'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎9r] (22/294)

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CHAPTER 2
A SH ORT HISTORY OR THE REBELLION
r-~UP TO THE END OP JUNE 1936
The object of this book is not to produce an historical record of
happenings in Palestine in 1936; but some brief outline of the setting
and of the sequence of events which took place there is necessary as a
background against which to view in their proper perspective the lessons
which follow. This chapter starts therefore with some reference to the
geography of Palestine, its climate, people and armed forces, and
continues with a note on the issues which led to the rebellion and a
brief narrative of its course. The detailed history, up to the 14th
September 1936, may be read in the ”Abridged Despatch by Air Vic e
Marshal R.E.C. Peirse, C.B., D.S.O., A.F. C.” published by the Air
Ministry as a Secret document. As that publication must necessarily
have a limited distribution, it was thought that a condensed narrative
in more or less day-to-day form might conveniently be inserted in the
following pages. It has been based to a large extent upon Air Vice
Marshal Peirse’s Despatch.
General Description
The boundaries of Palestine form a rough triangle v/ith its base^
resting in the Sinai Desert and its apex close to the Lebanon Mountains,
while Trans-Jordan and the Mediterranean flank it to the East and West
respectively. In area it is about 10,000 square miles, and comparable
therefore with Wales or Belgium. Its northern boundary with Syria for
the most part lies in a range of mountains, not easily accessible, of
some three to four thousand feet in neight; on the . bast (Per.) A Persian custom allowing an individual to seek asylum at a designated location. the River
Jordan separates it from the Arab state of Trans-Jordan; while the
frontier with Egypt stretches far down into the stony wastes of Eastern
Sinai.
The Main Geographical Feature s
Palestine may be divided into four principle regions :-
The Coastal Plain widens almost uniformly as one goes South from
a width of a mile or less near Haifa to some twenty miles about Gasa.
Prom Haifa it stretches an arm inland as far as the Jordan by Beisan;
and this arm forms the famous Plain of Esdraelon - the ancient
Armageddon - which intersects the whole of the mountain system. In
the Coastal Plain and the Plain of Esdraelon are to be found most of
the Jewish Settlements and the main railway system, but in^1936 it was
singularly lacking in good road communications. Both plains are on
the whole extremely fertile, although covered in parts near the coast
with a shallow layer of sand.
Th^ Mountains run North and South through the centre of Palestine
THE SCENE OP THE REBELLION
a
b
c
d
The Coastal Plain.
The Mountains.
The Desert.
The Jordan Valley.