'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎29v] (63/294)

44816-1
42
arrive a Movement Officer was immediately required, and it was necessary
to ask Egypt for an officer with the required experience. Further
help from Egypt had to be invoked in May to increase the staff of H.Q.
British Troops, which by June had risen to two Brigade Majors, two Staff
Captains, two Intelligence Officers, a Movement Officer (at Haifa) and
a Signals Officer. The latter also commanded the R. Signals detachment
which had been sent from Egypt to provide despatch riders, telephone
exchange operators and linemen.
Even this increase was barely enough. Prom the morning nf the
19th. April work at the Army Headquarters had continued without a break
day and night; officers had to be present continuously, and yet reliefs
were complicated by shortage of transport (two cars) and the fact that
no mess or quarters were available near at hand. Frequent visits to
local commanders and troops in the field were essential, and the constant
arrival of reinforcements increased the rj res sure of work. Each new
unit was met at the frontier by a staff officer to convey necessary
operational instructions and information, while another supervised the
administrative preparations for its reception v/ithout any advance party
and no R.A.O.C. organization beyond a single Staff-Serjeant. Seven
weeks under these conditions was a serious strain on the Commander and
his six staff officers and small body of clerks available. By this
time the garrison had risen to five battalions of infantry, in addition
to artillery, engineer, signal, tank and R.A.S.C. units, and was rapidly
becoming more than even a doubled Brigade H.Q. staff could deal with
adequately. The imminent arrival of the 15th. Infantry Brigade H.Q.
and three more battalions early in June made complete reorganization
imperative and necessitated the creation of something approaching a
Divisional Headquarters.
The presence of eight battalions obviously suggested organization
into two Brigades, so that one additional Brigade H.Q. had to be created
as well as a Divisional H.Q. The solution adopted was to pool the
resources of Air H.Q. and H.Q. British Troops to form one combined
Force H.Q. staff. The immediate economies effected by this change were
sufficient to provide the commander of the newly-formed Brigade with a
full staff of officers and a fair number of clerics. The Combined
Staff worked extremely well, and resulted at once in a better division
of duties and the consequent relief of the strain on the Army staff.
Sheer necessity had brought it into being and the results it achieved
justified the innovation. At the start it was frankly an experi
ment, but very soon it was found that army and R.A.F. officers had little
difficulty in learning to perform the staff duties of the other service;
both learn l. a great dead from each other and the ve:.qy closest co
operation resulted. Such disadvantages as the Combined Staff possessed
arose from the fact that there was not a combined superior authority
^/ich which it could deal: in consequence it was necessary to keep in
separate compartments things such as finance, works, services etc. which
otherwise could have been combined so far.as local conditions were
concerned. Since the combined Staff in Palestine was the first of its
kind to be tried out under active service conditions, its composition
is of interest^ and is given in full in Appendix Ill(i) together with
details regarding the division of duties in Appendix Ill(ii).
^ Combined Staff lasted from the 8 th. June to the 15th. September,
by which time the garrison had risen to 11 infantry battalions, 2 cavaliy
regiments, and sufficient units of other arms to bring it to the
approximate strength of one Division. With the arrival of the Emergency
Force from England came a fully staffed Corps Headquarters on War
otab 1 1 shment. Thus the strength of officers at the Army H.Q. had grown
from 2 in April by the successive stages of 7 in June, 3C)' in the
Combined Staff, to finally 54 in September.
Che organization of the staff in Palestine in October 1936 is shown
m full m Appendix IV.