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Post by Diarist on Mar 21, 2017 1:38:46 GMT 1
18 Jan.
After stops at Gibraltar and Malta we finally arrived at Alexandria this morning. We were greeted by LG George Weir, G.O.C. British Troops in Egypt, then we flew to RAF Ramleh near Tel Aviv with the assurance that he we would support us in any way he can. Didn't anybody tell him that we are not part of his command? Tel Aviv is on the coast and is about 40km NW of Jerusalem. Our Area of Operations (AO) is the ancient provinces of Judea and Samaria which was the central region of the former united Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BC. On the succession of Solomon's son, Rehoboam, in c. 930 BC the biblical account reports that the country split into two kingdoms; the Kingdom of Israel (including the cities of Shechem and Samaria) in the north and the Kingdom of Judah (containing Jerusalem) in the south.
20 Jan.
Since the infantry battalions of my 5th Armoured Brigade are only cadres the unit is at about 15% strength. There aren't enough vehicles for the full brigade but at the moment the 'pocket' brigade is 100% mobile and I am using it to conduct reconnaissance in the AO. Today I was confronted with a major problem. A lot of 5th Infantry Division's equipment is being taken by General Weir's troops on its way to Palestine. They are arguing that 5th I.D was part of British Troops in Egypt while 5th Armoured Division isn't. A couple of phone calls from LG Howard arranged for naval transports to pick up the equipment in Tobruk and Bardia then bring it directly to Jaffa. Apparently that's not the only problem were are encountering. Only a quarter of the captured Italian equipment earmarked for Palestine has been received. Much of that captured equipment is near Tobruk (where 5th I.D. troops are) or in Massawa, Eritrea where the 51st Highland is. That equipment will bypass Egypt too.
23 Jan.
Did I mention that we don't have any tanks in our brigade yet. The tanks from the 6th RTC, which was originally assigned to the 15th Infantry Brigade, have been parcelled out amongst units formerly part of 13th and 14th Infantry Brigades. They are now the 9th and 10th Motorized Brigades. They have infantry battalions minus cadres being sent back to England in order to be rebuilt. Yesterday the division received 24 Bren carriers each with a captured Italian 81mm mortar. Since my brigade is lacking firepower I've been tasked to organize a mortar battalion with four companies, each of three platoons with two weapons each. In Italy last year I learned to respect these mortars. With good crews they are very accurate and can fire up to 18 rounds per minute. Unfortunately the mortars I have received don't have crews and the artillery battalions assigned to 5th Infantry Division are still in Libya along with most of the support units.
One last thing is that Orde Wingate introduced me to the Irgun guy called Ignaz. I don't know what you wrote in the letter you gave me but he has promised to show my people around. Irvine is doing fine. He's made it his pet project to get the mortar battalion operational ASAP. As you can imagine the Rhineland Crisis and the demise of Hitler has been a BIG story here in Palestine. Orde tells me that the Grand Mufti is running out of friends in Europe. Also the Jewish leadership was very interested when he told them that the people who are planning the operation here also planned the operations against Mussolini and Hitler.
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Post by Diarist on May 11, 2017 9:43:09 GMT 1
25 Jan
We received some more Italian equipment, mostly infantry weapons, and a lot of it is not in good condition. There are twenty cases of hand grenades most of it more then 10 years old. I had some tested and they worked satisfactorily - big surprise. About 25% of the rifles and LMGs are unserviceable so I gave them to the Irgun who cannibalize them and used the components to create serviceable firearms. Amazingly the ceasefire is working. By the way, it's no longer a secret here. There have been a few incidents but nothing worth mentioning.
27 Jan
We are preparing for a mission. The German who changed sides last month (Hans Döhle) has been talking a lot and Orde Wingate tells me that they enough information to strike at a new anti-Jewish group formed around remnants of the Black Hand. I've created a support company for Orde's joint Parachute Battalion. They have a dozen carriers with twin Bren LMGs mounted to support a perimeter around the target. Mortars are useless for this mission in an urban environment. More next time.
28 Jan
We had a division dinner yesterday evening - mandatory for all officers with LG Howard as guest of honour. Although it had been announced that it would be in Jerusalem we actually met in Tel Aviv for security reasons. Long live disinformation. Irvine knew many of the officers from the Libyan campaign last September so he had worked on his Austrian-German background. I didn't need to tell him not wear his Blue Max although he did wear his Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class which he received in 1915 on the West Front in France. I also had medals from France (Croix de Guerre, 1918) and the Médal Militaire from the Italian campaign last year. I had always believed that General Howard knew my background but he was really surprised to hear my war history. We had a good evening.
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Post by Diarist on Jul 26, 2017 4:53:02 GMT 1
01 Feb
Tonight we intend raiding a few houses in a settlement NE of Ramallah. We have information that this anti-Jewish group have received a large shipment of arms and ammunition. Our Arab colleagues will be conducting the raid while my support group will form a perimeter around the settlement together with infantry from the 3rd Bn, The Cameronians. We shall be moving out just after midnight in order to be in position NLT 0330.
02 Feb
The raid itself was very unspectacular. A few flares were dropped above the settlement and the raiding party moved in. It was all over within 30 seconds with hardly a shot being fired. Five minutes later an armed group tried to pass through our perimeter east of the settlement. After a brief firefight the group suffered 8 dead and 7 wounded, 4 other others were taken prisoner. We had no casualties. A platoon from Arab paras arrived half an hour later and promply executed the captured militants explaining that they don't take prisoners. During the morning the settlement was thoroughly searched and I've been told that wherever arms were found all the adult males in the family were taken away and executed. The remaining Palestinians are being escorted to the border with Syria. The settlement will be given to the Jewish forces. Apparently this will be the modus operandi for all future operations.
04 Feb
COL O'Connor, Irvine and I attended a meeting at Orde Wingate's HQ in Jerusalem this morning. The raid had secured 769 rifles of various designs mainly of Turkish origin. 120,000 rounds of ammunition as well as 240 hand grenades were also seized. All in all a very successful raid. No mention was made of the 'rebels' and no questions were asked. Later we had lunch at the Officers Casino in the King David Hotel. LG Howard joined us for a while and congratulated us. Valuable intelligence information had also been found so further raids will follow shortly. On the way back to Tel Aviv Ritchie O'Connor told us that the rebels aren't soldiers therefore the Geneva Conventions don't apply here.
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