Back Aa

With the Judæans in the Palestine Campaign

<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> <div class="center">The Nablus Front.</div> On the 17th July we were transferred to the 60th Division and attached to one of its Brigades. We were very sorry to leave the 10th Division, for we had made many good friends all round, and our Divisional and Brigade Commanders had always treated us fairly and justly. On the evil day of our transfer a fatal accident befell Lieutenant B. Wolffe. He was in charge of the transport wagons and was engaged in loading up supplies at the Ordnance Depôt. The drivers were, of course, dismounted and standing by their teams while the work of loading was going ahead. A sudden noise frightened one of the teams, and off the four horses careered at a mad gallop. They were heading straight for some troops standing near, and Lieutenant Wolffe, seeing this, made a gallant attempt to stop them by springing at the heads of the leaders as they dashed past. Unfortunately they were going too fast for him, and he was dragged under their feet, the wagon passing over his body. I visited him in hospital, as did also our Chaplain and others, and we cheered him up as much as possible, but he died on the 20th, and his death cast a gloom over the[80] whole battalion, for he was a most conscientious officer, a good Jew, and well liked by all ranks. He was buried with full Jewish rites, a "Minyan" from the battalion attending. The Commander-in-Chief in General Orders eulogised the gallant attempt which he made when he sacrificed his own life in his plucky effort to save others. On the 24th July I was requested by Dr. Weizmann to bring a representative party of officers and men of the battalion to a most interesting ceremony at Jerusalem—the laying of the foundation stones of the Hebrew University On Mount Scopus. In the days of her past greatness the law was expounded at Jerusalem. It is quite possible that again, even in our own days, we shall hear a message of peace and goodwill issue forth from the Temple of Learning overlooking the Holy City. The site chosen for the building is a magnificent one. It looks down on the domes and minarets of Jerusalem on the one side, and, on the other, overlooks the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, with the green hills of Moab looming in the distance. The ceremony itself was a most interesting one. The Commander-in-Chief was present; also all the civil and religious heads of the Jewish, Christian, and Moslem communities, while a vast multitude of people of all creeds thronged along the slopes of Scopus from Jerusalem—a seemingly good omen for future peace and concord. It was a truly inspiring and historic occasion, and augured well for the future greatness of the University. Stones were laid by the Christian Bishop in[81] Jerusalem and by the Mufti (the Chief Mohammedan dignitary). One was also laid by Dr. Weizmann in the name of the Jewish Regiment, while what perhaps appealed to me most of all was the part taken by Jewish children in laying a stone representing the Hope of Israel. On my return to the Battalion I found the Headquarters encamped in a pretty grove of olives on the Inniskilling Road, some two miles behind the firing line. While we were here our Chaplain, the Rev. L. A. Falk, one day discovered a red granite column embedded in the side of a hill. This we unearthed and, on measuring it, found that it was about 12 feet high and about 2 feet in diameter. We erected it in our camp in a grove of olive trees. I much perturbed our good Rabbi by chaffingly suggesting to him that we had been erecting an altar to Baal, in a grove, in one of the high places! Our find got noised abroad, and the Governor of Jerusalem, Colonel Storrs, with his assistant, Lord William Percy, motored out from Jerusalem to see it. They had lunch with us, and I was delighted to note that Lord William Percy took a keen interest in preserving the fauna of Palestine, and had induced General Allenby to impose strict limitations on the shooting of birds and beasts. Our transfer to the 60th Division did not, for the time at least, result in any change in our position in the line, but, almost from the moment we joined the new Brigade, we felt the hostility shown towards all things Jewish by the Brigade Commander. I endeavoured to counter his prejudice against the battalion, during a friendly after-dinner[82] chat, by pointing out the immense debt we owed to the "People of the Book" for all they have done towards civilising and humanizing the world for thousands of years. During their struggle for existence through centuries of exile, in countries where every form of torture and repression had been in vogue against them, they never lost their age-long Hope of a Restoration. The General seemed, like many others, to have a very vague idea as to the aim of the Zionists, which is simply to establish a National Home in Palestine where Jewish life, rooted in its own soil, would have an opportunity of developing on modern lines, in accordance with its own ideals. I gave the Brigadier some new ideas on Jews, but all my eloquence was in vain, for I failed to convert him, and he hinted that I was only wasting my time by being mixed up with a Jewish unit! But although the Brigadier was right in one way when he said "You will get nothing out of it," yet in another way he was altogether wrong, for I have got a very great deal out of my service with this Jewish Battalion. I have had the satisfaction of proving that, in spite of all obstacles placed in its path, this new unit showed that it was worthy of the best traditions of the Maccabæans, those doughty Jewish soldiers who, on many a well-fought field, defeated the legions of Antiochus and freed Judæa from a foreign yoke. But it is not by fighting alone that a good battalion is proved, and the Jewish unit was tested in many ways as this record will show. There was no respite from such work as digging trenches, building stone sangars, and constructing roads[83] along the hill-sides, by day and by night; nevertheless, every soldierly duty allotted was carried out cheerfully and promptly. The rumour which had got abroad about the attack on the Turkish trenches opposite our front now crystallised into definite shape, and the actual date of the attack was often hinted at. A few days before the assault was to take place our Brigadier gave us the special job of making stone emplacements, almost within sight of the Turks, just above the village of Jiljilia, and as we fondly hoped we would have a place in the assaulting column, all hands worked with a will, especially our two Christian Lithuanians, Stenelus and Sterilitis; these men amazed the British gunners by the ease with which they placed huge blocks of stone in position—all done by sheer strength of muscle combined with hearty good will. This particular piece of work was under the supervision of Major Neill, and, as it had to be done in record time, his task was no easy one, but, fortunately for him and his Company, the Turks never spotted what was going on, and before we left these parts Major Neill saw the guns safely emplaced without suffering a single casualty. All this stone work on the steep sides of a hill, coupled with heavy marching to and fro, and scrambling up and down, was not good for the men's clothing, which soon got worn, ragged and dirty. A false step on a slippery slope meant that the seat of a man's flimsy shorts was rent asunder, and it was quite usual to see the tail of a shirt hanging out! Yet, no matter how ragged and disreputable-looking[84] the men were, I found it impossible to get any renewal of clothing, although it was freely handed out to other units. It seemed as if it were a joy to some people to be able to withhold necessary articles of clothing, such as shirts, boots, socks, shorts, etc., and keep the men working on dirty jobs, and then say with glee, "Look at the ragged dirty Jews." It must be remembered that we could not obtain enough water even to wash our faces, for every drop had to be carried up the precipitous sides of the hills on camels as far as they could clamber, and then by mules and donkeys up the steeper parts. Often there was a shortage of the precious fluid even for tea-making. I wrote urgent letters again and again, and protested that the men were unfit to march for want of shoes, and that many of them were actually exposing their nakedness for want of clothing. I sent my Quartermaster, Lieutenant Smythe, day after day, to the Ordnance Stores trying to extract necessary articles, but all in vain! We were nobody's children, and consequently we could get nothing. I saw the Brigadier, and represented to him that in many cases our men were ragged, shirtless, sockless, and bootless, but if he made any representations on our behalf there was no result. Had we belonged to a Brigade instead of being merely "attached" most of our troubles would never have arisen, but the policy adopted by the local Staff was to keep us as "wandering Jews," pitched from one Brigade to another, in a continuous round of General Post. [85] It was a heart-breaking experience as any soldier will understand. At last I rode over to my old Gallipoli friend, Colonel O'Hara, who was on the Staff of the 10th Division, and he, like the good soldier that he is, helped me out of my difficulty as far as it lay in his power. What a difference it makes when one meets a good Staff Officer! Not nearly enough care is given to the task of selecting the right men for this all-important branch of the Army. They are too often selected for any reason except the right one, viz., efficiency. The Brigade to which we were attached was fortunate in having at least one good Staff Officer. The Brigade Major was a thoroughly capable soldier, and always out to help in every way in his power. The Brigadier often caused me much inward amusement by pointedly appealing in my presence to the judgment of a certain Colonel X, an officer junior to me, who was in command of a section on our right. If I had a sangar built which commanded a good field of fire, it was sure to be found fault with, and another had to be built in a site chosen by their joint wisdom. One night the gallant Brigadier came across the spot where I had my outlook post established; he thought it was in the wrong place, of course, and consulted his friend, Colonel X, as to where it should be. "Don't you think it ought to be on the top of this house?" said the General. The Colonel climbed to the top of the house, gazed round in the inky darkness, came down again, and said he quite agreed with the[86] General, as all good, well-trained Colonels, with an eye to the main chance, invariably do! I was then ordered to put the outlook on the top of the house, which had a flat roof, where a man would be seen by every Turk for miles round! Needless to say, I never placed an observer in this absurd position. Just about this time one of my men, quite a youth, was found asleep at his post, and as this is about the most serious crime of which a sentry can be guilty, he was tried by General Court Martial and sentenced to death. A few days later a telegram came from the Provost Marshal ordering me to send the condemned man under strong escort, with two senior non-commissioned officers, to the prisoners' compound some distance away. I feared that the unfortunate lad would be shot at dawn, and as I knew he had been working exceedingly hard, day and night, for 48 hours before he was found asleep at his post, and was of good character and very young, I determined to try to save him. I therefore sent a private wire to General Allenby asking him on these grounds to reprieve him. My friend the Brigadier saw the wire before it was despatched and stopped it. However, one of my men in the Signal Office told me of this, so I immediately wrote a confidential letter to General Allenby, gave it to a motor-cyclist, and sent him off post haste to G.H.Q., some thirty miles away, telling him to ride for all he was worth, as a man's life hung on his speed. I am glad to say that not only did General Allenby[87] reprieve the man and reduce the sentence to a certain number of years' imprisonment, but he suspended even that punishment, provided the man proved himself worthy of forgiveness by doing his duty faithfully in the battalion. The young soldier returned to us overjoyed and full of gratitude for his release. He proved himself worthy in every respect, and was never afterwards called upon to do a day's imprisonment. Not satisfied with having held up the wire, the Brigadier motored some miles away to report the matter to the Divisional General, Sir John Shea. I was duly haled before the General, not knowing for what reason, until he said, "You know you will get yourself into trouble if you go sending telegrams direct to the Commander-in-Chief." It then dawned on me for the first time why I had been sent for. I explained all the circumstances to the General, and said that, in such an emergency, I felt justified in what I had done. Besides, I said, I had not addressed the Commander-in-Chief as such, but as General Allenby, an officer whom I had known for many years. I also confessed that, when I found that the wire had been blocked, I had immediately written a letter of appeal to General Allenby, and had sent it off by a special cyclist despatch rider. The General pretended to be so horrified at this that he needed a cocktail to revive him—in which I may add he asked me to join him. I do not know what he thought of the Brigadier's action, but I can leave the reader to imagine what I thought of it! [88] A few days later, when I was breakfasting with General Shea, I was much amused when he told me that when he was at home his children insisted on his reading a lion story to them every evening out of "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo"! From the frequent consultations between the Brigadier and his friend Colonel X I felt that something was on foot, but little realised that it was a matter which, if carried out, would strike a blow at the very identity of the Jewish Battalions. This, however, soon became evident. Shortly after my interview with the Divisional General I was called to the telephone to speak to the Brigadier, who said, apparently with great satisfaction, "I want to tell you that your Battalion and the 39th Battalion (which was then on its way up from Egypt) are to be brigaded with two West Indian Battalions, and you are to be placed under the command of Colonel X, who is now a General and has come to live near my camp. You will find General X a very nice man." I thanked the Brigadier for his interesting information and hung up the receiver. It was now clearly my duty to stop this second attempt to destroy the identity of the Jewish Battalions in Palestine or resign my command. It was no easy task to achieve, because our good friends had worked underground all the time, and sprang this surprise upon me only when it became an accomplished fact; Colonel X had actually been appointed to the command, a Brigade Major and a Staff Captain had been posted to the new Brigade, while the transport and[89] ordnance section of the formation had been already organized and sent to Jericho. The Staff at G.H.Q. had, of course, arranged the whole affair, and it would be no easy task to get the Commander-in-Chief to countermand the Brigade formation. I felt that a very firm stand must be taken if this blow aimed at Jewish prestige was to be averted. I accordingly wrote a strong letter direct to General Allenby, pointing out that, if such a scheme were carried out, it would involve very grave issues. The Adjutant-General at the War Office had promised that the Jewish Battalions would be formed into a Jewish Brigade, and to depart from this declared policy would be looked upon as a direct slight, both by the Jewish Battalions and by Jewry the world over. Loth as I was to worry the Commander-in-Chief, I considered it my duty to him, to my men, to myself, and to Jewry to see that Jewish interests were not trampled upon without a protest while I retained command. I requested therefore that the orders should be cancelled, and, if not, that I should be relieved of my command. That my attitude on this question was correct was proved by the receipt of a most friendly reply from General Allenby, in which he thanked me for my letter and said: <blockquote> I see the undesirability of brigading Jewish with West Indian Battalions, and I have decided not to do so. I shall form a provisional Brigade of the two Jewish Battalions until a complete Jewish Brigade can be formed, and they will be under you. </blockquote> [90] The whole tone of this letter showed that the C.-in-C. had been badly advised by his Staff in this attempted amalgamation of the Jewish with the West Indian Battalions. A few hours after I had received General Allenby's communication a wire came from G.H.Q. cancelling all the orders which had already been issued with regard to the formation of the new Brigade. Thus I won the second round in my fight for fair play for the Jewish Battalions and Jewish ideals generally. I realized that my stand for justice would be bitterly resented by certain individuals at G.H.Q., and that, sooner or later, I would be penalised for having upset their attempted little coup. <hr class="chap" /> [91] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2

Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.