MANY BRITISH SOLDIERS DESERT FROM PALESTINE FORGES

Grey River Argus, 28 October 1948, Page 3

MANY BRITISH SOLDIERS DESERT FROM PALESTINE FORGES

(From Seaghan, Reuter’s Correspondent).

RHODES (By Airmail). . Dozens of British soldiers and police who deserted from the Security Forces in Palestine to join Arab and Jewish Forces have become so homesick that many of* them are giving themselves up at British Legations to be returned to England, even though, in the case of the soldiers, it means facing a court martial. At one time during the fighting it was estimated that up to one hundred Britons .from the Palestine army and police were fighting with the Arab irregulars in the Judean and Samarian Hills. A much smaller number were said to have joined the Jewish forces, mostly men who deserted with armoured cars for which they received several thousand pounds. Shortly before the British withdrawal from Haifa, three heavy British tanks were stolen and they were driven out to waiting Jews by three British soldiers. One tank which broke down was recovered. The remaining two made their appearance recently with the . Jewish forces attacking Arab Legion positions at Latrun. a . ~ , Reports from Tel Aviv suggest that the deserters there have been reinforced by British “volunteers” who receive large sums for specialised operations. Some of the Britons serving with the Jewish forces have married Jewish . girls. . Reports in the Palestine . Zionist newspapers have always inferred that many hundreds of Britons were fighting with the Arabs and many reports of engagements between Jews and Arabs contained references to British “officers” leading the Arabs and revealing their nationality by shouting commands in English. Only a minute percentage of Arab irregulars understand any English. The Zionist “Palestine Post” recently reported that 400 Britons serving with the irregular leader, Fawzi Pasha Kaukji in northern Palestine had left the irregulars to return to England op join the Arab Legion, hut undoubtedly this figure is a wild exnggercition. . A “combat” group of about twenty police and army deserters had been serving with the Arab guerrilla leader, Abdul Kader Husseini, who was killed during an assault on Mount Castel, a few miles west of Jerusalem before the end of the mandate. This “combat” group, which specialised in making, laying and removing mines and booby traps —Arab irregulars do not like to handle explosives —made theii' headquarters with Abdul Kader Hussemi, a kinsman of the Mufti of Jerusalem, at Beir Zeit, in the Judean Hills less than 20 miles north of Jerusalem. They ate Arab food and wore Arab headdress with their battle-dress. Most of them spoke pidgin Arabic. They formed the spearhead to many of the Arab attacks on fortified settlements and convoys, and formed themselves into mine-detect-ing squads to push ahead of the Arab forces entering any evacuated but heavily booby-trapped settlement. When the Jews evacuated two settlements, Ataroth (beside Kalandia airport) and Neve Yaacov on the main northern highway from Jerusalem, the Arab, irregulars remained on the outskirts until the British squad—of Englishmen, Irishmen, Scots and Welshmen—had lifted and "deloused” the many mines. Most of these men told, me that they had joined the Arab irregulars to avenge the deaths of their friends in the army and police, at the hands of the Jews. Others admit that the glamour of fighting with the free and easy guerrillas in. the hills proved much more attractive than the drabness of army or police' routine. Their casualties, on a comparative basis, have been high. Those known and reported include two killed dismantling a Jewish “barrel bomb” on the Nablus road; four killed m fighting in and around the Arab-held old city of Jerusalem; one killed with Abdul Kadar Husseini at Mount Castel when another Briton was wounded, and a few killed in the Judean. Samarian and Gallilean Hills. It has been esitmated that at least 50 per cent, of Britons fighting for the Arabs have been wounded. About 20 Britons fbught for the Arabs in Jerusalem’s old city. . Britons who had joined the Jewish side were seldom engaged in actual combat operations. One British army deserter fighting for the Jews in Haganah uniform inside the old city was captured by the Arab Legion when they forced the surrender of 2000 Jews, including non-combatants,-in the Jewish quarter of the old. city before the first truce. Two Britons in Arab uniform were captured by the Jews in a battle at Mount Zion on the outskirts of Jerusalem. . To-day, those Britons serving with the Arab irregulars are leading a hand-to-mouth existence. Many of the local Arab leaders, who had formerly welcomed Britons as technicians and section commanders because of their military training, consider that their period of usefulness has ended. After about a year or more of Nomadic Beduoin life, most of the men are disillusioned. They have found that promises made to them when they joined that they would receive Arab State passports and certain financial recompense, have in many cases not been fulfilled, as the'leaders who made the promises are either dead or removed from their commands. A number of Britons have already joined King Abdullah’s well-trained Arab Legion. Only men with some technical ability have been accepted and there are indications that at the end of their period, of service—about two years—they will be provided with Transjordan passports.