A Zionist Volunteer's Tale of Valor and Sacrifice 14/10/25
Given the high degree of anti-Semitism then prevalent in Britain's officer class - highly critical of his fellow officers for discriminating against the Judeans, and other Jewish settlers in Palestine. This book is a rare insight into a remarkable episode in Anglo-Jewish history. Patterson had traipsed over many battlefields in Europe also Asia. In Spain he felt that the army had a manana attitude, he was not surprised that they crumbled before the Americans in Cuba. Patterson had, had military experience in the UK , India and the Boer War, Kings African Rifles in Kenya , Uganda. He had toured the States and found Virginia interesting as the great battles of the Civil War had been fought there. Here he was given this position to be a "mere muleteer," even though he knew little about mules. Set against the background of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which pledged British support for establishing a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, He wrote this book in the interest of the Hebrew Nation and what they were capable of under the command of an alien in race and religion. The sons of Israel in the days of the Maccabees had for a time successfully fought for Jerusalem from the grasp of the Seleucid king Antiochus, Greek culture.
Some have the opinion that the expedition to the Dardanelles was in itself unsound and should never been undertaken. Britain had declared war on Turkey and Turkey had allowed the German ships Goeben and Breslau the freedom of her waters. *Had this campaign been successful it would have opened immense possibilities. Weapons would have streamed into Russia and wheat brought out for allies. A strong British hand in the Near East would have resulted in Balkan states not to link their fortune to the enemy. Bulgaria would have remained neutral and Greece and Romania would have fought for the Allies ?*
1683 Remember that John Sobliesky defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Vienna the furthest the reached into Europe..
Germany got her wheat supply from Romania, copper from Serbia, cotton fats and other vital products from Turkey.
The Turks had ample warning to make the Gallipoli Peninsula almost impregnable. This was the key to the Dardanelles. Instead of dividing the force into 9 different parts of the peninsula the British should have brought all the force onto the area later called the ANZAC to seize the Sari Bair heights. When they initially landed with cool weather their was no difficulty of water which by the heat of August became an acute problem.
In Egypt, John Maxwell the Commander-in -chief was looking for a suitable officer to command this Jewish unit. Many hundreds of people had fled Palestine to escape the wrath of the Turks when WW1 began and came to Egypt. People of Russian nationality but of Jewish faith. March 1915 Patterson was appointed to the job and the Corp had the blessing of the Grand Rabbi of Alexandria Professor Rahpael della Pergola. They also received a telegram of support from Israel Zangwill (1864 to 1926 a leading British writer). The troops were sworn in at the refugee Camp of Gabari near Alexandria. (Note 1882: British forces invaded Egypt after a nationalist uprising and occupied the country to secure British financial interests and strategic control of the Suez Canal.)
The Corp would be roughly 500 men with 20 riding horses for officers and 750 mules for transport work. They had 5 British officers and 8 Jewish officers. Captain Trumpeldor had been a hero in the Russian army in the siege of Port Arthur, where he had lost his right arm and received the Order of George in gold from the Tzar. Dr. Levontin was appointed chief surgeon and was to form the medical unit. Some of the drilling was done using Hebrew words. The men were armed with rifles bayonets and ammunition, captured from the Turks when the made a futile assault on the Suez Canal. Initially the Jewish leaders were upset as the wanted combat positions but Trumpeldor who was a hardened soldier understood that anyone no matter what you do on the battlefront is in combat.
Horse and mules had to be fed and watered 3 times a day and men had to be trained to saddle and unsaddle, load and unload the packs. General Ian Hamilton was the Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean came for an inspection a few days before they embarked. An Alexandria firm was ordered to make thousand of Kerosene oil cans to transport water and wooden frames were ordered to fit the pack saddles each mule would carry 4 of these full cans of water. The mules were to carry ammunition, food and supplies to the men on the firing line. They never lost one mule to sickness on Gallipoli. The location of battle was in sight of the plains of Troy where Homer immortalized the Greek battles. It took 3 days to disembark their supplies ,due to lack of tugs, and they had to guard the gear as it came on shore. Much of the work of delivering the supplies was done in darkness. Each mule could carry about 2000 cartridges. Muleteers were always helping fallen mules and readjusting their loads. The food was boxes of tinned beef , cheese biscuits and jam.
Amongst the French there was a Battalion of Zouaves originally from North Africa and kept their unique dress, and also Senegalese. They had to level land to make a camp and found a well under demolished house and were worried it was poisoned so got a Turkish prisoner to drink it first. The water was suitable for both mules and people to drink. For fuel the used the packaging cases.
A French sentry stopped one of the muleteers and found he spoke no understandable language and decided he was a spy (he spoke only Russian and Hebrew)also he had a Turkish rifle, bayonet and cartridges and they were about to execute him but the sergeant in charge saw this and spoke an excellent French and saved him. After that Patterson made sure that if his soldiers could who not speak English they must never go out of the camp unless accompanied by an interpreter.
Some 40 mules relieved of their loads when Turks began to bombarded. The mules broke loose and galloped off into the darkness. Unbeknown to them Turks were creeping up to ambush the camp and they thought this was a cavalry charge against them and began shooting. Our troops immediately opened fire on the Turks In case of an attack some mules always kept saddles in relays. On several occasions the Zion troops jumped into trenches and helped firing back at an attack.
The German Taube a monoplane used for reconnaissance and looked like a dove and kept flying over.
German submarines came and battleships Goliath and Triumph were sunk. So transport suddenly disappeared. When a battle succeeded the sandbags captured were taken forward to the next defense line. Food was cooked far to the rear of the front and had to be carried forward and divided between men and flies. Neither side used poison gas or liquid fire.
The Turks held impregnable positions and the allies were never strong enough to mount a serious offensive, or had guns and ammunition to do a devastating bombardment. A quick firing gun is of little use if you don't have piles of ammunition to feed it. They had the same pestilence that Homer describes when the Grecian army camped around Troy. There were rotting Turk corpses unburied in front of the trenches with flies.
The British could fight successful battles when the wind carried dust into the faces of the Turks. Amongst those captured were German sailors who ran out of ammunition. In hot dry weather the shells caused the gorse to catch alight but our men had taken a precaution of cutting the gorse down near the trenches.
When one of the Zion Corp soldiers was killed his comrades always made sure to bring the body back and the whole Corp attended the funeral.
By July they needed more troops in the Corp and Patterson went to Egypt where he got the full support of the Jewish world. In Cairo 150 Jewish recruits were obtained and these were known as the Cairo Corp. The ship that they returned to the Bosporus was loaded with 1100 passengers but only had boats for 700 so they waited for more boats as they were going to be in submarine infested waters.
When round the campfires relaxing, or concerts given the Corp sang songs in English , French, Russian , Hebrew and Arabic. he considered the Jews as the most musical nation not the Germans.
In Cairo was a Red Crescent hospital there that treated Turkish wounded. there was a young Turkish officer who was the son of Djemal Pasha one of the 3 military leader during WW1.
The Australians may have lacked military discipline but made up for it by fearlessness.. Amongst the Australian he met a doctor Colonel Ryan who had served the Turks as a surgeon against Russia and was in the siege of Plevna. 1877-78.
No new troops were to be sent to Gallipoli so it was best to get out quickly before the Turks got new ammunitions and reinforcements from Germany and Bulgaria. The position there was impossible and with winter approaching the losses from sickness and exposure would have been enormous. The failure had not been altogether fruitless as it had destroyed a significant Turkish army. Envar Pashas push in the Caucuses would have crushed the Russians. The city of Erzurum a stronghold.
In this campaign Entente losses 44,000 deaths and 250,000 wounded.
Ottoman losses 87,000 deaths and 250,000 wounded. Thus a large number Turks removed from battle.
____________________________________________________________________
The Man Eating Tigers of Tsavo 1906 by J H Patterson 170 pg. 21/1/25
This is an account of the 2 years the author spent in British East Africa. The true story of two man-eating lions that terr
This is an account of the 2 years the author spent in British East Africa. The true story of two man-eating lions that terrorized workers during the construction of the Uganda Railway in Kenya in 1898. Colonel Patterson was an engineer, and worked in particular on the bridge over the Tsavo River.
A story of this was an article in a magazine and was brought to the attention of President Teddy Roosevelt , and he said this would make a book that would interest him.
Mombasa harbour on the East Coast of Africa which is overshadowed by a Portuguese fortress built in 1595. This was the place that in 1498 Vasgo de Gama nearly lost his life, and the main street in Mombasa is called Vasgo de Gama. Mombasa was founded in 1000 ACE.
1887 The British East Africa company rented the area of Mombasa from the Sultan of Zanzibar. However in 1995 the Foreign Office took over control of the bankrupt companies possessions.
Tsavo is 132 miles from the coast. From the Mombasa jetty the railway track runes to Kilindini where the Uganda Railways centre is.
1898 There were 2 man eating lions that brought the railway works to a complete halt. First an Indian trader on a donkey was attacked but the lion got caught on the ropes that secured 2 empty oil cans. This falling caused such a clatter that the lion fled into the jungle. A temporary bridge was used to get the train across and when the railways moved on he was left with a few hundred men to complete the bridge. After the hospital tent was attacked leaving 2 Indian badly wounded they surrounded the sleeping quarter by stout hedge build of thorn bushes.
He set up a caravan and he and friend waited in the night ,the listen and heard it, the lion suddenly came and sprung towards the and the both let off their rifles, this flash and noise got the lion to jump sideways, but the lion got away.
After a lion had taken 2 workers the other refused to work and they had to build lion proof shelter on top of the water tanks or girders, or dug pits inside the tents. on one night attack everyone ran to climb into trees. Lions always start eating at the tail of their pray and work up to the head. Even with the camp being surrounded by thorn bushes the lion jumped into it and grabbed a victim and dragged he out through the thorns. Eventually Patterson shot a lion that had 6 bullet holes in the skin. Work now resumed on the bridge. One of the workers wrote a poem in Hindustani to the achievement.
1899 Jan. The PM Lord Salisbury spoke in parliament about the difficulties on the Ugandan Railway and the enthusiastic sportsman who got the lion. Their was an article in the Spectator March 1900 The lions that stopped the Railway
The book describes hunting for hippos, and other game and avoiding being charged by a rhino. Much of this hunting would not be approved of today. In hunting he came across the lair of the lions, a cave with many human bones.
Once all the excitement died down they rapidly completed the bridge. To get the suitable rock they needed the had to build a trolley rail and a temporary bridge to transport the stone to the bridge. The engineers had no crane but designed a crane with steel bars and tackles to swing the stones into position, They had to first build a scaffolding to support the work. The bridge completed and the first train went over it safely. There was a massive storm and the river bet overflowed taking the scaffolding away but the bridge was solid.
There was also a problem of African wild dogs, hyenas, and leopards who ravaged the herds of sheep and goats kept a supply the commissariat. Leopards have a nasty habit of wanton killing and he had a hut of 20 sheep a leopard came broke a hole in the wall and bit everyone in the neck and killed them. He left the sheep and put a trap at the hole and the next night the leopard was caught in the trap.
O'hara the road building engineer was living in a tent with his wife and kids, a lion came and grabbed him by the head with its incisors going into his brain. An askari shot at the lion and it fled. 4 askaris carried the body to the hospital and the widow and children followed. Later a Wa Tarta hunter gatherer tribesman shot the lion with a poisoned arrow when he was trapped in a tree.
The Swahili live along the coast, they are descendants of negro mothers and Arab fathers.(suahil is coast in Arabic) Many worked as porter taking loads of provisions inland and returning with ivory and other products.
The Masai are a war like people who kept away from the railways, the are not agriculturalists and their wealth is by their cattle and sheep herds but their population were much reduced by famine and smallpox. When a person dies the leave the body away from the village for the animals and vultures.
The Kikuyu are agriculturalists and grow grain, sugarcane sweet potatoes, tobacco.
Anglo-Bunyoro War (1893–1899) and the Buganda and Bunyoro resistance. By April 1899, the British had successfully, though with great difficulty, suppressed these revolts.
1906 Nairobi had 6,000 inhabitants and had every modern luxury including a laid out racecourse. The Currency used in British East Africa was the rupee, a £ was worth 15 rupees.
No comments:
Post a Comment