memory. On 18 July, a company from the 1st Battalion of Yiftah Brigade received the order to capture Qirbet QuriqurShilta
Shilta was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 18, 1948 by the First Battalion of the Yiftach Brigade of Operation Dani. It was located 15 km east of Ramla....
, an outpost protecting the only way for the Legion to get to Latrun located several kilometres to the north of the place. Intelligence services had not informed the responsible officer that nearby there was another outpost, occupied by a reinforced company of the Legion. From there the legionnaires could observe all the operations of the Israelis and called for reinforcements, notably armoured vehicles. When they mounted the counter-attack, the Israelis were taken by a lightning strike in an encircling movement. No troops were available there to reinforce them, so they had to retreat in plain daylight. 45 Israeli soldiers, nineteen of them aged 18 or less, lost their lives.
Despite this bloodbath, Anita Shapira underlines that this battle didn't remain in the Israeli collective memory. "If success has numerous fathers, [...] defeat remains an orphan. [...] The deaths of Qurikur did not enter into the pantheon of the Israeli national memory. [...] [While there were numerous polemics about Latrun], that 45 soldiers perished [...] should have begged a question. But they died in an side of the arena that proved to be unimportant, given it was not to decide the outcome of the campaign.
Commemoration
After the Suez CrisisSuez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
and the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
, the army came to arm the most important place. For technical reasons (distance of communication with bases) and because new places of historical interest were accessible, the top brass debated whether to transfer the postings of new recruits at Massada to a more appropriate place. It was Latrun that was finally chosen. In the 1980s, a commemorative site and a museum was built on the old police site. The complex has a wall listing all the names of the fallen soldiers since the War Of Independence
1948 Palestine war
The 1948 Palestine war refers to the events in the British Mandate of Palestine between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, to the end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949.The war is divided into two phases:...
, and a monument to the glory of the heroes and another for reverence. The museum has nearly 200 tanks and other armoured vehicles of many kinds.
Jordanian historiography
According to Eugène Rogan, the Jordanian history of the war is essentially that of the recollections by Jordanian officers who took part in the fighting, or of nationalist historians. He states that these "non-critical" works are largely loyal to the Jordanian regime and quotes My memoirs by Habes al-Majali, commander of the 4th Regiment; The battles of Bad al-Oued by Mahmoud al-Ghussan, on of the High Command officers; On the road to Jerusalem by Ma'n Abu Nuwar, an officer of the Arab Legion, Jordanian soldier and Soldier with the Arabs with John Bagot GlubbJohn Bagot Glubb
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier, scholar and author, best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
. Jordanian historiography declares Latrun as a great success of the Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
in the defense of Jerusalem, where a contingent of 1,200 men resisted an assault of 6,500 Israeli soldiers, and claiming Israeli casualties of between 400 and 800 killed. Glubb claimed 600 deaths on the first assault and 600 others for the two after.
Habes al-Majali is quoted as the only Arab commander to have defeated the Israelis in 1948 and who restored a little honour to the Arabs. By his version of events, he would even have catch Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
in the course of the battle and it is Colonel Ashton (his British superior from 3rd Brigade) would have forbidden him to use the artillery against the Burma road, action by which he could have prevented its construction. After the war, he was appointed bodyguard of Abdallah and in 1957 Chief-of-Staff of the Jordanian army. He became Jordanian Minister of Defence in 1967.
Palestinian historiography and collective memory
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
refers to Operation Maccabi as the first assault. He reports that the resistance offered by the Arab Legion and the volunteer army were "inspired by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Organization for Holy Struggle, , which he and Hasan Salama commanded as the Army of the Holy War during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt and during the 1948...
" (who had been killed a month before).
Nevertheless, Palestinian historiography and collective memory point out that during the exodus of Palestinian Arab population
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
of the 1948 War
1948 Palestine war
The 1948 Palestine war refers to the events in the British Mandate of Palestine between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, to the end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949.The war is divided into two phases:...
the massacres and forced expulsions that happened could be seen as ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
. In the Latrun zone, this affected about 20 villages and ten thousand Palestinian Arabs. Some inhabitants fled during the fights of April but most fled when the Israelis attacked their village during the following operations. After capturing a village, the Israeli soldiers systematically expelled the non-combatants, intimidating them to leave and demolishing houses. A massacre of between thirty and seventy Arabs took place some days after Abu Shusha was taken. Most villages were levelled, so as not to be used by the Arab volunteers and to prevent the inhabitants returning. In some cases Jewish settlements were established on village land.
External links
- Historical perspectives and testimonies of the Battle of Latrun with Benny MorrisBenny MorrisBenny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
, Ilan PappéIlan PappéIlan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist...
and Anita ShapiraAnita ShapiraAnita Shapira is an Israeli historian. She is the founder of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies, a Ruben Merenfeld Professor of the Study of Zionism and head of the Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University...
. - al-Latrun : The Battle of Latrun based on Walid KhalidiWalid KhalidiWalid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
, All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute For Palestine Studies, 1992. - Battles of Latrun on the official Palmach website.
- Battles of Latrun on the official Haganah website.
- Anonymous, The Arab Legion and the Defense of Jerusalem on the website of the Jordanian Embassy in the United States.
- Latrun on the website of the Jewish Agency.
- Isseroff, Ami, The battles of Latrun.
- Thomas, Steven, 1948-49 Independence and Catastrophe.