even occupied a few houses. In the end, however, they were beaten back. We suffered heavy losses.
We held Deir Muheisin until the aim of the operation was attained.
Operation Nachshon achieved its goal. But the army did not have enough men to hold the positions on the road to Jerusalem. NearLatrun and Bah al-Wad,14 the road was undefended. That was effectively an invitation to the enemy.
We sat in Arab Hulda, a gigantic natural fortress overlooking the road to Latrun, fought the fleas, poured whole containers of DDT over ourselves, and made occasional visits to the "Boaz" position between Hulda and Wadi Sarar. There we hung around in the stifling heat, almost motionless, hidden between the rocks, dug in in the fields. We spent our time telling each other the secrets of our lives. Our real task was to disrupt any Arab traffic between Latrun and Wadi Sarar, and to defend the road to Jerusalem in a southerly direction.
In the evening the "Cameri Theater" 15 came to us. After the perfor-mance I and some other comrades volunteered to accompany the actors to Rehovot. They needed this escort, since the village ofAkir was still in the hands of the Arabs. Before the actors left us, I asked them to write their names on the stock of my rifle. And so for several weeks the bleached wood shimmered with the names ofBatyah, Chanah, and Rosa...
Around two in the morning we arrived back in a good mood. After three hours’ sleep we were awoken. The convoy was waiting for us.
On leave in Tel Aviv
Convoy to Jerusalem
A cry of joy escapes from the barracks. If there is one thing that infantry soldiers dream about (apart from a trip home), then it is going to the front. But our joy had an even deeper source. For weeks we had been fighting for a breakthrough to Jerusalem. But the reward for our efforts, the "result," we did not see. We read in the paper about the reception of the convoys in Jerusalem and we envied our comrades who drove through the town in a victory parade. Finally we too would enjoy the fruits of victory. Somewhere in the capital a pretty Jerusalem girl was waiting for each one of us - bursting with admiration.