Meanwhile the assembly of the arms inside Europe was carried out with the same secrecy that hid the true identity of the Alpine Charter Flights, Inc.
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It was a race against time. Two weeks would be needed before the first load of arms could leave Europe. The question was whether or not it would be too late.
So far, miraculously, not a single settlement had fallen, but the Jewish convoys were being ripped to pieces. Water lines to the Negev Desert settlements had be^n cut. In some places the settlers were subsisting on potato peelings and olives.
The focal point of the struggle was Jerusalem, where the isolation-and-starvation tactics were beginning to pay off. The Bab el Wad from Tel Aviv was littered with the wreckage of burned-out trucks. Only occasional huge convoys, mounted at crippling cost of men and materiel, staved off disaster in Jerusalem.
For the first time in the history of Jerusalem, the city was violated by artillery fire, from Kawukji’s irregulars.
Kawukji, Safwat, and Kadar urgently needed a victory. The Palestine Arabs were becoming uneasy over the failure of Arab predictions of “great victories.”
It was Kawukji, the self-styled generalissimo of the Mufti’s “Forces of the Yarmuk,” who decided to grab off the honor of capturing the first Jewish settlement. He picked his target carefully, having no wish to try a nut too tough to crack the first time out. \
Kawukji picked what he believed to be a soft spot: Tirat Tsvi-the Castle of the Rabbi Tsvi-was elected for the distinction of being the first Jewish settlement to fall. The kibbutz of Tirat Tsvi was made up of Orthodox Jews, many of whom were concentration camp “graduates.” The kibbutz stood in the southern section of the Beth Shean Valley, located there purposely to neutralize an otherwise completely Arab area. South of the kibbutz was the “triangle,” the all-Arab area of Palestine. Within shooting distance stood the borders of Jordan. Slightly north, the hostile Arab eity of Beth Shean completed the cutoff of the kibbutz.
Tirat Tsvi was one of the Jewish outposts that guarded the Jordan Valley farther to the north.
Kawukji was delighted with his choice of Tirat Tsvi. The religious Jews of the kibbutz would crumple before the first massed attack. The brigand assembled hundreds of Arabs at the Nablus base in the Triangle and marched up for the attack.
Kawukji announced his victory in advance; it was published even before he made an attack. When he did move his troops into position, the Arab women from Beth Shean came to the edge of the battlefield and waited with sacks and containers to rush up after the troops and plunder the kibbutz. 486
The attack came with a cloudy dawn. The Jews had one hundred and sixty-seven men and women of fighting age on the battle line, in trenches, and behind rough barricades facing the Arab position. The children were hidden in the center-most building of the kibbutz. The defenders had no armament heavier than a single two-inch mortar.
A bugle blew. Arab Legion officers with drawn swords led the charge. The irregulars behind them poured over the open fields in a massed frontal assault calculated to overrun the kibbutz by sheer weight of numbers.
The Jews waited until the Arab force was within twenty yards, then on signal they cut loose with a tremendous volley. Arabs went down like mown wheat.
The impetus of the Arab charge carried forward a second, third, and fourth headlong wave. The Jews continued their disciplined fire, blasting each rush as the leaders’ feet touched kibbutz ground.
The field was littered with Arab dead and the wounded screamed, “We are brothers! Mercy, in the name of Allah!”
The rest scrambled back out of range and began a confused retreat. Kawukji had promised them easy victory and plunder! He had told them this bunch of Orthodox Jews would flee at the sight of them! They had not reckoned on such a fight. The Arab women on the outskirts of the battle began to flee too.
The Arab Legion officers herded the running irregulars together and stopped the retreat only by firing at them. The leaders reorganized their men for another rush at the kibbutz, but the irregulars’ hearts were no longer in their effort.
Inside Tirat Tsvi the Jews were in bad trouble. They did not have enough ammunition left to hold off another charge if Arabs came in strong and hard. Moreover, if the Arabs changed strategy and tried a slow attack with flanking movement the Jews could not contain it. They hastily organized a desperation tactic. Most of the ammunition was given to twenty sharpshooters. The rest dropped back to the children’s house and prepared for a last-ditch fight with bayonets, clubs, and bare hands. Through field glasses they watched the Arabs mass and saw that there were enough troops left to overrun the kibbutz.
The Arabs came over the field more slowly this time, with some of the Legion officers behind the troops forcing them on at gun point.
Suddenly the heavens opened up in an unexpected downpour. Within minutes the open field was turned into a deep and bogging mud. The Arab charge, instead of gaining momentum, began to wallow, just as the Canaanite chariots had done against Deborah.
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Is the first Legion officers reached the kibbutz, the sharpshooters picked them off. Kawukji’s noble “Forces of the Yar-muk” had had enough for the day.
Kawukji was in a rage over the Tirat Tsvi debacle. He had to have a victory quickly to save face. This time he decided to go after big game.
The road between Tel Aviv and Haifa was more important to the Yishuv from a purely strategic standpoint than the road to Jerusalem. If the Tel Aviv-Haifa line could be cut, the Arabs could sever the Jewish dispositions, splitting the Galilee away from the Sharon. There were Arab villages on the main highway which forced the Jews to use alternate interior roads ; to maintain transportation between the two cities. On one of ! the vital alternate roads was kibbutz Mishmar Haemek-the Guardpost of the Valley. Mishmar Haemek became Kawukji’s ; goal in the ambitious move to separate Tel Aviv from Haifa.
This time Kawukji determined not to repeat the mistakes | of Tirat Tsvi. He massed more than a-thousand men and moved them into the hills surrounding the kibbutz, together with ten 75mm. mountain guns.
With Mishmar Haemek ringed, Kawukji opened a brutal artillery barrage. The Jews had one machine gun with which to answer back.
After a day of the pounding, the British called a truce, entered the kibbutz, and advised the Jews to pull out. When they refused the British left, washing their hands of the affair. Kawukji learned from the British that the Jews were relatively weak inside the kibbutz. What he did not know, because of his lack of an intelligence system, was that the Emek Valley was alive with men in training for the Haganah. During the second night two entire battalions of Haganah, all armed with rifles, slipped into the kibbutz.
On the third day, Kawukji mounted the attack.
Instead of walking into a frightened and cowering kibbutz, he ran into two battalions of eagerly waiting and trained men. Kawukji’s offense was smashed.
He rallied his men and tried a slow sustained move. It was equally unsuccessful. He mounted more attacks, but with each the irregulars showed less inclination to fight. They straggled forward halfheartedly and pulled back whenever resistance stiffened.
Toward the end of the day, Kawukji lost control of his ! troops. They began to walk out of the battle area.
Inside the kibbutz, the Jews witnessed the development J and poured out after the Arabs. Here was a completely unexpected turn. The Arabs were so startled at the sight of I Jews charging that they all fled, with the Haganah literally at I 488
their heels. The running fight surged back miles, to Megiddo, site of a hundred battles through the ages. Here, on the historic fighting ground of Armageddon, the Jews completely broke Kawukji’s forces. The carnage stopped only when the British stepped in and forced a truce.