'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎13r] (30/294)

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required to meet the ever increasing cadis from the police for military
assistance: already signs of disaffection among the Arab police had
appeared and it had become necessary to post military guards on many
vulnerable points, such as railway workshops, oil depots, power houses,
post offices, telephone exchanges and the Broadcasting Station.
21st May
On the 21st an even more intense wave of crime swept across the
entire country: scores of bombs were thrown, vehicles were shot at,
police were attacked in many places, and the railway and telephone
communications were seriously damaged. The day also saw the first
important engagement with an armed band and the first military casualty.
The band had taken up a position on the Jerusalem-Jaffa road a few miles
outside Jerusalem, and just before dark opened fire on passing vehicles
wounding a man and a woman. Two truckloads of Camerons were soon on
the spot and attacked in the failing light, but the band hastily retreaded
and managed to escape in the dark among the rocky hillsides. In
following them up one soldier was wounded.
The same evening reinforcements of railway troops arrived at Sarafand
from Egypt. They had been asked for in view of the increasing railway
sabotage and intimidation of railwaymen, and consisted of the 42nd Eield
Coy. R.E. (which included a railway operating section) and a detachment
of Royal Horse Artillery manning some armed motor trollies.
22nd - 25th May
On the morning of the 22nd the 1st Bn. Seaforth Highlanders, from
Cairo, detrained at Tulkarm for Nablus. But even before uheir arrival
the centre of interest had already shifted to Nablus. The state of
affairs in that historic centre of trouble had rapidly been groif/ing worse,
and the town was now quite out of hand. Barricades had been laid^ across
the main road and in the narrow alley-ways of the native town, v/hixs
heavy sniping of the Fort and the camp was being directed from the ^teep
slopes of Mounts Cerizim and Ebal, which directly overlook them.
Nevertheless the arrival of the Scaforth passed without incident, and it
was not until next day that more armed bands began to make their presence
felt.
It had not been possible to clear all the baggage of the^ battalion
from Tulkarm Station the previous day, and now it was found that the
road had been heavily blocked by huge boulders rolled down^from the^
hillside while a motley crowd armed with sticks, knives and a few rifles
held the barriers. Seaforth Highlanders with some armoured cars soon
dispersed them, capturing three and wounding two of the armed men; but
it clearly showed that in the Nablus district at any rate the fellaheen Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour.
were now completely out of control. That night Air Vice Marshal Peirse
reported to the High Commissioner that the Assistant District Commissioner
had advocated the imposition of Martial Law in the Nablus Area.
The next two days saw violent outbreaks in the neighbourhood of
Nazareth and Gaza, while the daily list of murders, incendiarism, and
attacks on troops, police, and motor vehicles grew with monotonous
regularity. It became evident that the only way to regain the initiative
from the rebels was by taking steps against the villages from which they
came These took the form of searches for arms and wanted men by troops
and police and, being fairly severe in nature, had also a punitive effect
which began to produce most satisfactory results in the more truculen
villages.