JEWS WHO FOUGHT WITH THE BRITISH DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
The number of enlisted Jews in the First World War was estimated at around 50,000.
Five Jewish soldiers won the Victoria Cross.
Jews formed their own unit, the Zion Mule Corps, fighting at Gallipoli and the Dardanelles in 1915.
Later, in 1918, three Jewish units, the 38th, 39th and 40th battalions of the Royal Fusiliers were in the Jewish Legion under General Allenby in Palestine. These regiments were disbanded after the First World War.
Many Eastern European Jews were in the Pioneer Corps, working as labourers on the trenches.
World War I
"In Israel under Ottoman rule, young men who lived in the moshavot around Zichron Ya'akov formed an organization called the Gideonites. During the war, this organization served as the basis for NILI (the initials of netzach yisrael lo yeshaker--I Sam. 15:29), which engaged in active espionage for great Britain, under the leadership of the agronomist Aaron Aaronson. On the other hand, during the war several thousand Jewish residents of Israel were inducted into the Turkish army; a few of them were trained and appointed as officers and NCOs in the Turkish army. Examples are Moshe Sharett, Dov Hoz (who later deserted to the British army), Alexander Aaronson, and Elimelekh Zelikovich (Avner); the latter eventually became a senior commander in the Haganah.
Important developments in the military sector of the Zionist enterprise took place during World War I in the British army, which fought against the Turks. The first of these developments occurred in Egypt in 1915, when the Zion Mule Corps was formed, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, an Irishman, and Captain Joseph Trumpeldor. The Zion Mule Corps joined the British Expeditionary Force that landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Dardanelles (May 1915) and saw action there until the British were forced to evacuate their strongholds (January 1916). Almost all the soldiers of this corps were Jews who had been expelled by the Turkish authorities from Israel because of their alien citizenship.
Only after the setback in Gallipoli and relentless petitioning in British government circles in London by Jabotinsky, Rutenberg, and Trumpeldor did the British War Office agree, in September 1917, to the formation of a new infantry regiment based on nearly one hundred veterans of the Mule Corps who had come to Britain, plus Jewish émigrés from Russia who had settled in Britain and agreed to join a Jewish combat unit. Thus, the 38th king's Fusiliers came into being in southern England under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, the former commander of the Zion Mule Corps, which had been dismantled. In February 1918, the 38th Fusiliers was transferred to egypt, and took part in the British offensive of September 1918 under General Edmund Allenby. The regiment, then stationed in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, participated in crossing the Jordan River eastward in the direction of Salt. Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky was a deputy commander of this regiment, with the honorary rank of lieutenant.
A second Jewish regiment, the 39th king's Fusiliers, was formed in Britain immediately after the 38th shipped out. The 39th Fusiliers, composed of Jewish volunteers from the United States and Canada, plus Jewish emigres from Russia, was sent to Egypt in April 1918 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Eliezer Margolin, who had led a battalion in the Australian expeditionary force on the French front. During its maneuvers in Egypt, this regiment began to absorb Israeli Jewish volunteers who had enlisted in the British army after the British occupied the southern half of Israel. The trained half of this regiment fought alongside the 38th king's Fusiliers in September 1918. A third Jewish regiment, the 40th king's Fusiliers, was created on the basis of Jewish volunteers from the United States and Canada (including David Ben-Gurion and Itzchak Ben-Tzvi, who had been expelled from Israel by the Turks, as well as Dov Joseph and Nehemia Rabin). This regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel, reached Egypt in August 1918 and began to take on Jewish volunteers who had come over from Israel (including Eliyahu Golomb, Dov Hoz, Berl Katznelson, and several members of Hashomer). The 40th king's Fusiliers was transferred from egypt to Israel, but too late to see action.
Almost all the members of the three Jewish regiments were discharged immediately after the end of World War I in November 1918. Those from Britain and Israel returned to their respective countries and some of those from North America settled in Israel to realize their Zionist convictions. Representatives of the Zionist Executive in Britain and Israel persuaded the British authorities to establish a Jewish volunteer regiment (commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Eliezer Margolin), as part of the armed forces garrisoned in Israel. This regiment, known as the First Judeans, was organized in 1919 at Sarafand (now Tsrifin), but the British did not allow it to take part in either the incidents in Tel Chai and Jerusalem in 1920, nor during the arab disturbances in May 1921. Thereafter, when violence broke out on the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, Margolin sent part of the regiment into action on his own initiative. In response, the British disbanded it. Meir Pa'il. (Israeli military historian)
Also see C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\The Roadmap to\The Zion Muleteers of Gallipoli.htm
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In World War II, the Arabs were very slow to enter the war against Hitler.
Only Transjordan went along with the British in 1939.
Iraq was taken over by pro-Nazis in 1941 and joined the Axis powers.
Most of the Arab states sat on the fence, waiting until 1945 to see who would win. By then, Germany was doomed and, since it was necessary to join the war to qualify for membership in the nascent United Nations, the Arabs belatedly began to declare war against Germany in 1945:
Egypt declared war on February 25;
Syria declared war on February 27;
Lebanon declared war on February 28;
Saudi Arabia declared war on March 2.
30,000 Palestinian Jews fought against Nazi Germany.
Myths and facts.
PALESTINE SINCE THE ROMANS.
HOA MANY ARABS FOUGHT WITH THE BRITISH ?
HOW MANY JEWS FOUGHT WITH THE BRITISH ?
THE BALFOUR DECLARATON 1917.
ZIONIST PROPOSALS 1919.
THE WEIZMANN - FAISAL AGREEMENT 1919.
THE FORSAKEN PROMISE.
For further, more detailed information click on www.adespicabletruce.org.uk