Five Palestine Jewish units are fighting in Italy, and two of them were among the first Allied troops to land on the continent, it was disclosed here today by Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz, until recently the senior chaplain of the British Eighth Army. After the fall of Crete, when 1,500 Palestine troops were captured, there were only four Palestine units left, Major Rabinowitz said, while now there are 20,000 Jews from the Holy Land fighting in the British Army.
The chaplain, who spoke on a special BBC broadcast, reviewed the participation of the Palestine Jews in the drive across the top of Africa from Egypt to French North Africa, and said the road from El Alamein to Tripoli is strewn with their graves. From the ranks of these veteran African fighters, he revealed, the British drew the leaders of the Arab-Jewish commandos who participated in the Abyssinian campaign. Other Jewish units, he said, are now at Malta. He disclosed that a large contingent of Jewish troops was lost en route to Malta some months ago.
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