Personal Memoir Of Sgt. Jack Franses London U.K. 72 Battalion 7th Brigade Operation Army No.64509
Safed
On 28th October 1948, at 15:00 hours, Lt. Zachariah Feldman was briefed by the O.C. and at 16:00 hours he and I went over the plan of attack he had decided on for the capture of Meron, which was to be taken in steps: according to groups of houses which were numbered, starting from the back of the village. First, No. 1 Platoon was to take the group of houses marked as No. 1; then we were to take the next, and so on, the last objective being the Tomb. The plan had been worked out with the help of aerial photos and large-scale maps.
Then Lt. Feldman briefed us, and we climbed into buses and waited till dark. The buses moved to map ref. 19632652, where we disembarked and continued on foot. One platoon of the 71st Battalion went in front to defend our left flank while we were taking Meron. The next to go was Company H.Q., followed by No. 1. Platoon, No. 2 Platoon, and No. 3 Platoon, who were our reserves. We moved along the road to map ref. 19562661, and then cross-country to map ref. 19152649, which was at the bottom of the wadi in front of Meron. As we were moving into the wadi, the bridge nearby Meron was blown up, stopping the enemy’s retreat and preventing them bringing up reinforcements. Following that, the enemy opened fire and a member of No. l Platoon, Jack Banin, was wounded by a stray bullet. We waited to move into position for attack at the bottom of the wadi, safe from enemy fire. The scouts went out and returned to tell us that it was impossible to attack from the rear, as the left flank was covered by enemy fire, and the attack would be best on the right flank. This altered the whole plan and meant that our platoon was to take the first objective. While this was happening, Meron was under mortar fire. We moved to the starting point, the time being 05:00 hours. Climbing up the steep hill, we reached an olive grove and rested, then got into line and moved to attack. A large building loomed in front of us, and we noticed a smaller one on its right. As we advanced up the hill, Lt. Feldman was beside the forward men and very much part of the operation. He gave the order not to fire until he gave the word. Then it began: the enemy firing from both buildings. Feldman asked me to fire the Piat into both buildings, as the man firing the Piat was completely exhausted after the grueling climb. I put four bombs into the buildings. He then asked me to take some men and capture the small house on the right, and said that he would give me covering fire while we moved. I picked two of the snipers and we moved off. When we reached the building we continued along the wadi, towards the doorway, when suddenly the Arabs opened fire from a small pillbox and one of the snipers, Private J. Belkin, was hit in the face by rock splinters. We were forced to retreat with him to the other side of the building. I then shouted to Lt. Feldman for reinforcements so as to silence the small pillbox which was giving us trouble. Lt. Feldman immediately brought up the rest of the platoon and gave us heavy covering fire while we moved and cleared the building.
By this time it was daylight, and we saw that the large building was the Tomb. While this was all happening Private Daks was killed by enemy fire, Private Clingman was hit by rock splinters in the right arm and hand and Private Schlacter was wounded in the foot by a bullet. Lt. Feldman realized that the guide had taken us the wrong way up, and gave orders for the assault on the small pillbox and the Tomb. While this was happening, an Arab ran out of the pillbox, and caught by our fire, was killed. We started the assaults. As we cleared the first part of the Tomb, Lt. Feldman established his H.Q. in it and sent messages to the company commander regarding our progress. We carried out the assault of the rest of the Tomb, room by room. At the end of the Tomb we trapped some Arabs, but as we went in to attack them, they jumped out of the window, running for cover, but were caught by our fire and killed. We then formed an all-round defense in the Tomb. Five minutes later the company commander and No. l Platoon arrived on the scene. Meron was quiet and the company commander gave orders to No. 1 Platoon to mop up the remainder of the village.
One hour later, 29th October 1948, we were relieved by another unit. We climbed into buses that had arrived, and moved off – destination Jish. We were all extremely tired after the long march and the tiring assault. When we arrived at Jish there were hot drinks and food waiting for us. Lt. Feldman and I issued ammo. Suddenly, we were shelled. Lt. Feldman and I quickly got the men together and began to move off in the direction of Sasa, through an olive grove. We got into staggered formation and watched Jish being shelled. Lt. Feldman went to get orders. On his return we left in the direction of Sasa. As we moved out, the 79th Battalion moved up in armored vehicles towards Sasa.
We went up the hill in front of Sasa, and Lt. Feldman got the platoon into defense positions and the men began digging in again. Everyone was very tired as they had not slept and had walked for miles. Lt. Feldman went around and spoke to the men, giving them advice and raising their spirits. At midnight, we received orders to move to the road where we would be picked up in half-tracks and taken into Sasa. Our orders were that on arriving at Sasa we would move off to the left of the village and defend the road to Tarshiha. As soon as we arrived, Lt. Feldman jumped out of the vehicle, looking for defense positions. He came back and took one Section at a time to the positions he had decided on. He said that we would establish our H.Q. in an Arab house. We went around the positions and checked them for their digging in. The time was about 05:30 hours, 30th October 1948, and it was just getting light. An armored car arrived at our H.Q. and we told the driver to hide the car behind the house. We went into the house, and suddenly, I felt a bug bite my ear. When I told the driver, he said, “The place must be full of them,” so we went outside. Just then, we heard some heavy vehicles approaching, and Lt. Feldman went into the house, and over to the far window, and saw the headlights of heavy vehicles coming up the road from Tarshiha. The vehicles stopped on the bend and small rise of the road, just before the roadblock, and the headlights were extinguished. As it was not yet light we could not make out what type of vehicles these were. Lt. Feldman immediately got the armored car driver to move his vehicle to the edge of the building, so that the turret’s heavy machine-gun would be able to fire at the vehicles. This was carried out very quickly. I left him and moved to the Section’s position, picked them up and began the assault. All this time our men were firing at the vehicles, by order of Lt. Feldman. When we got quite close to the vehicles, our covering fire ceased and the Section’s machine-gunner started firing. When we got to the vehicles there were no Arabs about. There were two 3-ton lorries, and behind the first one was a 75-mm gun. I sent out the Section’s machine-gun group, just in case the Arabs decided on a counterattack. I called Lt. Feldman over, and we searched the vehicles and found that they were loaded with ammunition and detonators; we also found a case with photographs, the gun’s logbook and some personnel kits. Lt. Feldman phoned the battalion commander, who joined us. We scouted around for some distance to see whether there were any Arabs nearby, but there weren’t any: all we found was a broken torch on the road 100 meters away from the trucks. It seemed that whoever was in the vehicle must have run away. The intelligence officer arrived and took a look at our prize. Ten minutes later the gun was taken away with the lorries, and we were told later that the gun was used in the fighting at Malkiya.
Lt. Feldman said that we should move up the big hill in front of us, just in case the Arabs decided to counterattack and that we’d have a terrific advantage on this hill; by this time it was 09:00 hours. We moved up the hill, took up our positions and waited. At 16:00 hours we had orders to move back to Sasa and pick up vehicles, as we were on the move again to map reference 18822703. There we had a break and a light snack, and half an hour later we moved again to map reference 18892722 for a short break, and soon moved off again. Our orders were that we were to be in reserve at Malkiya; we moved very slowly and in no time it was dark. At 23:30 hours, 30th October 1948, we moved into a Police Post, disembarking while Lt. Feldman prepared our defense positions, and when he had finished, we took the men to the positions. We heard some vehicles arriving at the post, so we rushed down and found that Brigadier Ben Dunkelman had arrived. He said to Lt. Feldman, “How is everything?” He also asked how he had arranged his positions. We walked around with him, and he seemed very pleased with everything. He also said that he would like one of our sections to move to a bridge half a kilometer away. Lt. Feldman asked me to get the men ready to move, and then went into one of the rooms with the brigadier. When he returned, he gave instructions to Corporal Smith and they moved off. This altered our strength and therefore we had to rearrange our positions. When all this was done it was 03:00 hours, 31st October 1948, and Lt. Feldman and I went around the positions, checking them. He told me there were some unexploded bombs in the area and that we should go around the area with a torch and try to find them. We found two grenades and one Piat bomb which we marked by placing small rocks around them; later on, they were blown up by the demolition squad. The battalion commander arrived and gave us our orders: to take the platoon up the hills, which he pointed out on the map, and clear the refugees off them, and to move off as soon as we’d been relieved by another unit, which would be at about 08:00 hours. As soon as the relieving troops arrived, we got the platoon together and moved off towards the range of hills. When we had almost reached the crest of the highest hill, we saw a herd of cows, some goats and a few mules. The goats were right on top of the crest, with a few over on the other side. Lt Feldman ordered four men to round them up and take them down to the Police Post. Seeing some Arab refugees, he sent out one section to drive them right off the hill, giving our men orders not to shoot unless the Arabs were armed or became aggressive. Meanwhile, the men were rounding up the goats. As this was happening an Arab machine-gun opened fire, and we all took cover. Then the machine-gun stopped firing, and the men got the goats over the hill. Lt. Feldman gave orders for us to move over the crest and take up defensive positions, shouting down to the men of the Section who had cleared the Arabs off to join us. He got one of the snipers to return to the Police Post to ask for reinforcements.
Again the Arabs opened fire with their heavy machine-gun, and it became obvious that the Arab refugees had probably disturbed the Arab fighters when they went around a small hill to our left, and that’s where the machine-gun was. Lt. Feldman and I then went around and checked our positions which were not too good, as we had no shovels to dig-in. Everyone was very tired and thirsty, as our water bottles were empty, with no supplies in sight. As we reached each position, Lt. Feldman praised the men and told them that all would be well, which inspired them with confidence. Reinforcements arrived quickly; they had brought a wireless and took up positions on our right flank. Lt. Feldman asked me to stay with the wireless in case any messages came through, while he’d check our position and get map references to aim mortar fire behind the hill, where the Arabs had a machine-gun; then he went off to the left flank. He was gone but five minutes, when the company commander arrived and asked me where he was. Leaving his runner with me, he went off to find Lt. Feldman; it was 15:30 hours. Suddenly, there was a tremendous burst of firing. I wanted to go and see what was happening, but a message came over the phone asking for the company commander, so I sent the runner out to find him. A minute later he returned with the company commander, who was looking very pale. I asked him what had happened, and where was Lt. Feldman? He said nothing, just grabbed the phone and spoke to the battalion commander. When he’d finished, he told me that the Arabs must have been moving up the hill under cover of the dense shrub, and had suddenly opened fire on us, but we’d driven them off very quickly, killing one Arab and wounding others. He then told me that Lt. Feldman had been killed. The shock was great. A few of us got together, found a stretcher, and brought him back to our H.Q.
His death was a terrible loss to all of us. He had been our platoon officer for six months, and there was no one we trusted more, for he was a fine man and an excellent leader. One very personal thing I will always remember was a remark he often made during our months of training, when some of the boys were making too much noise. He would say in an irritable manner, “Stop talking, please.” It became a byword in the camp, and somehow, whenever I hear that remark, I always think of him.
We stayed on the hill for another 36 hours, and then we were relieved.
64509 Sgt. Jack Franses
25th February, 1949
