‘Harel’ Brigade report from the operations diary of Operation ‘Dani’
From the operations diary of Operation ‘Dani’: ‘Harel’ report for 16 to 19 July.
Carried out an aggressive reconnaissance of the village of Latrun with the intention of taking it.
Our forces: concentrated a battalion by Positions 81, 35 and 82, in our hands. Cannon on the ‘Masrek’, 6” mortars at the lower pumps and 3” mortars at Saris.
Initiated action: capture of Dir-Amar; patrol at Katana; attempt to occupy the Dir-Ayub Positions; patrol the Positions around Tsuba and destroy the existing positions; occupy Hartuv and Rafat. The 6th Battalion captured Beit-Tul and Hirbet Nataf and advanced 1km from the Beit-Nuba Positions;
On the night of 18 July an attack was carried out on the Beit-Nuba Positions by a two company force from ‘Harel’ Brigade – B Company from the 6th Battalion and Zivi Company from the 5th Battalion, under the command of Amos Horev. Zivi’s force advanced to capture the new Position but the aerial of the walkie-talkie broke and no communication was possible between the commander of the operation and Zivi. When B Company arrived at the Position Zivi’s Company was not found. When communication was re-established it turned out that Zivi decided to draw his Company back in the absence of communications. Horev ordered him to join him.
At dawn the forces were spread out as follows:
B Company held the western section of the Hirbet Hital A-Tsnuber Position.
Half of Zivi’s Company was at Hirbet Marj A-Zarur.
The second half of the Company was south of Nataf (a village it had taken) at Bir-Gabir range.
At 08:00 hours the force opened fire on the following targets: the village of Bet-Nuba, the Latrun road to Beit-Sira, the Jordanian ‘Burma Road’ from Bet-Nuba to Beit-Likia. Within a few minutes Jordanian shelling started and their armoured cars attacked the force a number of times.
B Company of the 61st Battalion was sent that same night to take the Hirbet Abu-Lahem Position – as a diversion – as well as to safeguard the eastern wing of the 6th Battalion which was operating at the Beit-Nuba Positions. The Legion’s forces attacked this Company and reinforcements were sent in support – B Company from the 4th Battalion under the command of Dado Elazar. At the time that they started to climb towards the Position the commander of the force from the 61st Battalion was killed and they started to retreat. The Company C.O. of the 4th Battalion captured the Position adjacent to Abu-Lahem and amassed those retreating. This set out an important fact: by the time the cease-fire came into force the Position was included in the control of the IDF.
This operation was supported by a mule platoon, which helped them to haul the wounded and supplies, in the face of the difficulty of reaching the positions with on foot.
On the night of 18 July the Arab village of Kasla (Kislon) was taken by a platoon from the 4th Battalion.
On the morning of the 18 July a Company from the 4th Battalion left Tsora and took the villages of Islin and Ishua (Eshtaol) with almost no resistance. The Company continued southward, entered Artuf, captured the police station at Hartuv and the railway station and held the Dir-Aban Ridge while Arab forces continued to hold its other edge. This is the ‘Joint Position’ (today’s Beit Shemesh).
This completed ‘Harel’s’ operations in the framework of Operation ‘Dani’. The capture of the villages and the extension of the corridor permitted the delineation of a new route to Jerusalem, out of range of the Legion’s artillery. This route, after it was laid, was called ‘Valour Road’.
The 4th Battalion had five killed; the 6th Battalion had twenty killed and the 61st Battalion (from ‘Etzioni’ Brigade) had seven killed.
The names of the fallen:
§ Sara’a: Keleb Michael; Avraham Eli (4th Battalion)
§ Cannon Ridge: Yehuda Epirion; Hanan Gruber; Avraham Ben-Tikva; Leon Heuzer; Eliezer Hirsch; Meir Wiesel; Haim-Moshe Zilberstein; Ze’ev Ziso; Baruch Yeruhamzon; Tzvi Levin; Tzvi Miller; Yosef Matan, Yirmiahu Ragolant; Shimon Udi; Yehezkiel Inchi; Simha Pinkus; Eliezer Parchik; Yehuda Kremer (6th Battalion)
§ Beit-Numb: Eliezer Weiss; David-Zalman Landau (6th Battalion)
§ Dir Ayub (‘The Parallel Ridge’): Yair Rosenblatt (4th Battalion)
§ Hirbet Abu-Lahem: Mizrahi Yitzhak; Tzafati Yehuda (4th Battalion)
Beit Shemesh: Pesah Eliahu.
Our forces: concentrated a battalion by Positions 81, 35 and 82, in our hands. Cannon on the ‘Masrek’, 6” mortars at the lower pumps and 3” mortars at Saris.
Initiated action: capture of Dir-Amar; patrol at Katana; attempt to occupy the Dir-Ayub Positions; patrol the Positions around Tsuba and destroy the existing positions; occupy Hartuv and Rafat. The 6th Battalion captured Beit-Tul and Hirbet Nataf and advanced 1km from the Beit-Nuba Positions;
On the night of 18 July an attack was carried out on the Beit-Nuba Positions by a two company force from ‘Harel’ Brigade – B Company from the 6th Battalion and Zivi Company from the 5th Battalion, under the command of Amos Horev. Zivi’s force advanced to capture the new Position but the aerial of the walkie-talkie broke and no communication was possible between the commander of the operation and Zivi. When B Company arrived at the Position Zivi’s Company was not found. When communication was re-established it turned out that Zivi decided to draw his Company back in the absence of communications. Horev ordered him to join him.
At dawn the forces were spread out as follows:
B Company held the western section of the Hirbet Hital A-Tsnuber Position.
Half of Zivi’s Company was at Hirbet Marj A-Zarur.
The second half of the Company was south of Nataf (a village it had taken) at Bir-Gabir range.
At 08:00 hours the force opened fire on the following targets: the village of Bet-Nuba, the Latrun road to Beit-Sira, the Jordanian ‘Burma Road’ from Bet-Nuba to Beit-Likia. Within a few minutes Jordanian shelling started and their armoured cars attacked the force a number of times.
B Company of the 61st Battalion was sent that same night to take the Hirbet Abu-Lahem Position – as a diversion – as well as to safeguard the eastern wing of the 6th Battalion which was operating at the Beit-Nuba Positions. The Legion’s forces attacked this Company and reinforcements were sent in support – B Company from the 4th Battalion under the command of Dado Elazar. At the time that they started to climb towards the Position the commander of the force from the 61st Battalion was killed and they started to retreat. The Company C.O. of the 4th Battalion captured the Position adjacent to Abu-Lahem and amassed those retreating. This set out an important fact: by the time the cease-fire came into force the Position was included in the control of the IDF.
This operation was supported by a mule platoon, which helped them to haul the wounded and supplies, in the face of the difficulty of reaching the positions with on foot.
On the night of 18 July the Arab village of Kasla (Kislon) was taken by a platoon from the 4th Battalion.
On the morning of the 18 July a Company from the 4th Battalion left Tsora and took the villages of Islin and Ishua (Eshtaol) with almost no resistance. The Company continued southward, entered Artuf, captured the police station at Hartuv and the railway station and held the Dir-Aban Ridge while Arab forces continued to hold its other edge. This is the ‘Joint Position’ (today’s Beit Shemesh).
This completed ‘Harel’s’ operations in the framework of Operation ‘Dani’. The capture of the villages and the extension of the corridor permitted the delineation of a new route to Jerusalem, out of range of the Legion’s artillery. This route, after it was laid, was called ‘Valour Road’.
The 4th Battalion had five killed; the 6th Battalion had twenty killed and the 61st Battalion (from ‘Etzioni’ Brigade) had seven killed.
The names of the fallen:
§ Sara’a: Keleb Michael; Avraham Eli (4th Battalion)
§ Cannon Ridge: Yehuda Epirion; Hanan Gruber; Avraham Ben-Tikva; Leon Heuzer; Eliezer Hirsch; Meir Wiesel; Haim-Moshe Zilberstein; Ze’ev Ziso; Baruch Yeruhamzon; Tzvi Levin; Tzvi Miller; Yosef Matan, Yirmiahu Ragolant; Shimon Udi; Yehezkiel Inchi; Simha Pinkus; Eliezer Parchik; Yehuda Kremer (6th Battalion)
§ Beit-Numb: Eliezer Weiss; David-Zalman Landau (6th Battalion)
§ Dir Ayub (‘The Parallel Ridge’): Yair Rosenblatt (4th Battalion)
§ Hirbet Abu-Lahem: Mizrahi Yitzhak; Tzafati Yehuda (4th Battalion)
Beit Shemesh: Pesah Eliahu.