I left Palmietfontein Airport with a Betar group about mid-July 1948. Unlike today, when a flight from Johannesburg to Israel is a matter of eight hours, it took four days with night stops at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, Juba and Khartoum, both in Sudan, until we reached Rome in a battered Dakota two-engined aircraft, one of two hired from Pan African Air Charter by Raphael Kotlowitz, head of Betar in South Africa.
After some weeks at the displaced persons camp run by Etzel in the coastal town of Ladispoli, we sailed from Naples on a small Greek ship named “Dolores,” carrying some 150 passengers, including our group of 24 South African volunteers; the rest were refugees. We arrived in Haifa August 24th.
Acting as the ship’s doctor, a day or two before reaching Israel, I delivered a baby boy with the assistance of one of the three ladies of our group, Evelyn Bernstein, who later joined the Meteorological Unit of the air force.
After arriving in Israel, the Medical Recruiting Staff of the IDF sent me to become the Medical Officer of 52nd Battalion of the Givati Brigade; the brigade had participated in the bloody battles at Latrun and in the Negev during the ten days of fighting between the two truces.
I joined the battalion at the end of August. They were poised and preparing to attack the Egyptian Army, which had cut off the Negev from the rest of Israel. My function was to go with the units into battle. I had 40 combat medics who were attached to the companies.
We participated in the fiercest battles in the vicinity of Kibbutz Negba. The bloodiest were around the fortress of Iraq-el-Manshiya, a former British Mandate police station which controlled the road to the Negev. On October 15th, the Givati Brigade received an order from Chief of Staff Yigal Yadin to open the road to the Negev, operating with other brigades. By attacking Beit Guvrin, Iraq-el-Suweidan, Iraq-el-Manshiya, and by taking control of Beersheba, by October 20th the entire Chuleikat area was in the hands of the Givati Brigade and the road to the Negev was open. Preparations were then made to capture Beersheba which was achieved a few days later in ”Operation Yoav.”
My battalion, the 52nd, participated in all the battles and covered itself with glory by destroying the enemy positions at Huleiqat by difficult, close-combat bayonet fighting, and was consequently given the name ‘Habokim’ – The Penetrators.
The Givati Brigade Museum built in Iraq-el-Suweidan, near Negba, explains the history of the place beautifully. There is a large photograph of all the officers of Givati, and I am proud to say that I am one of them. The legend below states “The Conquerors of the Road to the Negev.”
I remained in the unit which then besieged Faluja. After Faluja surrendered they were then allowed to go on to Gaza.
Subsequently, I served in the Haifa Military Hospital, also known as the Italian Hospital. At the end of 1949 I returned to South Africa.
Note: During the 1998 Machal Reunion, with the assistance of Joe Woolf of our 1948 group, I traced the “baby” I delivered, Meir Mederer, aged 49, living in Kiryat Bialik. We had a great meeting with him and his family at his parents’ home in the town of Tivon.
Author: Dr. Alan Price (30th June, 1997)