40,000 Israelis Celebrate Anniversary of Jewish Combat Unit

More than 40,000 spectators heard Premier Mcshe Sharett, Defense Minister David Ben Gurion and British Ambassador J. Nicholls pay tribute here to the combat and auxiliary units of the Jewish Brigade on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Brigade’s entry into battle on the Italian front.

Premier Sharett also told the huge audience in Ramath Gan’s stadium that these units helped in the ingathering of exiles and in saving scattered displaced Jews throughout Europe in the days after the fighting ended. He also praised the vision of Sir Winston Churchill, and his chivalrous attitude, in enabling Jewish fighters to participate in the struggle under their own flag, along with a million other Jews serving in the Allied armies.

The British Ambassador to Israel addressed the rally and said that Britain, with allies great and small, had fought twice in a generation for the survival of freedom and that in both fights Jews had played a gallant and worthy part as individuals, within Allied units, and in Jewish units. “We remember with gratitude,” he said, “the Zion Mule Corps, the Judean Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, those who participated with the Eighth Army, and four thousand girls who served with the A. T. C. and the W. A. A. F.”

Recalling Churchill’s invitation to form the Jewish Brigade, he characterized it as a climax to a long record of brave and devoted service. He also recalled his own service in the Eighth Army, when he saw the blue and white shoulder patches and Magen David of the Brigade. The Ambassador also read a cable from Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden in which he said, “I send my cordial greetings to former members of the Jewish Brigade group on this tenth anniversary of their entry into the line in Italy. We remember with gratitude their valuable contribution to the Allied cause.”