how one was wounded and another saved. We know all the details already. But it is compulsive: after fighting, everyone who comes by must hear, over and over again, what we have done and what hap-pened to us. Otherwise we can’t dissipate the tension and mull over our impressions.

After a few hours the picture changes completely. The first reports filter through and the rest is forgotten. We won! A victory! A victory that no one dared to hope for. We have destroyed almost a whole Egyptian battalion. In the enemy camp panic has broken out, the sol-diers have fled, leaving a lot behind them: two artillery pieces, four half-track vehicles, ten PIATs, several heavy machine guns, and huge quantities of ammunition. The fields are full of dead, and the posi-tion that is so important to the defense of Negba is in our hands.

For five days we have been fighting against an enemy that is many times better equipped than we are. And we have dealt them a decisive blow. A few men have gained the upper hand over this army. We have forced a turning point on the southern front. That is the sign for the salvation of Negba, that heroic rock in the storm.

And if something was missing from our happiness, we got even that. Four hours without action, to shower and relax. A shower - the peak of happiness! And it is urgently needed. When I appeared at breakfast, I looked like a butcher - bloody stains on my trousers, and dried blood up to my elbows. One of our comrades turned away and spewed on the floor ...

The battle for Position 105 was the decisive victory, the turning point for the whole southern front. And our unit got its new name. This is how it was reported in the "battle bulletin" of 14 July 1948:

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