KIT WILKES-CHASE
Deserted the British to join the Haganah
On 18th June 2004, Kit Wilkes-Chase’s widow June and their daughters Vanessa and Genevieve received Kit’s 1948 War of Independence medal and decoration from the Israeli ambassador in London.
In 1947, Kit Wilkes-Chase, a national serviceman, was sent to serve in the British Army in Palestine. One of his duties was to guard Jewish prisoners at the Atlit detention camp near Haifa. The prisoners were Holocaust survivors in pitiful condition, desperate to reach British-ruled Palestine. Those who were intercepted were detained as illegal immigrants before being sent to internment camps in Cyprus.
Aghast at this policy, the young conscript hid on the roof of a single-decker bus and travelled to Tel Aviv to offer his services to the Jewish underground army, the Haganah. His offer was accepted and he was given basic clothing, a rifle, grenades and a water bottle, and sent to join the elite 9th Battalion of the Palmach Hanegev Brigade also known as “The Beasts of the Negev.”
He was joined by three other British soldiers who shared his views, and who had also deserted their units – Raymond Dodge known as “Lofty,” George Shelley known as “Sailor,” and another one simply known as Moshe Stern.
In heavy firefighting on 3rd June 1948 against the Egyptians, the battalion suffered heavy casualties and was forced to withdraw over the Ashdod sand dunes. Raymond Dodge was killed, and their platoon commander Israel Cohen saw him fall. Regrettably, in the hasty withdrawal the bodies of the fallen were left behind and their resting places are not known.
George Shelley – “Sailor” – was taken prisoner by the Egyptians together with a South African sapper, Jack Fleisch; when they found themselves isolated and unguarded after a mine-laying mission, Shelley made a daring escape from the Egyptian compound where they were being held, made his way to Alexandria, and with the help of sympathetic British sailors, he was taken on a destroyer to Cyprus where the Palmach representatives there returned him to Israel, and he reported back to the company commander, Simcha Shiloni.
Kit and the others participated in some of the war’s toughest engagements, such as stopping the Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They were also involved in the capture of Beersheva on 21st October, and took part in “Operation Uvda” (“Fait Accompli”), capturing Um-Rash-Rash (Eilat) on 10th March 1949.
After the war, Kit joined Israel’s newly-created regular army, completed an officer’s course, and became an instructor in the armor training school. Later he became a bodyguard to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion.
He became fluent in Hebrew, partly by baby-sitting a fellow soldier’s child who corrected his mistakes and made him read her bedtime stories in Hebrew. Years later he attended her wedding.
He became a captain in the Israel Artillery, and in 1958 returned to England where he immediately gave himself up to the authorities. After a year’s detention at Colchester Barracks, he received an honorable discharge from the British Army. It is known that at least two other deserters returned to England with their Jewish wives, and also spent time in military detention camps.
Kit met June in 1962, they married, and he built up a successful career in an agricultural packing business in Cambridgeshire. He died in October 2002, aged 73.
His widow, June, a former nurse, accompanied him on visits to Israel, where he met old friends including Chaim Bar-Lev, a former Chief of Staff who had been his battalion commander in 1948. She also noted that he was very modest about his exploits.
Note:
It is estimated that there were some 25 British soldiers who deserted from the British Army and volunteered to join the Haganah and fight with them. 19 of them are known by name.
Author: Joe Woolf, compiled from information provided by the British Machal Association and telephone conversations in 2009 with Israel Cohen and Simcha Shiloni.
Telegraph co.uk
Published: 12:02AM GMT 22 Nov 2002
Kit Wilkes-Chase
Kit Wilkes-Chase, who has died aged 73, deserted his post as a British soldier in Palestine to join the Haganah, the Jewish underground organisation, in order to fight for the creation of the State of Israel.
As a 19-year-old in the Royal Artillery, he was posted to Palestine, then under the British Mandate, where he was charged with guarding illegal Jewish immigrants, survivors of the Holocaust, near Haifa. Deeply shocked by the conditions of these refugees behind barbed wire, he was convinced that the Jews deserved a state of their own, and abandoning his unit, he joined the Jews in their fight for independence.
Hiding in the baggage on top of a bus, Wilkes-Chase travelled from Atlit to Tel Aviv, where he presented himself before the Jewish authorities, volunteering to fight with them. He was issued with a rifle, grenades, belt, water bottle, shirts and trousers, and assigned to the Beasts of the Negev (Hayot Ha’Negev), the elite commando unit of the Negev Brigade.
Under the direct command of Chaim Bar-Lev, a future Chief of Staff of the Israeli army and creator of the famous “Bar-Lev Line,” Wilkes-Chase fought in some of the toughest battles in the Negev desert. He participated in operations against the invading Egyptian army to prevent it from advancing towards Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; and he took part in the capture of Eilat from the Jordanians, and Beersheva from the Egyptians. He was twice wounded in action.
More than 30 years later, in 1985, as part of an Israeli celebration of independence, Wilkes-Chase was awarded a special citation, the highest honour ever given to a non-Israeli citizen, by the IDF’s Chief of Staff. It read: “Your fighting spirit and readiness to help us in our fight for existence was a personal example of moral courage to your fellow soldiers and officers in the Israel Defence Forces.”
Kenneth Chase, one of eight children, was born on March 18 1929 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was badly mistreated by his father, who did not wish to recognize him as his son, and was eventually taken into institutional care; later he was sent to St Joseph’s Orphanage for Boys, a Catholic establishment in the south of England. Young Kit moved to Preston, Lancashire when he was adopted by Louisa and Tom Wilkes. In 1947 he joined the Army.
After Israel’s War of Independence, in 1949, the Israelis urgently needed more arms and Wilkes-Chase – with his British nationality, perfect English and stubbornness – seemed an ideal candidate to help. He was issued with a false passport and was sent to Canada to purchase the much-needed arms. But he was refused entry and was forced to return to Israel, where he did occasional jobs before being enlisted back into the Israel Defence Forces. He first served as an assistant to the Chief Instructor of the IDF’s Armoured Training School, before being sent to Junior Officers’ course, the first British soldier to do so. After being commissioned, Second Lieutenant Wilkes-Chase was posted to an artillery unit, the 402 Field Artillery Battalion, which was equipped with British Artillery 25 pounders.
From 1952 to 1954, Wilkes-Chase was the bodyguard of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who nicknamed him “My Governor.” In 1958, after more than 10 years in Israel and by then a captain in the IDF, Wilkes-Chase returned to England. He immediately surrendered and served a year in an army detention centre for deserting, and was then honourably discharged.
Subsequently, Wilkes-Chase settled at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire where he was Group Managing Director of Walpole Fruit Packers.
Kit Wilkes-Chase, who died on October 16, is survived by his wife June and two daughters.