Stanley Medicks was born in 1925 in Nairobi, Kenya, to parents who had immigrated from Poland.
He joined the King’s African Rifles in 1943 and served in North Africa. He was commissioned in 1944, and ended his military career as an infantry captain, MTO Battalion.
He was born into a Zionist family, and this led him to join the South African Zionist Organization. He volunteered with two of his colleagues, Ian Walters and Jack Banin, for the Haganah, and travelled with Israel-bound South African volunteers to fight in Israel’s War of Independence, landing at Sde Dov air force base on 16th August, 1948.
He was posted to the 72nd Infantry Battalion of the 7th Brigade as a platoon commander. The brigade was under the command of a Canadian, Brigadier Ben Dunkelman. It was made up of Companies “A” “B” and “D” and was involved in the liberation of the Galilee. It began its activities in September with many mountain patrols and skirmishes, and culminated in Operation Hiram which took place from 29th to 31st October, 1948.
Stanley’s platoon was made up of recruits from South Africa, Europe, Canada, USA, Costa Rica and India. They were formed into three sections and training began with field craft and weapon instruction. Equipment at that time was scarce; the little they had arrived from Czechoslovakia. The platoon had Czech-made Spandau rifles, three German light Spandau machine guns, a few Israeli-made grenades and Sten guns.
“B” Company’s commander was an American, Captain Norman Schutzman, and its first action which began from the village of Tamra was the capture of the Kabul mountain, which had been held by a force of Kaukjis Arab Liberation Army, northeast of Haifa. Three soldiers were killed and about a dozen wounded.
During a deep penetration raid on 23rd October near Kibbutz Eilon, South African Louis Hack of Stanley’s platoon was killed. Later, during the Hiram Operation, the platoon was involved in the liberation of Meron, which houses the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, one of the leaders of the revolt against the Romans in AD 135, and an important pilgrimage site. Kenyan Jack Banin of Stanley’s platoon was wounded in this battle.
The brigade then moved north, where the 79th Battalion captured Jish (Gush Halav) and then Sasa, supported by “B” and “D” Companies. After Sasa the brigade moved on to capture Malkiya on the Lebanese border, where No. 2 Platoon commander Israeli Zachariah Feldman was killed on the last day of Operation Hiram.
Returning to base camp near Nahariya, Schutzman left, with the single platoon of “D” Company being amalgamated into “B” Company; Derek Bowden then assumed command.
After a period of additional intensive training at St. Lukes camp bordering the southern part of Haifa, the platoon was sent to holding positions facing the Syrians at Kibbutz Mishmar Hayarden, where volunteers Wilfred Sheppard and Jonathan Balter, both from England, were killed. Stanley’s platoon celebrated Chanukah on their platoon outpost on the right flank of the “B” Company position. The war ended in March 1949 and the 72nd Battalion was disbanded.
Stanley married in 1949 and worked for Solel Boneh in Jerusalem. He returned to Kenya in 1951 where his two children were born. After the rise of the Mau Mau African National Movement, he left Kenya and settled in London.
In 1988 Stanley formed the British and European Machal Association and enrolled over 300 Machal volunteers. Many were Holocaust survivors and had come to England with the Kindertransport. Meetings and reunions were held not only in London but also in European countries. Through the offices of the Israel Military Attaches in London, Stanley arranged the presentation of Israeli War Medals, the Ot Hakomimiut and Ot Lochamei Hamedina, to its members.
Thanks to Stanley’s dream and determination, as well as fund-raising assistance from the Jewish National Fund, a World Machal Memorial was built in 1993 at Sha’ar Hagai on the Burma Road. This memorial site serves as a focal point and meeting place for Machalniks, to gather, to learn and to remember the devotion and sacrifice of the heroic volunteers who came to fight in Israel’s War of Independence.
Author: Stanley Medicks
Adaptations: Joe Woolf