A gun battle on the parade ground inside Sarafand camp, the biggest army base in Palestine, between men of the British Third Hussars and Jewish terrorists wearing the uniform of the Sixth Airborne Division was described by the prosecutor at a military court here today when the trial opened of two young Jews charged with seven offenses including discharging firearms at members of the British forces. Four of the charges are punishable by death.
The two accused, Yousel Simkhon, aged 19, and Isaac Michael Azbel, aged 24, refused to plead and dispensed with the services of a counsel. They declared that they refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the court on the grounds that they did not believe in the justice of a military court or the Defense Emergency Regulation under which they were charged.
The prosecutor said that between 30 and 40 Jews entered the Sarafand base in a stolen three-ton military truck on March 6 to raid the Husears’ ammunition dump. One of the Jews was wearing the insignia of a sergeant major of the Sixth Airborne division. The sentry at the ammunition tent was overpowered and the raiders began leading arms and ammunition on the truck. When the alarm was sounded, the Hussars closed in and a “regular battle” followed.
The Jews threw a hand grenade at a British sergeant major. It burst only a forest from him but he escaped injury. Taking cover behind armored cars on the parade ground, the Jews returned the Hussars’ fire and then escaped in the truck which, riddled with bullets and with a nine millimeter shell embedded in the chassis, was found later a few miles from the base.
The accused, wearing flannel trousers with open-neck shirts, were guarded by three British policemen armed with Stun guns. They smiled frequently to friends and relatives in the public gallery. The prosecutor said the two accused were captured a few miles from Sarafand by a British police inspector 30 minutes after the raid. They were found to have gunshot wounds which had been expertly dressed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
