When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.
The 14th Army, "the forgotten army", but some will remember them.
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About Me
- Jemmy Hope
- "Grandad's swearing at the telly..." (Alan Klein, "What a Crazy World.") Old, tired and somewhat disillusioned, but trying to keep up standards. Aware that capitalism cannot be reformed, but despairing of its dissolution in the near future, I use whatever means are available to me to avoid capitulation. I join forces with other resisters in the Industrial Workers of the World.
9 comments:
The largest single army in the world in WWII. Who would have known it?
I didn't know that, Chris. I believe the biggest component was Indian, with West Africans too. My old man and an uncle were with the British contingent. They were among the ones to get home to tell the tale, though the old fellow was pretty reticent about that stuff. But he always kept a newspaper clipping with a sketch of that memorial and the verse.
Hearing one's old man talking about "his" war is a unique experience..It takes a different dimension to the version you gather from books.. I can hear mine often narrate his 1948 war against the Israelis..He would tell that they, the Lebanese, won the battle of Al Malkiyyeh but were ordered to retreat after a cease fire was declared..All he was left with was a mixture of pride and bitterness. Yeah, and a missing toe, the big one, too.
TGIA
The 1948 war from the Arab perspective - not much of that in English. The only thing I've come across is an account of the fight for Jerusalem in Said Aburish's "The Children of Bethany".
Don't forget the 14th's great commander, General Slim!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Slim,_1st_Viscount_Slim
Jemmy..I had always thought that my dad could be exaggerating the outcome until one day I was reading something entirely different..A Palestinian journalist and publisher of the only newspaper which continued to appear during the war, had published then an article about a Lebanese brigade which had reconquered Al Malkiyyeh after a "heroic battle".. I saw the article with my own eyes ...It was the first time I've read about it anywhere..My dad's version is quite extensive..He mentioned that after they kicked out the Israelis, they stationed for days waiting for orders to advance further but the orders were to rather retreat to the Lebanese borders. He told me that the Lebanese authorities/commanders and also the religious authorities (the Patriarch of Lebanon) had concluded a separate deal of non aggression with the Israelis and left it there..He had always felt bitter about it and used to say, it was betrayal..But that's the history of Palestine..Betrayal everywhere as you know the king of Jordan, Abdullah (king Hussein's father) was complicit with the Israelis then and did not allow his troops, (the most effective of all the Arab armies as they were trained by the British and who were under the command of the British Gallup Pasha as he was referred to then), I learned it from Ilan Pappe's book) out of any effective combat. Ben Gurion had promised the king he'd leave the West Bank to Jordan. Later the king was assassinated by a Palestinian for that very reason..
Thanks for the reminder, anonymous. My old man was not in the least militaristic or the deferential type, but he'd tell anyone of his admiration for Bill Slim. I've long intended to find out what made Slim stand out from the rest of military command, but never got round to it till I followed your link.
A couple of quotes -
British soldiers don't love their commanders much less worship them; Fourteenth Army trusted Slim and thought of him as one of themselves, and perhaps his real secret was that the feeling was mutual.(George MacDonald Fraser)
His blunt honesty, lack of bombast and unwillingness to play courtier did him few favours in the corridors of power. Only his soldiers never wavered in their devotion. (MaxHastings)
TG, this is a bit of hidden history, either deliberately suppressed or casually discarded as not fitting within the 'agreed' version of events ("What is history but lies agreed upon." N. Bonaparte)
I would suggest the former explanation, as the Lebanese powers would not wish for their treachery to be broadcast.
King Abdullah was Hussein's grandfather (as you may know). The story of Hussein's father, Talal, is another piece of hidden, or distorted history.
My mistake..Hussein's grandfather of course..Talal the father who's reign was a summer's rain..One year all in all.
TGIA
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