'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎63r] (130/294)

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CHAPTER 11
THE S lPLOY]:CE 7 T OF THE VARIOUS ARMS
So prominent was the part played by aircraft in every phase of the
operations that it will be more convenient to consider its employment in
detail in a separate chapter. It is the intention in this chapter to
show what units of the various arms of the three Services viere available
in Palestine, how each was organized, the tasks upon which they were
employed, and their suitability or otherwise to carry out those tasks.
TANKS
The only unit of the Royal Tank Corps represented v/as "C" Company
of the 6th Battalion, equipped with eighteen Mark III Light Tanks.
On arrival the Company was organised as a Coy. KQ. with three tanks, and
five Sections each of three tanks. Two sections were detached from the
start and remained separated from the rest of the Company by distances
varying from 35 to 82 miles. The remaining three sections were fre
quently dispersed over the Tulkarm-Jenin-Nablus triangle at distances
from 10 to 20 miles from Coy. HQ., which remained for most of the time at
Tulkarm. Only on one occasion - for the three days of Operation M X" -
was the whole Company ever concentrated in one area. Every effort was
made from the beginning to avoid this wide dispersion but circumstances
inevitably demanded it, with the natural result that difficulties arose
in relation to personnel, repair staff, M.T. vehicles and spares.
It was certainly shown beyond doubt that the organization of the Company
as a self-accounting unit on the lines of the Light Tank Companies in
India would have simplified its administration enormously, especially as
there was the added complication of having to account for all stores
through a battalion headquarters miles away in Egypt. This reorganiza
tion was eventually authorised as a result of strong representations,
but authority arrived only after the operations were finished, so that
its worth in the field was never tested. The dispersion of the Company
made the supply of fitters, tools, spares and fitters’ lorries a
difficult problem; though eased by the presence of an L.A.D. at Coy*
HQ. and the fortunate establishment of an 0.M.17. within easy reach of
the two permanently detached sections.
On arrival the strength of the unit in other ranks was 67, ot which
tank crews numbered 40: these numbers proved to be insufficient for
the nature of the operations and later a further 20 reinforcements were
added. At first it had been found very difficult to provide for suffi
cient guard duties to ensure the safeguarding of arms and property, and
after some weeks the problem of securing the men sufficient nighos in
bed became acute. Under such conditions it is clearly necessary to
have a good proportion of spare men in excess of tank crews, though
experience showed that on the plains of Palestine the section of three
tanks frequently represented more force than v/as required lor the
immediate task. In the majority of actions therefore tanks operated
in sub-sections of two in order to avoid unnecessary wear on personnel
and machines.
The nature of the tasks upon which tanks were employed may be
summarised as follows
a) Ground Reconnaissance
This was either with a view to future tank operations or, more
often, to find practicable routes for other arms. In the hills