8 June 1948
Beit Daras
A little job
What made me volunteer? It sounded interesting. And since I hap-pened to be there when they were asking for volunteers, I joined them "just like that." Predictably, my comrades said that I had done it just to have something to write about in the paper. Jerach, our platoon com-mander, told us that they were looking for four volunteers for a special and very important job. I said I was prepared to go.
It happened about ten o’clock in the morning. Three Egyptian tanks, a howitzer, and an armored car attacked our position in Beit Daras from the direction of Isdud. Our platoon returned their fire. The first Egyptian shells fell near our positions, but then we suddenly noticed that they had changed their aim. Two trucks of ours, proba-bly from Be’er Tuvia, had lost their way and driven into range of the Egyptians.
I was sent to the command post which had been set up under the trees of the village. Meanwhile the number of volunteers had risen to six. David Shani, our deputy battalion commander, explained our task: the two trucks were carrying howitzers and ammunition, which we needed critically. There were also explosives, which could detonate. We must do all we could to get the vehicles out. If we couldn’t move them, we should unload the artillery pieces and get them to a safe area.
We watched the proceedings through our binoculars. The
Egyptian shells were exploding all around the vehicles. The enemy was only a few hundred meters away and it was a miracle that the trucks had not long since been hit. Visibility was unobstructed over the whole area.
We looked at each other - six young men from two companies who had volunteered for a job whose importance we didn’t need explaining to us.
Six men: Siff, the broad-shouldered, black-haired squad leader, like someone from the front page of a weekly magazine; Ovadia, the driver, a man with "guts," who hides the fact that he is a squad leader; Benjamin, thin and pale, and David, dark skinned, with glasses - who both took part in the heroic retreat from Hartuv; Janek,