The region is quiet. For the first time since the outbreak of hostilities the Egyptian weapons are silent. They are reorganizing their forces. In our brigade, hardly a single company is still fit for action. But once again our courage and faith in ultimate victory triumphed. We cannot allow the Egyptians any time to recover. We must hit them immediately. And if only remnants of the brigade are available, then these remnants must do the attacking.
It has been decided to stage an attack this very night on the Egyptian forces regrouping around Beit Affa, the Arab village opposite Negba and Ibdis. The task again falls to company number one of our battalion, under the command of Asher Dromi. The jeeps are to divert the enemy with blows in Hatta and Karatiyya, and help in the capture of Beit Affa with support-ingfire.
In an orange orchard nearSawafir we reorganized ourselves - we, the company that was today given the name "Samson’s Foxes." Only half the people are still with us after the last operation. How on earth are we going to carry out three actions tonight?
Instead of four we now only have three men for each jeep. We have also been reinforced with comrades who have no experience in this type of war-fare: Asriel Spitz and Yaakov Velichkovski from the armored section, Zvi Bruk, the company runner, Chaim Poltruk, the sarge, Moshe Vanzover, the quartermaster, and David Finkel, the armorer. The units are reduced to the point where we have no non-combatant soldiers.
Half the unit, under the command ofAryeh Spack, will carry out the diversionary attack against Hatta and Karatiyya, and the other half, which includes me, is allocated to the fight against Beit Affa. The jeeps will arrive from the north and start the attack with a heavy blow at point blank range, to keep the enemy forces busy while the infantry assault goes in from the south to take the village.
Beit Affa
Quarter of an hour before midnight. Fifteen minutes till zero hour. The night is completely dark. The jeeps are creeping along, without lights. Colorful flares fly up above the village. Now we can see where our target lies. A crossroads.