Battle of Mischmar HaEmek
The Battle of Mishmar HaEmek took place between troops of the Hagana in the Palestine War and units of the Arab Liberation Army from April 4th to 15th. April 1948. The Hagana managed to hold the kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek along the road between Haifa and Jenin and to force the Arab troops to retreat. In doing so, they expelled large parts of the Arab population from the surrounding villages.
background
The Arab Liberation Army under Fausi al-Kawukdschi had been operating in the mandate area since December 1947, but had no success to report. Al-Kawukdschi had assured the British High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham that he would not carry out any attacks until the withdrawal of the last British troops in May 1948. In February, an attack by the Arab Liberation Army on kibbutz Tirat Zvi with 60 dead on the Arab side failed .
course
On April 4, 1948, the artillery of the Arab Legion opened fire with seven 75 mm and 105 mm cannons. This was the first use of artillery in the Palestine War to date. Al-Kawukdschi had brought in around 1,000 infantrymen. The artillery strike destroyed most of the kibbutz's buildings over time. The children of the settlement were housed in a cave for protection. A system of ditches had been created by the Hagana for defense. The local guards ( Cheil Mischmar ) of the kibbutz were able to repel the following infantry attacks. A small number of the kibbutz members died as a result of the fighting.
The Hagana managed to infiltrate a company of the Alexandroni Brigade into the kibbutz during the night of April 4th and 5th while artillery fire was still on. Al-Kawukdschi meanwhile officially declared the Jewish armed forces at Mishmar ha-Emek to be defeated.
On April 6, a British armored column reached the vicinity of the kibbutz. British troops evacuated the wounded, as did the children and most of the women of the kibbutz. This had already happened during the Arab Revolt of 1936–1939. To what extent the British Army acted through diplomacy or sheer threats is debatable. Meanwhile there was a diplomatic exchange between the two commanders-in-chief of the battle, Kawukdschi and Sadeh. At first, Kawukji demanded the disarming of the Jewish troops. When this was rejected, he offered the prospect of a withdrawal of his army if the Hagana gave guarantees for the neighboring Arab villages. The Hagana then demanded the withdrawal of the troops and financial compensation for the damage caused.
On April 5, David Ben Gurion reached a delegation from the kibbutz. This, consisting of local Mapam activists, advised him to do ethnic cleansing of the surrounding Arab villages. Ben Gurion agreed the following day. During the armistice, the 1st Battalion of the Palmach and a number of companies of the Carmeli and Alexandroni Brigade infiltrated the kibbutz and the surrounding area. Subsequently, the troops of the Hagana went on the offensive. They managed to force around 2,000 soldiers from the Arab Liberation Army to retreat. The last village marked for eviction was captured on April 15th.
consequences
Fausi al-Kawukdschi, who announced on April 8th that Mishmar HaEmek was in Arab hands, withdrew with the majority of his troops to Lebanon. He deployed individual units, especially artillery, to the fighting for Jerusalem. He himself stayed outside Palestine until the end of the war. Many of his soldiers were drafted into the Syrian army after the Arab states officially entered the war after the British withdrawal. The Hagana had thus thrown the best-armed irregular unit on the Arab side out of the war. The route from Haifa to Jenin also remained under their control.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven et al. a. 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9 , pp. 90, 133-138.
- ↑ a b Kenneth Pollack: Arabs at War. military effectiveness, 1948-1991. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2004, ISBN 0-8032-8783-6 , pp. 449f.