Battle of Nur Shams
| 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom British Army |
| ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| 23px Brigadier John Fullerton Evetts M.C., Commanding 16th Infantry Brigade. |
Local rebel commander Ibrahim Nassar | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 450 | 80 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| the British army:2 killed, 4 wounded | Arabs: 10 killed, 2 wounded | ||||||
On June 21, 1936, Arab militants attacked a convoy of civilian buses escorted by British soldiers in Mandatory Palestine near the town of Anabta along the road from Tel Aviv to Haifa. Two British soldiers were killed, along with 10 (or 11) Arabs in what the New York Herald Tribune termed a "major fight" in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine.[1]
Battle
A convoy of Egged (company) civilian buses was traveling from Tel Aviv to Haifa under the protection of British troops when it was attacked from ambush by Arab irregulars at a point about 3 miles east of Nur-el-Shems by an estimated 60-70 Arab fighters in an encounter that rapidly escalated into a "pitched battle."[2].[3][4][5] Sergeant Henry Sills of the Seaforth Highlanders was killed early in the battle; his body dragged off the road and into a cave by Arab irregulars.[6][7][4] Fighting began at 11am and continued until night fell.[3] Reinforcements arrived from Tulkarem.[3]
Arab fighters had blocked the road with a "barricade of stones," firing on the convoy from cover when it halted to remove the barricade.[4] The second soldier killed was a private in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.[8] 3 British battalions and 4 airplanes took part in the battle against an unknown number of Arab militants; three British planes were hit by Arab gunfire but managed to land safely at the airport in Tulkarem.[7][3] Arab fighters were able to hold the British troops "at bay" until the arrival of British airplanes, machine gun fire from the planes separated the Arabs into two sections that British troops were then able to "encircle and rout."[7] British aircraft then arrived to transport the wounded to hospital.[7][9] The Guardian described the ambush as, "the most serious fighting since disturbances began," two months earlier. [3]
One of a series of British military actions on the day following this ambush was to send troops to the cave into which Sargent Sills had been dragged; there the British captured 2 militants and "blew up" the cave using dynamite.[10]
References
- ↑ "The Revolt of 1936; A Revision,"Matthew Kraig Kelly, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44 No. 2, Winter 2015; (pp. 28-42) DOI: 10.1525/jps.2015.44.2.28.
- ↑ Michael Williams (25 October 1936). Commonweal. Commonweal Pub. Corp. p. 266. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
A number of casualties were reported from Palestine as clashes between Arabs and British troops occurred in the Tel Aviv region. The most serious occurrence was a battle at Anabta involving bombers.
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- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "TWO BRITISH SOLDIERS KILLED IN PALESTINE FIGHTING: Arabs Machine-Gunned from the Air THREE 'PLANES HIT BY BULLETS IN FIERCE ENCOUNTER". The Guardian. 22 June 1936.
|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Arabs Attack Hebrew University, Settlements and Troops". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 23 June 1936. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ↑ "Another Fight Palestine". The Scotsman. 26 June 1936. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ↑ "Special cable to the New York Times (22 June 1936). "British Planes Used to Rout Palestine Arabs; One Solider and 11 Terrorists Are Killed". New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "British Troops, Trapped, Lose 2, Kill 10 Arabs," New York Herald Tribune, Jun 22, 1936, [1].
- ↑ "Scots Soldiers Killed; Convoy Ambushed". The Scotsman. 22 June 1936. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ↑ Great Britain and the East, v. 47, p. 74, OCLC# 2447278.
- ↑ British Soldiers Kill 5 Arabs (23 June 1936). "British". The Baltimore Sun. AP. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
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