That December, Marcus was approached in New York by Major Shlomo Shamir, representing the "Provisional Jewish Government." Shamir had been sent to America to recruit a military expert to help organize and train the army of the soon-to-be-born state. At first Marcus agreed to help Shamir find such an individual, but it quickly became apparent that Marcus himself was the prime candidate. His wife vigorously opposed any such adventure, but Marcus argued that what he would be doing would be no different than what the Marquis de Lafayette, Friedrich von Steuben or Tadeusz Kosciuszko had done during the American Revolution.
Under the nom de guerre "Michael Stone," Marcus flew to Palestine in January 1948. The United Nations had voted to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states effective October 1, 1948. The British were to remain in control of the mandate until then. Since 1945, both sides had engaged in constant guerrilla warfare against each other and against the British. Many of the Arab countries were determined that the state of Israel would never come into existence.
An armoured truck tries to reach Jerusalem from the "Burma Road", during the siege of the city.
The Jewish situation was desperate. The surrounding Arab states comprised about 100 times the territory and 60 times the population of the would-be Jewish state. As soon as the Jews declared their independence, the forces of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Trans-Jordan (later Jordan) were poised to invade. The Arab forces, however, were a mixed lot, ranging from the Arab Liberation Army--a ragged collection of poorly trained volunteers--to the 6,000-strong Trans-Jordan Arab Legion, a modern, elite fighting force with British officers and commanded by the legendary British Maj. Gen. John Bagot Glubb.
Opposing the Arabs, the Jews had the clandestine Haganah, with a mobilization strength of about 30,000, commanded by Israel Galili. The crack 2,500-man Palmach, under Colonel Yigael Allon, was the only full-time force within the Haganah. The Haganah was short on weapons and had only a few light observation aircraft and no artillery. What passed for its armored force consisted of locally fabricated armored cars made by bolting steel plates onto trucks.
The situation was made worse by the fact that the British maintained a strict arms embargo while they still controlled Palestine. The embargo hurt the Jews but did not affect the Arab forces outside the country. The Jews had just two things going for them. First, although the Arabs were set to attack from all sides, there was no unity of command or synchronization of effort. Second, with the exception of the Legion, the Arab forces were notoriously poor night fighters.
Reporting directly to future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Marcus toured the country, visiting Haganah bases, examining troop dispositions and evaluating training programs. He made recommendations that he believed were necessary to transform the largely underground organization into a modern, effective strike force.
June 1948 – "Burma Road"
Marcus recommended that the Haganah adopt the self-contained brigade as its basic combat formation. He also accurately predicted to Ben-Gurion that the southern Negev Desert would be Israel's first theater of war. To assist the Haganah training program, Marcus tried to have U.S. Army field manuals smuggled into the country. When that failed, he attacked the problem in characteristic fashion by sitting down and drafting his own manuals from memory, specifically tailored to the needs of the fledgling Jewish army. Marcus stressed taking initiative and decisive action. He also emphasized solid staff work at higher levels and the importance of logistics.
In April, Marcus returned briefly to the United States when his wife fell ill. The British, meanwhile, tired of being caught in the middle of a no-win situation, decided to withdraw their troops from Palestine early, on May 15. The British officer corps in the region, however, remained with the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion.
Marcus returned to Palestine in early May. Israel declared its independence at 4:30 p.m. on May 14. Within hours, as Marcus had predicted, two Egyptian brigades, supported by tanks and artillery, advanced into the Negev. On Marcus' recommendation, Ben-Gurion sent a small element of 30 radio- and machine-gun-equipped jeeps and a company of halftrack-mounted infantry south to reinforce the Haganah defensive outposts and to act as a raiding and harassing force. Marcus accompanied the force as an adviser.
I.D.F Homemade armor advancing to Jerusalem through the Judean Hills, October 1948.
Hindered by a daring combination of hit-and-run attacks and night raids against its flanks and long supply lines, the Egyptian advance slowed to a crawl and eventually halted. In the north of the country, Palmach units under Moshe Dayan checked the Syrian advance toward the Jordan River valley. By the end of May the main crisis point had shifted to Jerusalem. The Arab Legion already held the ancient Holy City, and they were trying to cut off the remainder of the new city before any United Nations–brokered cease-fire took effect.
The key to Jerusalem was a series of hill fortifications and a massively fortified police station at Latrun that dominated the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem Road. So long as the Arab Legion held those positions, Jerusalem was effectively cut off. On May 25, the Jewish forces mounted an attack on Latrun but were driven back with heavy casualties. On close examination of the failure, the Israeli leadership realized that the attack had suffered from the lack of a single unified command.
After consulting with his cabinet, Ben-Gurion decided on a bold and unorthodox move. On May 28, the provisional government issued the following order: "Brigadier General Stone is hereby appointed Commander of the Jerusalem front, with command over the Etzioni, Har-El and 7th Brigades." Mickey Marcus finally had his combat command. Up until that time, brigades were the highest level of field command in the Israeli army. Now Marcus was the equivalent of a division commander. His rank title in Hebrew was aluf, and he was the first Jewish soldier to hold that rank since Judas Maccabeus, 2,100 years before.
Marcus immediately organized another attack on Latrun for May 30. When that attack also failed, he started looking for another way to break the ring around Jerusalem. After a brainstorming session with his staff and a personal ground reconnaissance, Marcus became convinced it would be possible to improve a series of goat trails running through the rocky and tortuous terrain sufficiently to handle truck traffic. Bypassing the dominating, enemy-held heights, the new road would connect with the main highway on either side of Latrun.
Marcus then convinced Ben-Gurion it could be done, and the prime minister committed the bulldozers, manpower and other necessary resources. The crews worked day and night on what Marcus wryly called "The Burma Road." In some sectors they had to work within 500 meters of the Arab positions. To protect the construction, and to keep the Arabs from figuring out what the Israelis were doing, Marcus deployed his fighting forces in an aggressive screen between the new road and the Latrun positions. Marcus also ordered another assault on Latrun, but it was more of a spoiling attack to keep the legion off-guard and to divert attention away from the construction. In planning that third attack, Marcus was assisted by the Palmach's chief of operations, Yitzhak Rabin--who later became Israel's prime minister and was tragically assassinated on November 4, 1995.
By June 7, one week after construction began, the road was open and the first truck convoys made the slow, hazardous passage. United Nations mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, meanwhile, had negotiated the cease-fire time for 10:00 a.m. on June 11, 1948. The siege of Jerusalem had been broken, however, and the Israelis had a credible claim on their land link with the city.
Bags are unloaded from a food convoy driving a ceasefire in Jerusalem, 1948.
The night before the cease-fire took effect, Marcus and his staff held a celebration in the ancient village of Abu Ghosh, some eight miles east of Jerusalem. In the early morning hours, Marcus found himself unable to sleep and went for a walk. On his way out, he was recognized by the sentry, who waved to him. Shortly after, the relief sentry showed up--25 minutes early. Not knowing that his commander was out walking around, the new sentry challenged the blanket-clad figure as soon as he saw him. Marcus replied in English, which confused the sentry, a recent immigrant. The sentry fired a shot in the air, but the figure in the dark kept coming. The sentry lowered his rifle and fired again. Mickey Marcus fell dead at 3:50 a.m. with a bullet through his heart--the last casualty before the cease-fire.
Marcus' troops brought him back to Tel Aviv in a coffin strapped to the hood of a jeep. Robert Capa, the internationally famous war photographer, accompanied the body. When they returned him to New York City, Marcus was escorted by Moshe Dayan and Yosef Hamburger, the Haganah commander of the blockade-running ship Exodus. After a funeral service at Union Temple, they took Marcus back to West Point, where he was buried on July 2, 1948--28 years to the day after he first reported there as a plebe. Among the mourners were Thomas E. Dewey, then governor of New York, and Maxwell Taylor, the superintendent of West Point.
In 1962, author Ted Berkman wrote Marcus' story in Cast a Giant Shadow. Four years later, the book was made into a movie, starring Kirk Douglas. Although the film's story line typified Hollywood's general lack of respect for historical fact, Douglas' portrayal of the irrepressible Marcus vividly captured the fiery spirit of the man.
David Ben-Gurion later said of Marcus: "He was the best man we had." His gravestone at West Point reads: "Colonel David Marcus--A Soldier for All Humanity."
Additional Sources:
www.dean.usma.edu
www.stateofisrael.com
en.wikipedia.org
info.jpost.com
www.jerusalem-archives.org
www.jr.co.il
amichai.com
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on May 05:
1352 Ruprecht Roman catholic German king
1749 Jean-Frederic Edelmann composer
1813 Søren Kierkegaard Denmark, philosopher (founded Existentialism)
1818 Karl Marx philosopher (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital)
1823 James Allen Hardie Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1876
1832 H H Bancroft historian, publisher (History of the Pacific States)
1833 Ferdinand von Richthofen German geographer/explorer
1846 Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland, author (Quo Vadis, Nobel 1905)
1849 Hambletonian Chester NY, greatest standardbred horse
1867 Nellie Bly [Elizabeth Cochran Seaman] journalist
1879 Symon Petlyura leader Ukraine (pogroms)
1883 Charles Bender only American Indian in baseball's Hall of Fame
1884 Wang Tjing-Wei premier China (1932-35)
1887 Lord Geoffrey Fisher of Lambeth archbishop of Canterbury
1894 Kit Guard Denmark, actor (El Diablo Rides, Kid Courageous)
1899 Freeman Gosden Richmond VA, radio actor (Amos-Amos 'n' Andy)
1900 Mervyn A Ellison British astronomer (spectrohelioscope)
1900 Spencer Tracy actor (Captians Courageous, Pat and Mike, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner....)
1903 James Beard US, culinary expert/author (Delights & Prejudices)
1907 Benny Baker St Joseph MO, actor (18 Again, Sting II, Thunderbirds)
1908 Rex [Reginald Carey] Harrison Huyton Lancashire England, actor (My Fair Lady, Doctor Dolittle, Cleopatra)
1910 William I Martin US pilot/Vice-Admiral (WWII)
1911 Phillip Edmund Clinton Manson-Bahr specialist in tropical medicine
1912 Alice Faye [Ann Jeanne Leppert] New York NY, actress (Barricade, King Kong, State Fair)
1913 Tyrone Power Cleveland OH, actor (Mark of Zorro, Alexander's Ragtime Band)
1922 Phil Gordon Meridian MS, actor/singer (Jasper-Bev Hillbillies)
1926 Ann B Davis Schenectady NY, actress (Bob Cummings Show, Brady Bunch)
1927 Pat Carroll Shreveport LA, comedienne/actress (Make Room for Daddy)
1930 Michael James Adams USAF pilot (X-15)
1938 Johnnie Taylor US gospel singer (I Believe in You)
1940 Eric Burdon Walker-on-Tyne England, rock singer (Animals-House of Rising Sun, War)
1942 Tammy Wynette Redbay AL, country singer (Stand by your Man)
1943 Michael Palin Sheffield Yorkshire England, comedian (Monty Python, Fish Called Wanda)
1944 John Rhys-Davies Salisbury Wiltshire England, actor (Sir Edward-The Quest, Sliders, Lord of the Rings)
1954 Peter Erskine jazz drummer (Weather Report)
1955 Robert Feld Nashville TN, National Scrabble Champion (1990)
1964 Heike Henkel German Federal Republic, world record indoor high jumper (1992)
1973 Tina Yothers Whittier CA, actresss (Jennifer-Family Ties)
1975 Christine Buschur Eagle River AK, Miss America-Alaska (1997)
Deaths which occurred on May 05:
0311 Gaius VM Galerius emperor of Rome, dies at about 50
1028 Alfonso V King of León/Galicia (999-1028), dies in battle
1194 Kazimierz II the Justified, grand duke of Poland (1177-94), dies
1309 Charles II the Lame, King of Naples (1285-1309), dies
1504 Anton of Burgundy the Great Bastard, knight, dies at about 82
1525 Frederik III the Wise, ruler of Saxon (1486-1525), dies at 62
1553 Erasmus Alberus German theologist (Barfüsser Mönche), dies at about 52
1613 Johann Steuerlein composer, dies at 66
1705 Leopold I von Hapsburg Emperor of Holy Roman Empire, dies at 64
1786 Pedro III King of Portugal, dies
1821 Napoleon I Bonaparte emperor France (1799-1815), dies in St Helena
1859 Peter G L Dirichlet German mathematician, dies at 53
1864 Alexander Hays US Union-general-major, dies in battle at 44
1864 John Marshall Jones Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle at 43
1864 Leroy A Stafford US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle at 42
1886 Joseph Albert German photographer (Albertotype), dies at 61
1956 Charles R Gallas lexicographer (French Dictionary), dies at 88
1969 Ben Alexander actor (Frank Smith-Dragnet), dies at 57
1976 Thomas Burnett Swann sci-fi author (Day of Minotaur), dies at 47
1983 John Williams actor (Family Affair, Dial M for Murder), dies at 80
1993 Irving Howe US writer/critic (Dissent), dies at 72
1995 James Pack naval officer museum curator, dies at 81
1995 Lionel Alexander Bethune [Alastair] Pilkington engineer, dies at 75
1995 Mikhail Moseyevich Botvinnik world chess champion, dies
2001 Boozoo Chavis (70), Zydeco accordionist
2001 Cliff Hillegass (83), the creator of Cliffs Notes,
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
05-May-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Private 1st Class Jesse R. Buryj Karbala (near) Hostile - vehicle accident
US Specialist James E. Marshall Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Bradley G. Kritzer Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Corporal Jeffrey G. Green Euphrates River (Al Anbar Prov.) Non-hostile - drowning
Afghanistan
05/05/04 Wadman, Brandon James Private 1st Class 19 Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery Non-hostile - vehicle accident
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
0553 2nd Council of Constantinople (5th ecumenical council) opens
1382 Battle of Beverhoutsveld - population beats drunken army
1430 Jews are expelled from Speyer Germany
1494 Christopher Columbus 1st sights Jamaica on his 2nd voyage to the New World
1640 English Short Parliament unites
1646 King Charles I surrenders in Scotland
1760 The fourth Earl Ferrers was driven from the Tower of London to be hanged as a felon, the last English nobleman to be executed this way
1762 Russia & Prussia sign peace treaty
1764 Smolny-institution forms in St Petersburg for noble girls
1780 2nd oldest learned society in US (American Academy of Arts & Sciences) forms (Boston)
1809 Citizenship is denied to Jews of Canton of Aargau Switzerland
1809 Mary Kies is 1st woman issued a US patent (weaving straw)
1814 British attack Fort Ontario, Oswego NY
1816 American Bible Society organized (New York)
1842 City-wide fire burns for over 100 hours (Hamburg Germany)
1847 American Medical Association organized (Philadelphia)
1854 English pirate Plumridge robs along pro-English Finnish coast
1861 Alexandria VA - CS troops abandon city
1862 Battle of Pueblo; Mexicans defeat Maximilian's forces (Cinco de Mayo)
1862 Peninsular Campaign-Battle of Williamsburg VA
1863 Battle of Tupelo MS
1863 Joe Coburn KOs Mike McCoole for US boxing title in 63rd round
1864 Atlanta Campaign-5 days fighting begins at Rocky Face Ridge
1864 Battle between Confederate & Union ships at mouth of Roanoke
1864 Battle of Wilderness VA (Germanna Ford, Wilderness Tavern)
1865 1st US train robbery (North Bend OH)
1866 Villagers in Waterloo, NY, held their 1st Memorial Day service
1874 Dutch 2nd Chamber passes child labor law
1881 Anit-Jewish rioting in Kiev Ukraine
1891 Carnegie Hall opens in NYC with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor
1892 Congress passed the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, which required Chinese in the United States to be registered or face deportation
1893 Panic of 1893: Great crash on New York Stock Exchange
1904 Cy Young of Boston pitches perfect game against Philadelphia A's (3-0)
1908 34th Kentucky Derby: Arthur Pickens on Stone Street wins in 2:15.2
1908 Great White Fleet arrives in San Fransisco
1912 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing
1915 German U-20 sinks Earl of Lathom
1916 US marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until 1924
1917 42nd Preakness: E Haynes aboard Kalitan wins in 1:54.4
1917 St Louis Brown Ernie Koob no-hits Chicago White Sox, 1-0
1920 Polish troops occupy Kiev
1920 US President Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal
1922 Construction begins on Yankee Stadium (Bronx)
1925 John T Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee
1925 Ty Cobb goes 6 for 6, (16 total bases)
1925 Yankee Everett Scott is benched, ending his 1,307-game playing streak
1926 Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith"
1927 Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st Symphony, premieres in Berlin
1930 1st woman to fly solo from England to Australia takes-off (Amy Johnson)
1932 Japan & China sign a peace treaty (peace treaty...riiiight)
1934 60th Kentucky Derby: Mack Garner aboard Cavalcade wins in 2:04
1935 Jessie Owens of the US, sets then long jump record at 26' 8¼"
1936 Edward Ravenscroft patents screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip
1936 Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa
1938 Phillies Harold Kelleher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are National League records off one hurler in a single inning
1939 Flash floods kill 75 in Northeast Kentucky
1940 Norwegian Government in exile forms in London
1941 2 Fokker's employees flee Nazi occupied Netherlands to England
1942 US begins rationing sugar during WWII
1943 Postmaster General Frank C Walker invents Postal Zone System
1944 Gandhi freed from prison
1944 Russian offensive against Sebastopol Krim
1945 Ezra Pound, poet and author, was arrested by American Army soldiers in Italy for treason. He had served during the war as a profascist and anti-Semitic spokesman for the Mussolini government.
1945 Denmark liberated from Nazi control
1945 Mauthausen Concentration camp liberated
1945 Premier Gerbrandy on Radio Orange tells Dutch they are liberated
1945 Uprising against SS-occupying troops in Prague
1947 Mississippi Valley flooding kills 16 & causes $850 million in damage
1948 1st air squadron of jets aboard a carrier
1949 Council of Europe established
1952 Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (Caine Mutiny)
1954 Military coup by General Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay
1955 "Damn Yankees" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 1022 performances
1955 West Germany granted full sovereignty by 3 occupying powers
1956 World championships of judo are 1st held, in Tokyo
1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
1961 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)
1962 "West Side Story" soundtrack album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 54 weeks which is more than 20 weeks longer than any other album
1962 88th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack aboard Decidedly wins in 2:00.4
1965 1st large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam
1966 Willie Mays hit his 512th homerun
1968 U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen
1971 Race riot in Brownsville section of Brooklyn (NYC)
1973 99th Kentucky Derby: Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat wins in 1:59.4
1975 A's release pinch runner Herb Washington (played 104 games without batting, pitching, or fielding - He stole 30 bases, & scored 33 runs)
1978 Cincinnati Red Pete Rose becomes the 14th player to get 3,000 hits
1979 Voyager 1 passes Jupiter (Zoooom)
1980 Siege at Iranian Embassy in London ends; British commandos & police stormed the building
1987 Congress begins Iran-Contra hearings
1988 Eugene A Marino installed as 1st black US archbishop
1990 116th Kentucky Derby: Craig Perret aboard Unbridled wins in 2:02
1994 North-Yemen air force bombs Aden South Yemen
1994 The peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. It displayed 10-40 meteors per hour.
1995 Last basketball game at Boston Gardens (Magic beats Celtics)
1997 "Married With Children" final episode on Fox TV
1997 In Palestine Arafat’s justice minister said he would impose the death penalty on Palestinians who sell land to Israelis to prevent Israel’s expansion
1999 Two US crew members were killed when an Apache helicopter crashed in Albania during training. Chief Warrant Officer David A. Gibbs (38), of Massillon, Ohio, and Chief Warrant Officer Kevin L. Reichert (28), of Chetek, Wis., crashed in a mountainous region 50 miles from Task Force Hawk base
2000 conjunction of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn & Moon
2005 Mexico celebrates the 143rd anniversary of its victory over French forces
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Denmark-1945, Ethiopia-1941, Netherlands-1945 : Liberation Day
Ethiopia : Victory Day
Japan : Tango-no-sekku [Boys' Festival]/Children's Day
México : Cinco de Mayo/Battle of Pueblo (1862)
South Korea : Dano Festival/Children's Day (1975)
Thailand : Coronation Day
Zambia : Labour Day (Monday)
National Turn Off Your TV Week (Day 44)
National Walking Week (Day 4)
National Postcard Week (Day 4)
National Raisin Week (Day 4)
National Hoagie Day
National Oyster Day
National Bike Month
Religious Observances
old Roman Catholic : Feast of St Pius V, pope (1566-72)
Religious History
1815 Birth of New England musical artist Ithamar Conkey. In addition to being a well-known church organist and bass soloist, Conkey also penned the hymn tune RATHBUN, to which we sing today, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."
1899 The Religious Tract Society, founded in 1799, celebrated its 100th anniversary in Exeter Hall, London. The Society had by then published and distributed Christian literature in over 270 languages and dialects.
1925 High school biology teacher John T. Scopes, 24, was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution in his Dayton, Tennessee classroom.
1950 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'The conflict of science and religion is fought between the errors of both camps.'
1988 Eugene Antonio Marino, 53, was installed as the archbishop of Atlanta, becoming the first black Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"To be is to do. -Socrates.
To do is to be. -Sartre
Do be do be do. -Sinatra"
