Palestine in the forties

Alan P

Active member
Hello Everybody

I thought the members of the Forum would be interested this tale.
Twenty years ago I was on the road leading from Haifa to Jerusalem. I noticed a British Military Cemetery on the left hand side of the road, which at the time seemed out of place
On returning home to England I contacted a friend who is older than me who was in the Parachute Regiment in Palestine during 1947-48.
He put his head in his hands when I asked about the cemetery in Haifa
He composed himself, and said he had been in Haifa and at that time
The Parachute Regiment of which he belonged needed a bugler to play at the funeral of two British soldiers who had been killed by terrorists. He said he had learned to play the bugle in the Army cadets and volunteered too play at the funeral which he did.
He said it didn’t end there, because he was given the job of playing at all the British soldiers funerals at the Haifa cemetery which at that time was beginning to get regular each week.
He said it was quite heart breaking and I am sure you will all agree it must have been
The man in question was named Dave (Joe) Bell and he was a strong friendly character who played a lot of rugby league.
Although I never asked him he said it had affected him all his life without a week going by that he didn't think about it. I am sorry to write he died not long ago.
I am sure some of ex military members of the Forum particularly LeEnfield will remember the Haifa area and maybe Dave (Joe) Bell
 
Speculate on how history would have changed had the British allowed more Jewish refugees into Palestine in the late 1930's and early '40's?

This region, at that time, is a neglected and very interesting period of history. How many know of the "Arab revolt" in Palestine, or the Iraq revolt or the invasion of Syria; or Ben Gurion’s decisions re: WWII?
 
If we had let more Jews into Palestine in the 1930's we would have had a bigger problem as they took up arms against the British to try and set up an independent state. We had the leaders in what is known as Iran who had allowed German soldiers into their country as tourist and who then led an uprising against the British, then we had the Jewish element doing the same thing and at the same time were fighting in North Africa and Crete not to mention Malta, so we had our hands pretty full out there
 
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