Battle of Latroun (1948)

The battles of Latroun refers to 6 attacks carried out by the Israeli forces on the buttresses of Latroun the May 25th, May 30th, June 9th, and between July 16th and 18th 1948 during the First War Israeli-Arab.

In May 1948, the position of Latroun controlled the single road which connected Jerusalem to Israel, which conferred to him a major strategic importance in the context of the battle for the city.

None of the 6 attacks made it possible the Israeli forces to take the position which remained under Jordanian control until the Guerre the six day old. The historians estimate today that the attacks showed 168 Israeli victims. Jerusalem could however be supplied by the fortuitous discovery of a way making it possible to avoid Latroun and named Route of Burma which was arranged for the passage of convoys.

The Battle of Latroun marked the imaginary Israeli and constitutes one of the myths founders of this nation. If the battle and in particular the first attack, were bloodiest of all the war, the number of its victims swelled in the accounts to reach the figure of 2000 dead. It also took a value symbolic system of share the " participation; héroïque" surviving immigrants of Shoah and a foreign volunteer, the American colonel David Marcus, highest graded Tsahal at the time of the war, and which was accidentally killed by a friendly Tir.

The battle of Latroun was also the object of many polemics in Israel as for its utility, with the conflict between David Ben Gourion and Yigal Yadin about it and with the responsibilities and the causes of its tactical failure. It symobilisa also in the Seventies the difficulty of integration of the new immigrants in Israel.

Today, the site is a military museum for the armor-plated bodies and a memorial of the war.

Context and stakes

Voir article details: Civil war of 1947-1948 in Palestine agent

Voir article details: Israeli-Arab War of 1948-1949

Israeli-Arab war

Following the vote of the Plane of division in November 1947, the civil war bursts in Palestine. The situation in which the Jewish community of Jerusalem is constitutes one of the weak points of the Yichouv and a major concern as of its authorities. Cash nearly 100.000 people, that is to say 1/6 of the total Jewish population of Palestine, the city is indeed insulated in the middle of the territory under Arab control.

As of January, in the context of the war of the roads , the Jihad Al-Muqadas of Abdel Kader Al-Husseini besieges the city by preventing the passage of the convoys of supply between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. At the end of March, the tactics paid and the city is actually insulated. The Haganah lance then the Operation Nahshon which allow between the 4 and on April 20th to provide 2 months of supply to the city

In the neighborhoods of the May 15th, the situation in Palestine is chaotic. The Jewish forces and the Arab forces, mainly of the Armée with Arab release clash in all the country. The first took the advantage on the seconds but they also prepare with the announced attack of the Arab States planned for the shortly after the British official departure.

Latroun

The place of Latroun is at 15 km of Jerusalem of dimensioned and 14 km of Ramle and Lydda of the other at the first top of the buttresses of the road of Jerusalem. From its position in height, it dominates the valley of Ayalon and the force which occupies it order the road of Jerusalem. In 1948, it comprises a police station strengthened established beside a monastery Trappiste of the years 1860 and several villages Arab of which that of Latroun.

During the civil war, the police station is occupied by the British forces and in spite of its importance, it is not the subject of any combat. It would have been given to the Arab inhabitants of the zone by the British during their evacuation in February 1948.

Chronology of the events

The missed occasion

The May 8th, the Haganah lance the Operation Maccabée against the Armed with Arab release which re-occupies several villages and place-strong road of Jerusalem. The 5th Guivati brigade (in the west) and the 10th Harel brigade (in the east) are committed in these engagements. During the 10 days which follow, several positions change hands.

In Latroun even, the Arab forces positioned around the police station and village neighborhood in the indifference of the British.

At the time of the confusion which reigns the all last days of the British mandate and with the entry in war of the Arab armies, the position of Latroun will change hands apart from any combat.

First of all, to the neighborhoods of on May 14th, order is given to Fawzi Al-Qawuqji and its forces of the Army of release to withdraw and leave the place to the Arab Légion. This departure is carried out before the arrival of the Jordanian troops with Latroun and the position is held more only by 200 irregular.

The May 15th in the morning, a patrol of the Guivati brigade fires some mortar shells on the position from Latroun but without causing of response. The soldiers penetrate then until in the enclosure of the police station and note that the position was abandoned. However, following the advance of the Egyptian army, the Guivati brigade receives the order to redeploy more in the south and the soldiers who have just taken the police station must give up the position in their turn. This decision would have made controversy between Yigal Yadin, the chief of the operations and Yitzhak Rabin, the commander of the Harel brigade, itself redeployed towards Jerusalem.

The May 15th, the Arab Légion enters to Palestine. The task force is composed of:

the 1e brigade under the orders of colonel Goldie who includes/understands the 1e regiment under the orders of the Blackden lieutenant-colonel and the 3rd regiment under the orders of the Newman lieutenant-colonel.
the 3rd brigade under the order of colonel Ashton who includes/understands the 2nd regiment under the orders of Major Slade and the 4th regiment under the orders of the lieutenant colonel Habes Majelli
of 5th and 6th regiments which act in an independent way.

The 1e brigade moves towards Nablus while the 3rd brigade gives an opinion with Ramallah. John Bagot Glubb, the British officer who orders the Legion sends then the 4th regiment to give an opinion with Latroun, Lydda and Ramle which it reaches the May 17th while a company of infantry of the 2nd regiment is sent towards Jerusalem.

It takes several days for the Israeli staff to realize of the exact deployment of the Jordanian forces around Latroun and Jerusalem because those, particularly dreaded, were announced present at several places country, Glubb Pasha sends the 3rd regiment Légion to reinforce it irregular Arabic and to fight the Jewish forces. Violent ones engagements oppose them and the Jewish positions in the Old city of Jerusalem are threatened. (This one will fall on May 28th besides.). Fearing that without provisioning and reinforcements, the city does not completely finish falling, David Ben Gourion gives the order to take the position of Latroun. The decision which seems strategically necessary is politically delicate because Latroun is according to the terms of the Plan of division in the Arab part and thus this attack contrary with the supposed agreements of non-aggression is concluded with the king Abdallah. (see Polemic Ben Gourion - Yadin)

Involved forces

The sources are not clear as for the exact composition of the involved forces. This one been the subject of controversies between historiographies Israeli and Jordanian and of divergences between the various sources. The elements described in this paragraph are based on the stepping of several of them.

Israeli Camp

The task to carry out the operation Bin Nun ( wire of Nun , in reference to the victorious seat of the town of Jericho carried out by the king Josué, also called son of Nun) ! Detailed description |---- |

32e |This battalion of the Alexandroni brigade is placed under the command of Tsvi Guerman.
It adds up 450 men and is composed of 4 companies cash each one approximately 90 veterans having already fought the last 6 months at the time of the civil war. The companies has, B and C are respectively ordered by captains RAM Ron, Asher Lévi and Gershon Landman. One 4th company auxillière is attached to the battalion. Ariel Sharon, then lieutenant and 20 years old, is used under the orders as Lévi as a section head. |---- |71e |This battalion is composed of 541 men, mainly of sabred but it will be placed in reserve and will not take part in the engagements. |---- |72e |Lately formed, this battalion is placed under the orders of Zsvi Hourewitz, old of the special Squadrons of night. |---- |73e |It is about an armor-plated unit placed under the command of Haïm Laskov, old ordering Jewish Brigade and future chief of Staff of Tsahal.
The battalion is composed of 422 combatants of the Palmach whose executives were sent in the south. They have of a score of vehicles covered with sheets and a dozen with half-track vehicles just unloaded. |}

Jordanian Camp

The Jordanian forces are under the orders of the lieutenant-colonel Habes Majelli.

The Arab legion has very reduced losses. On the other hand, the number of losses on the Jewish side is subjected to controversy: Haganah officially admits having lost 75 men, but Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, in their book, think that this number is underestimated, while Benny Morris, in Victimes, Histoire revisited of the conflict arabo-Zionist , thinks on the contrary that this number is overestimated. In the same way, Benny Morris considers that killed on the Juif side were immigrants installed of long time in the country, while for Lapierre and Collins, they was immigrants just made.

Operation Ben Nun Study Bureau (May 30th)

Context

End of May, David Ben Gourion is convinced that the Arab Legion intends to occupy the entirety of Jerusalem. Moreover, with surrounding and the combat, the situation worsens there: the city does not lay out any more a reserve of fuel, bread, sugar and the that for 10 days, and of water for 3 months. Militarily, the 10th Harel fastening is with end of force and Ben Gourion detaches a battalion of the 6th Etzioni brigade to him.

In its eyes, it is imperative that 7th joins the forces of Jerusalem as well as a quota of 400 new recruits to reinforce the 10th brigade the more so as more and more of armament arrived to Israel by the airs as well as of the hunters in spare parts now ready with the combat

Random links: