20-a.Nuqueib Part 1.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence, I submitted the following article to SHEMA, the newsletter of Judith's synagogue.
It has just been published - slightly shortened:

46 years ago in Israel: The Nuqeib Action

Despite many months of protests through the United Nations, Israeli boats that were fishing legally on the Sea of Galilee were repeatedly shelled from a Syrian army position at Nuqeib, just north of kibbutz Ein Gev. Syrian Nuqeib lies on the eastern shore of the lake, exactly opposite Tiberias on the western shore - see the map.

In March 1962 the Israel government finally decided to attack and demolish the Syrian position. The task was given to the Golani infantry brigade, in which I served at the time as the brigade medical officer. So I was put in charge of the casualty clearing station for the action.

My recruitment for compulsory military service had been postponed until after I had graduated from medical school in Jerusalem. After a short course of military medicine, I was posted as medical officer to the Barak battalion of the Golani Brigade. My work consisted mainly of inspecting the camp's hygiene and sanitation and dealing with the soldiers' routine medical complaints. After a year, I was promoted to become the brigade's medical officer, with the temporary rank of captain. Now I was able to attend also the medical rounds at the nearby hospital once a week. But just as I was due to present a case at the next meeting, I was told to cancel my visit - without revealing the planned action at Nuqeib, of course.

On Friday 16th March 1962 all the combat units reached kibbutz Ein Gev under cover of darkness. I was met by my cousin Reuven, a veteran of the kibbutz, who was in charge of local security. He suggested that I set up my clearing station in one of their underground shelters. But I decided on a location with easy access from the battle area and for medical evacuation, in an open yard just inside the kibbutz gate. Now an enclosure for ostriches stands on that spot. We erected the tent for receiving casualties and by the light of the incandescent kerosene lantern we prepared our medical equipment, assembled some intravenous drip sets - and waited.

When the attack on Nuqeib started, the Syrian artillery on the Golan ridge above began an intensive shelling of the area. Some of the shells exploded in the kibbutz yard, quite near to our tent. Several times, shell fragments tore through the tent canvass but fortunately nobody was injured and n equipment was damaged.

Before long, casualties from the battlefield began to arrive. Ignoring the continuously exploding shells around us, we examined and treated the injured, completed their documentation and arranged their ambulance transport around the lake to Poriya hospital above Tiberias. Several soldiers were dead on arrival at my tent. I cannot now recall the numbers - but later I ascertained that all 30 casualties who had arrived alive at my clearing tent had also reached the hospital alive.

One of the dressers in my team had forgotten his steel helmet in camp, whereas I found it most cumbersome to perform my work while wearing my steel helmet. So I gave it to him. During the fighting, one of my battalion medical officers actually did sustain a penetrating head injury - despite wearing his steel helmet. Luckily he later made a full recovery.

After some hours, the stream of the casualties ceased and I assumed that the fighting was over. But the field telephone wires to the command post had been cut by the shells, despite being repaired twice. Dawn was breaking, but the Syrian shelling was still going on. Thanks to my previous visits to Ein Gev, I was the only person in my tent who knew where the shelter with the command post was located. So I retrieved my helmet and ran there to ask for instructions. I was told to dismantle my tent and withdraw to the force's assembly area in the Yavne'el Valley, across Lake Tiberias.

When we got there, I lay down in one of the ambulances and promptly fell asleep. As a result, I missed the visits by David Ben Gurion the prime minister and by the chief of staff Zvi Tzur. In the afternoon we returned to our camps and I was given home leave. The next morning two Army reporters arrived at our flat in Jerusalem. They said that I had been recommended for mention in dispatches by the chief of the general staff and they required photos. For the following few weeks, whenever a door was slammed loudly, it made me start and I ducked instinctively.

During the next independence day celebrations, I attended President Yitzhak Ben Zvi's customary reception to honour soldiers who had been mentioned in despatches. As usual, this was not followed by any sort of party.

(continued in next blog)