“The second stage of the “Ben-Nun” Operation took place on 30th/31st May 1948, when companies of the 72nd and 75th Battalions attempted to open the road to Jerusalem on the Latrun Beit-Nuba axis held by the Trans Jordan Arab Legion.”
South African Dr. David Rosenberg (Kidron) reached Palestine on 9th May 1948 by air in an important group of nine with prominent names in Machal history – Harry (Smoky) Simon, his wife Myra Simon, Esther Berelowitz, Joe Leibowitz, Tev Zimmerman, Chaim Grevler, Joe Jedeikin and Max Rosengarten.
He volunteered and was mobilized as a medical officer into the 72nd Battalion on 11th May. He admitted that he had no experience in battle service, and he was allotted two combat medics.
Dr. Kidron relates: “Our intention was to follow the newly-mechanized battalion. As a result, all the wounded came directly to me for first aid treatment and then were dispatched to a hospital. My jeep could also be used as a light ambulance for transporting the wounded.
When the massive flow of the wounded started, there was no immediate answer. We had no surgical equipment, no instruments whatsoever, only pills and bandages, though we had water. Two of the medics became demoralized.
It seems to me that the shock kept me going. I had never seen anything like this before. As a doctor there was virtually nothing for me to do. What was needed was a fully-equipped hospital. It was more than likely that the majority of the wounded would have died anyway, but it was tough for a doctor to go through this experience without doing something practical. In fact, it was also dark and difficult to differentiate between the seriously wounded and the dead.
I went from soldier to soldier with the medics. I couldn’t see or hear. I had learned Hebrew as a child, but when I came to Israel I couldn’t speak a word. The casualty collection station was simply between trees with a few boxes of pills and bandages, and some stretchers.”
Dr. Kidron listened, and responded to the questions and comments I put to him about this particular period:
“In every action in which I participated, I followed the convoy with the three or four vehicles allotted to me, and they told me to prepare a casualty collection post. I also had an ambulance, sometimes two, painkillers, antiseptic substances, bandages and combat medics who followed the troops into battle. Only at Latrun did I really get close to the combat line.
I remember that all the medics and drivers serving with me were veterans of the British Army. Except for our duties, we had no contact with anyone else in our brigade. If the other medical officers voiced an opinion of any sort, we simply ignored it.
At the beginning of the operations in the Latrun area, we were inundated with a plague of mosquitoes. It was very hot during that period. I set up our medical emergency post between Hulda and Latrun, and we treated everyone who passed our way. The atmosphere was like the Wild West.
None of us had any idea of the general picture and to where we could advance. I found myself close to the firing line, under an overhanging cliff, for half a day, maybe longer. It was there that I learned that a doctor’s place should be at the front. A soldier was wounded just a few meters from where I was positioned. When I withdrew with others to a more secure position, I understood that my place was not at the advanced point. At Hulda my name had appeared on the list of missing.
The night of the battle against the Latrun Police Station was the most difficult. 40 of the wounded who were brought had been injured by artillery explosions, not small arms fire. The next day a driver named Weiss went out time and time again to bring back bodies of those killed. He changed from being middle-aged to being an old man on this day.
After a few days had passed, we were out again. The supply officer, A. Hoter-Ishai, a lawyer who had served with the British Army in World War II, gave me his revolver. We then went out on the road to the most advanced point where they could see us. No one told us to prepare a casualty station. We sat there for two days without anything practical to do, and then returned to Hulda.
When the 7th Brigade was reformed in the north at Ein Shemer during the first truce which ended on 9th July, I was transferred to serve as the medical officer of the 79th Battalion, where I remained until the end of the war.”
Source: The Hebrew book “Kol Chayal Chazit” (The medical officers’ story of 1948/49) by the late Dr. Baruch Horowitz