Operation Nachschon

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Castel battle area

The Operation Nachshon was a military operation of the Hagana in April 1948 in order during the Israeli War of Independence , the supply routes for Jewish convoys to the besieged Jerusalem to open. The operation was named after the biblical person Nachschon Ben Aminadab , who is said to have been the first to cross the divided Red Sea when he left Egypt . In Yiddish , “Nachshon” is used as a term or designation for someone who goes ahead and takes the initiative . The Operation Nachshon was in many ways premiere . It was the first action of the Hagana in brigade strength (albeit a very small brigade with 1500 men), all previous actions were in company strength. It was also the first offensive operation with the aim of conquering and controlling Arab territory and thus creating a better strategic position for defense. Previous Hagana operations have been defensively focused on defending Jewish territories.

prehistory

After the Partition Plan of the United Nations for the British Mandate of 29 November 1947, the anti-Jewish Arab riots in number and intensity rose sharply. Even long-standing Jewish settlements, which were previously in good neighborhood with Arab towns, have now been victims of attacks and displacement. As a result of Arab territorial gains, Jewish settlements were lost to the yishuv or became enclaves , as the main connecting roads mostly ran through Arab-controlled areas. Due to the blockades , Jewish convoys were only able to get through to the villages with great effort and sacrifice. A British report to the UN of January 16, 1948 recorded a total of 1,974 people killed or injured for the period from November 30, 1947 to January 10, 1948.

The same fate threatened the Jewish part of Jerusalem with a total of around 100,000 inhabitants. The Jewish Quarter in the Old City was already an enclave after the Armenian Quarter was captured by the Mufti's army and all connections between the Jewish Quarter and the New Town were under Arab control. The new town was surrounded by Arab territory to the north, east and south, and the narrow connection to the west was increasingly blocked by marauding Arab groups. Even Jewish convoys secured with sandwich armored vehicles reached Jerusalem with high losses, and the convoys were often completely wiped out.

The Dalet Plan had been drawn up since November 1947 in order to ensure a military survival for the designated Jewish state after the withdrawal of the British mandate. In it, the security of the Jewish area according to the partition plan was worked out, as well as the protection of Jewish settlements outside of the Jewish state. So the plan was basically defensive in nature. However, the at least temporary occupation of enemy bases in the vicinity of the border outside the future state borders was planned, combined with military cleansing or - if hostility persists - destruction and displacement. The Palestinian side therefore sees the Dalet plan as the basis for systematic displacement and ethnic cleansing of Arab villages.

The implementation of Plan Dalet was only planned for when the British had left the country. Due to the threatening siege of the Jewish Jerusalem, David Ben Gurion made the decision at the end of March 1948 to integrate Operation Nachshon as the first action in Plan Dalet and to bring forward the implementation of Plan Dalet. To this end, several companies were withdrawn from other conflict zones, which meant a weakening of the Jewish position there, especially the isolated Jewish settlements in Arab areas. Ben Gurion took this risk because of the special historical, religious and symbolic importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish world. He feared that a premature loss of Jerusalem would have a very negative effect on the morale of the Jewish soldiers in the expected war of independence .

Timeframe

Different dates are given for the time frame of Operation Nachschon. Depending on the type of reading, the beginning is set on April 1st, 1948 (the day of the armament), or on the first attacks on Ramla and Castel in the night of April 2nd to 3rd. Others ignore the preparations and date the start of the operation on April 5 or 6, when the first convoy broke through.

The end is dated April 8/9 (securing the road), April 12 (end of active fighting) or April 20 (renewed blockade of the road to Jerusalem).

course

In late March 1948, David Ben Gurion decided to start Plan Dalet early with Operation Nachshon. As commander of the operation was Shimon Avidan used, the general of the Givati Brigade , whose real job was to protect Jewish settlements in the south. Since the armament of the operation was inadequate and the arrival of the Nora with the arms delivery from Czechoslovakia was delayed for an unknown period, Ben Gurion ordered an arms transport by air. A Skymaster transport aircraft arrived with Operation Hasida on April 1, and the Nora reached the port of Tel Aviv on the same day .

Another threat to the preparations for Operation Nachshon was the battle-tested “Arab Army” of Mufti Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , which was commanded by Hasan Salama in the Ramle and Lydda area . To deprive Salama of his clout, his headquarters in Ramla was blown up on the night of April 3rd. In this way, the further preparations in the coastal plain could be advanced safely.

Another preparatory measure was the capture of the hill of Castel at the eastern end of the mountain road by a Hagana group from Jerusalem. In fierce battles Castel was conquered alternately by Jews and Arabs in the following days, until it was finally captured by the Palmach on April 9, by coincidences that were extremely fortunate for the Jews . At the same time, dissident groups from Irgun and Lechi attacked Deir Yassin , but this was not part of Operation Nachshon or Plan Dalet. However, the effects of the massacre, especially the psychological shock for the Arab population, had a significant impact on the further course of the Palestine War.

In Tel Aviv on April 5, the “Nakhchon Brigade” was assembled with 1,500 soldiers who were intended to secure the road to Jerusalem and to reinforce the Jewish troops in Jerusalem. At the same time, a convoy of private delivery vans and trucks as well as municipal vehicles and Egged buses was put together and loaded with urgently needed goods, food, weapons and ammunition for Jerusalem. On the night of April 6, the first convoy with around 65 vehicles started for Jerusalem, while the Nakhchon brigade carried out the military part of the operation: Since attacks on Jewish convoys from some of the surrounding Arab locations in the past, the plan became Dalet accordingly the Arab towns of Hulda, Deir Muhsein, Beit Mahsir and the abandoned British base Wadi al Sarrar were taken. In contrast, Arab villages that did not take part in the attacks and showed no anti-Jewish behavior, such as Abu Gosh , were spared . The capture of hostile locations that posed a threat to the Jewish supply routes to Jerusalem was subsequently continued with further operations. Most recently, the Jews controlled the Arab villages of Castel, Deir Muhsein, Hulda, Deir Yassin, Saydun, Saris, Kalunia, Beit Naqquba, Beit Mahsir, Kirbat Bayt Far, Deir Ayyub, Wadi Hunayn and Beit Tul.

The securing of the road to Jerusalem and the valley continued until April 12th, after which the Hagana ruled the area. From a military point of view, Operation Nakhon was thus a success. The goals for the supply of Jerusalem, however, could not be achieved, instead of the targeted 3000 tons of supplies, only 1800 tons could be brought into the city.

consequences

By April 20, 1948, a total of about 335 vehicles in five convoys had managed to pass the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and bring supplies as well as weapons and ammunition to Jerusalem. On April 20, the last convoy reached Jerusalem, including David Ben Gurion and Jitzchak Rabin . But the convoy was ambushed and most of the vehicles were lost. Immediately afterwards, the Arabs, led by Emile Ghory , succeeded in making the road at Bab el Wad finally impassable with boulders. Ghory was the successor to Al-Husseini, who had fallen at Castel, as the leader of the Arab troops. This closed the Arab siege ring around Jewish Jerusalem again, and traffic from and to Jerusalem was still possible for Arabs and British via the road via Ramallah, which ran further north through Arab territory.

In three attacks, the Jews tried to take the police station in Latrun and thus break the blockade on Bab el Wad again. Due to a lack of military training, a lack of experience and communication difficulties, they were defeated by the Arab occupation of Latrun under the direction of the Jordanian Arab Legion , and after major losses had to break off the attacks. Instead, an alternative road running further south through Jewish territory around Latrun and Bab el Wad, the Burma Road , was built in record time .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ IDF ( Memento of January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Giv'ati Brigade ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Jewish Virtual Library @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
  3. ↑ a b Chronology 1948 at AlNakba.org
  4. ↑ Jewishmag.com
  5. ↑ plan Dalet in MidEastWeb.org
  6. ↑ a b Operation Nachshon at the Jewish Virtual Library
  7. ^ Jerusalem History
  8. ↑ a b Operation Nachschon at Zionism-Israel.com
  9. ↑ a b Cosmos.ucc.ie
  10. ^ Collins / Lapierre: O Jerusalem
  11. ↑ http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Bab-el-wad.htm

literature