Dr. Boris Senior

Along with over 800 other South Africans, I was in Israel for a year beginning May/June 1948. I had completed two-and-a-half years of training as an intern in South Africa, but I went to Israel to serve in any capacity they wanted me to. [Boris is a cousin to Israel Air Force pilot Boris Senior.]

I was given the assignment of being the regimental medical officer to the first artillery unit – 404 Battalion.  We had people but no real weapons, though we eventually received tiny artillery pieces which I think were left over from earlier wars in Mexico.  We were based in what had been a British military base on the outskirts of Haifa.  Our task was to be involved in defeating Kaukji’s army on the Syrian/Lebanese border.  I remember we had a unit at Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar, which we joked about and called Hayeled Hashachor – the “black boy.”  Our commanding officer was a small ex-artillery Russian officer, Gorodetsky.

We drove Kaukji’s army out and then were transferred to the south with the 4^th troop anti-tank unit, reaching all the way down to Eilat.  We fulfilled our tasks but with very little in the way of equipment.

Author:            Dr. Boris Senior