Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited primarily among Jews of the Yishuv from Mandatory Palestine. It was mostly commanded by Anglo-Jewish officers. The Jewish Brigade served in the latter stages of the Italian Campaign, taking part in the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy. It was disbanded in 1946.
After the war, some members of the brigade assisted Holocaust survivors to illegally emigrate to Mandatory Palestine as part of Aliyah Bet, in defiance of British restrictions. Other members formed the vigilante groups Gmul and the Tilhas Tizig Gesheften, which assassinated hundreds of German, Austrian, and Italian war criminals.
Background
Anglo-Zionist relations
After the First World War, the British and the French empires replaced the Ottoman Empire as the preeminent powers in the Middle East. This change brought closer the Zionist Movement's goal of creating a Jewish state. The Balfour Declaration indicated that the British Government supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine in principle, marking the first official support for Zionist aims. It led to a surge of Jewish emigration in 1918–1921, known as the "Third Aliyah".The League of Nations incorporated the Declaration in the British Mandate for Palestine in 1922. Jewish immigration continued through the 1920s and 1930s, and the Jewish population expanded by over 400,000 before the beginning of the Second World War.
In 1939, the British Government of Neville Chamberlain appeared to reject the Balfour Declaration in the White Paper of 1939, abandoning the idea of establishing a Jewish Dominion. When the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, stated: "We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper."
Origins of the Jewish Brigade
, the President of the Zionist Organization, offered the British government full cooperation of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine. Weizmann sought to establish an identifiably Jewish fighting formation within the British Army. His request for a separate formation was rejected, but the British authorized the enlistment of Palestinian volunteers in the Royal Army Service Corps and in the Royal Pioneer Corps, on condition that an equal number of Jews and Arabs was to be accepted. The Jewish Agency promptly scoured the local Labour Exchange offices to recruit enough Arab unemployed as "volunteers" to match the number of Jewish volunteers, and others were recruited from the lower strata of the Arab population, offering cash bounties for enlistment.The quality of the recruits was, not surprisingly, abysmally low, with a very high desertion rate particularly among the Arab component, so that at the end, most units ended up formed largely by Jews. The volunteers were formed in a RASC muleteers unit and a RASC Port Operating Company, and in the pioneer companies 601 to 609. Of the pioneer companies, all but two were lost in Greece, with most forced to surrender after being unable to evacuate in time. The last two companies were returned to Palestine and disbanded there.
From 1942, a large number of further Palestinian Arab-Jewish mixed units were formed, with the same mixed ethnic composition and the same quality problems encountered in the Pioneers Companies. These included six RASC Transport Units, a women's Auxiliary Territorial Service and a Woman Territorial Air Force Service, and several auxiliaries in local units of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Engineers, and Royal Army Medical Corps. Jewish logistical personnel from Palestine were deployed in the Battle of France, Invasion of Greece, North African campaign, and in the Italian campaign even before the arrival of the Jewish Brigade. While deployed to do logistical tasks, the units were equipped with weapons and engaged in combat when needed.
The British recruited Jews as commandos in small numbers. In 1940 No. 51 Commando was formed for volunteers from Palestine, comprised predominantly of Jewish volunteers with a minority of Arabs as well. The unit fought in East Africa against the Italians. In 1942, the Special Interrogation Group, a commando unit comprised primarily of German-speaking Jews from Palestine, was deployed in North Africa. Some Jews from Palestine also enlisted in artillery and medical units, the Royal Air Force, and Royal Navy.
In 1940, during the Axis bombing campaign against Mandatory Palestine, the British decided to recruit Jews as anti-aircraft gunners following a particularly deadly Italian air raid against Tel Aviv. In October 1940, the 1st Palestine Light Anti-Aircraft Battery was formed, and it became operational in 1941. The unit defended Palestine from further air attacks and served with British forces elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Its gunners would later be recruited to the artillery regiment of the Jewish Brigade.
There was no designated all-Jewish, combat-worthy formation. Jewish groups petitioned the British government to create such a force, but the British refused. At that time, the White Paper of 1939 was in effect, limiting Jewish immigration and land purchases. The British authorities initially hesitated to recruit Jews from Palestine into infantry roles.
The core of what would later become the Jewish Brigade was formed when the British began recruiting Jewish volunteers from Palestine into the Royal East Kent Regiment, to be used as guards for military facilities including prisoner of war camps in Palestine. The recruits were given training that emphasized discipline but included little live-fire practice. Arab volunteers were recruited into separate companies. In August 1942 the Palestine Regiment was formed. The existing Buffs companies were absorbed into the Palestine Regiment. Recruitment continued, but it was plagued by the same mixed recruiting and its associated low-quality problems. The regiment was derisively called the "Five Piastre Regiments", due to the large number of Arab "volunteers" who had enlisted just for the cash bonus provided by the Jewish Agency. The Palestine Regiment ultimately came to consist of three Jewish and one Arab battalion. It had the role of guard duty in Palestine and Egypt.
British officials opposed creating a large Jewish fighting force, fearing that it would bolster Jewish national claims, provoke Arab opposition, and become the basis for Jewish rebellion against British rule. As a compromise, they proposed forming a brigade group instead of a larger force. In August 1944, Winston Churchill agreed to form a Jewish fighting force, preferring that it be a smaller brigade rather than a full division. According to Rafael Medoff, Churchill consented because he was "moved by the slaughter of Hungarian Jewry was hoping to impress American public opinion."
Jewish Brigade
Creation
After early reports of the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust were made public by the Allied powers in the spring and early summer of 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent a personal telegram to the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt suggesting that "the Jews... of all races have the right to strike at the Germans as a recognizable body." The president replied five days later saying: "I perceive no objection..."After much hesitation, on July 3, 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade with hand-picked Jewish and also non-Jewish senior officers. On 20 September 1944, an official communique by the War Office announced the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army. The Jewish Brigade Group headquarters was established in Egypt at the end of September 1944. The formation was styled a brigade group because of the inclusion under command of an artillery regiment.
The three Jewish battalions of the Palestine Regiment became the basis of the brigade. In addition, veterans of the 1st Palestine Light Anti-Aircraft Battery became part of the brigade's artillery regiment. Palestinian Jewish soldiers in existing engineering and transport units, including some already in Italy, were transferred to fulfill these same roles within the brigade. Following the announcement of the brigade's formation, recruitment of additional volunteers got underway. Large numbers of young people, particularly recent high school graduates and even schoolboys, volunteered. A Jewish Agency campaign among labor settlement members yielded about 200 volunteers. In addition, the British authorities recruited among Jewish refugees from Europe who were detained in Mauritius after they had tried to enter Palestine in 1940, with 212 joining and another 300 rejected as medically unfit. With recruitment proceeding at an unsatisfactory pace, General Harold Alexander, the commander of the 15th Army Group, warned that if it did not improve he would add 1,000 non-Jewish British soldiers and 33 officers to the brigade, prompting a renewed recruitment campaign. Ultimately, some 2,000 new recruits enlisted between 1944 and 1946, with most joining between September 1944 and February 1945.
In addition, Jewish and non-Jewish British personnel were transferred to the brigade, including officers and NCOs to lead it. A British Jewish officer, Brigadier Ernest Benjamin, was placed in command of the brigade. He commanded it with the support of several other British Jewish officers. All three battalion commanders were initially British, with two later replaced by Palestinian Jews. The rest of the command structure was mostly Palestinian Jewish, with more Palestinian Jewish officers and NCOs replacing British ones as the brigade matured. An experienced British artillery unit was folded into the brigade's artillery regiment, which would ultimately comprise about 600 Palestinian Jewish and 300 British personnel. Several of the brigade's support units consisted mostly of British non-Jewish personnel.
The Zionist flag was approved as its standard. It included more than 5,000 soldiers organized into three infantry battalions, an artillery regiment, and several supporting units. The Jewish Brigade's composition, consisting of combat and support units, was as follows:
- 1st Battalion, Palestine Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, Palestine Regiment
- 3rd Battalion, Palestine Regiment
- 200th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
- 643 Field Company, Royal Engineers
- Jewish Brigade Group Postal Section, Royal Engineers
- 178 Jewish Brigade Group Company, RASC
- 140 Field Ambulance, RAMC
- Jewish Brigade Group Ordnance Field Park Section, RAOC
- Jewish Brigade Group Provost Section
- Jewish Infantry Brigade Workshops, REME
- Jewish Brigade Group Light Aid Detachment, REME
In September 1944, the brigade's three infantry battalions were deployed to Egypt and underwent five weeks of intensive training overseen by Brigadier Benjamin. On 31 October 1944, Benjamin declared the battalions to be ready. The brigade was then deployed to Italy, where it joined the British Eighth Army, which was engaged in the Italian Campaign under the 15th Army Group. The brigade arrived in Italy in November 1944, where its infantry battalions underwent additional training until February 1945. The brigade's artillery regiment trained separately, with training lasting from November to March. It would join the rest of the brigade in March after the infantry battalions had already seen combat. On 8 February, Brigadier Benjamin met with senior Jewish Agency official Moshe Sharett and confirmed that the brigade was nearly ready for combat, although he expressed concern that two-thirds of the brigade's officers lacked combat experience.