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 they 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 capture 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. The 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 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 were 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.
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