By Barry Rosenfeld
Part 1 Part 2
The Zion Mule Corps saw action in the Gallipolis Campaign in April of that year. Together with the first British, Australian, New Zealand and French troops the corps landed on the peninsula on April 25th. There they met with heavy shelling and machine-gun fire at the shore of Cape Helles. During the engagement, Trumpeldor who was second in command, and who had earlier lost his left arm while fighting in the Russian Army in 1902 at Port Arthur against the Japanese, was shot in the shoulder. Writing later of the event Patterson reported: “Many of the Zionists whom I thought somewhat lacking in courage showed themselves fearless to a degree when under heavy fire, while Captain Trumpeldor actually revelled in it, and the hotter it became the more he liked it…” Jabotinsky served as an officer and a young man who served with the rank of corporeal was named David Gruen, later to become David Ben Gurion and the first Prime Minister of Israel.
In an interview with the British Jewish Chronicle later that year, Patterson said: “These brave lads who had never seen shellfire before most competently unloaded the boats and handled the mules whilst shells were bursting in close proximity to them … nor were they in any way discouraged when they had to plod their way to Seddul Bahr, walking over dead bodies while the bullets flew around them … for two days and two nights we marched … thanks to the ZMC the 29th Division did not meet with a sad fate, for the ZMC were the only Army Service Corps in that part of Gallipolli at that time.” Of the 300 men who saw action under Patterson, 14 were killed. The remaining fighters had been assigned to the Australian and New Zealand forces who had discourteously refused to fight with them sending them back to Egypt.
Later in the war, in the summer of 1917, a Jewish Legion was formed mostly of Jewish volunteers from the US and Canada including some British members. At that time Patterson was promoted to full Colonel and given command of the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, one of three battalions that made up the Legion.
In February of 1918 Patterson had the honor of leading the 38th Fusiliers Battalion along with the other two battalions of the Jewish Legion, in a parade through Whitechapel Road as they were being shipped off to fight in Palestine. They were loudly applauded by the Jews of London as other bystanders looked on in amazement.
Although initially, because of anti-Semitism the British commanders in Palestine kept the Legion from fighting, in June of 1918 the force was brought from Egypt and sent to relieve the Grenadier Guards in Jaljulya. They were then attached to the 60th division and sent to the Jordan valley where they became a key element within the British line along the Melhallah rift. On September 19th they crossed the Jordan at Umm Es Shert and held Es Salt in what later became Transjordan.
To be continued …
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