6 minute read
Forgotten Heroes
Forgotten Her es Fighting the Egyptians
By Avi Heiligman
Advertisement
Israeli soldiers in Nirim Kibbutz members at a military briefing at Yad Mordechai
Throughout the thousands of years of Egyptian history, their army made them a world power. The Egyptians were able to flex their military might using tactics, weapons, and machinery never seen before on the battlefield. In the past century, tanks became the new chariots, and aircraft roamed the skies where bows and arrows were once commonplace. Still, against formidable odds, Israel has been successful in battle against the Egyptians on several occasions going back to the 1940s.
The Sinai Desert and Nile River defenses were once almost-impenetrable barriers to many invaders. From 1882 until 1947, Egypt had been under British influence and participated in World War I and broke ties with Germany in World War II. Despite his own advisors being against a war with the new country, Egypt’s King Farouk decided to join the other Arab nations in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. The Israelis were, ultimately, victorious.
There were a few little-known battles early in the war that are worthy of being mentioned in that they were vital to Israel’s defense strategy.
On the first day of the war, May 15, 1948 a few dozen Haganah soldiers and kibbutz members defeated a much larger Egyptian force of over 500 soldiers in the Battle of Nirim. Near the Israel-Egyptian border, Nirim was mainly made up of wooden and tin shacks with a guardhouse made out of concrete. It lay on a main road and, together with Kfar Darom, was a target for the advancing Egyptian forces. Armed with just 34 rifles and machine guns and a 52mm mortar, they would be facing armored vehicles, artillery, and aircraft from the Egyptian 6th Battalion.
The battle began at 7 a.m. with an artillery bombardment from the Egyptian column that severed Israeli communication lines. Communications were soon restored. Egyptian soldiers then came out of the vehi-
cles, and as they got closer to the fences, the Israelis opened accurate fire. The attack was driven back, and the Egyptians lost 35 soldiers. At 12:30 p.m. the retreat began, although the kibbutz continued to receive artillery fire for two more days. Seven Israeli defenders including Holocaust survivor Rivka Salzman were killed.
The victory against stacked odds early on in the war gave the rest of the new country vigor to withstand other “against the odds” attacks.
Another early battle in the war took place at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, located four miles south of Ashkelon near the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians were attacking in force, stretching the Palamch/IDF forces to the limit. On May 18, they were only able to send twenty soldiers to the area when the commander of Yad Mordechai said he expected an attack within a few hours.
The Egyptians sent a force of
10,000 soldiers under Major General Ahmad Ali al-Mwawi, and he split his force into two detachments. One was sent towards Jerusalem, and the other worked their way up the coast in the direction of Tel Aviv. On the way, they bypassed several small kibbutzim and towns, but Yad Mordechai was just too strong to leave alone. They had been repulsed at Kfar Darom and Nirim, and so they were better prepared for a fight when they attacked Yad Mordechai on May 19.
There were 130 defenders, including twenty women with an assortment of light weapons, a medium machine gun and a British-built PIAT anti-tank weapon. They were up against 2,500 heavily armed Egyptians who had tanks, artillery and air support.
Early in the morning of May 19, the Egyptians opened up on Yad Mordechai with an artillery and air barrage and then sent in the infantry. The water tower was hit. A pillbox posted at a corner of the kibbutz was the focus of the Egyptian attacks on the first day. The pillbox withstood repeated attacks but had to be evacuated after taking a direct hit. The Egyptian advance was halted as they had sustained heavy casualties.
During the night, the Israeli defenders collected abandoned rifles and ammunition. For the next three days, the Egyptians had a number of attacks repulsed by the outnumbered Israelis. The Egyptians made the tactical mistake of not sending in the infantry immediately after repeated artillery barrages. This allowed the Israeli defenders to maintain a cohesive fighting unit despite suffering casualties. On May 21, the Palmach sent 30 men as reinforcements, along with another PIAT anti-tank weapon and three machine guns. Included in this contingent were six soldiers who had deserted the British Army to
The children in Yad Mordechai were evacuated by these improvised armored cars only hours before the Egyptian attack Bronze figures representing the battle at Yad Mordechai
help Israel in her most critical hour. On May 23, the Egyptians launched a diversionary assault to mask a larger force attacking the main defensive perimeter. They succeeded in getting a tank behind the lines, but the IDF soon knocked it out of action. By this time, Israeli casualties included 49 wounded and 23 dead – about half of the fighting forces. The decision was made to evacuate the kibbutz under cover of darkness. A small mobile Palmach unit called the Negev Beasts managed to reach Yad Mordechai on the night of May 23 and evacuated most of the wounded and women. Everyone else escaped by foot, including two stretcher-bearers carrying a wounded soldier. The three men were caught by the Egyptians and murdered. This brought the number of slain Israelis to 26. Unaware of the evacuation, the Egyptians continued shelling the deserted settlement for four hours.
While they now occupied Yad Mordechai, the Egyptians lost valuable time and resources. They had lost 300-400 well trained soldiers and had been delayed five days during which the newly formed Israeli Defense Force was able to send reinforcements. The IDF had time to form a defensive perimeter near Tel Aviv. The Israel army later recaptured Yad Mordechai during Operation Yoav.
The defense of the kibbutzim in the south had sufficiently scared the Egyptian high command into not attacking the main cities and to only cut off the Negev from the rest of the country (which failed as well).
These settlers were attacked by regular armies, and most of the time they were outmanned and outgunned. Against all odds, the defenders of these towns valiantly held off Egyptian forces and helped to give the Israeli army time to protect its land.
Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.
STOP
paying too much for car insurance.
LPG INSURANCE
IS AN AGENCY OF
