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Ex ISRAELI EAGLE – Battlefield Study in Israel
2Lt St Clair-Gray
4 MERCIAN were lucky enough to conduct an eye-opening battlefield study to Israel this February, travelling from north to south across the country in order to study the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War and Israel’s modern-day geopolitics. After touching down in Tel Aviv, we made the journey north and stayed in a hotel in the Golan Heights. This was situated in a kibbutz, a Jewish form of commune whereby all wealth is held in common and profits reinvested back into the community. From here we travelled to two observation posts where our helpful guide, Hagi, explained to us the threats that the Israeli nation faces from non-state actors in Lebanon to the north and from Syria to the east.
It was explained that the Golan Heights is a contentious territory, effectively annexed from Syria in the Six-Day
War but not recognised by the wider international community. From these observation posts, 4 MERCIAN soldiers and officers discussed how, should the conflict occur today, we could have applied modern British military thought
2Lt St Clair-Gray, Pte Khan, WO2 Woodward and Cpl Etches from C (Kohima) Company at Masada
to defend the land from the Syrian perspective. This was then reversed when we visited the sites of ‘The Valley of the Tears’ and
We then travelled south towards Jerusalem which we explored at our leisure
tank, as well as taking questions from our cohort.
We then travelled south towards Jerusalem which
we explored at our leisure. This provided officers and soldiers
operations, allowing us to consider how modern-day tactics, weaponry and equipment could be best utilised. We were also lucky enough to have a meeting with an Israeli Defence Force tank commander, who talked us through their Merkava MK4
and Islamic religions respectively. From Jerusalem, we conducted a variety of other stands, such as a visit to Jaffa, a city that was a site of conflict in the 1948 War of Independence, where we considered the principles of urban operations as well as learning historical lessons from the actions of a plethora of stakeholders.
Furthermore, we conducted a visit
to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Masada, took a leisurely dip in the Dead Sea and made a poignant visit to the Ramleh Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, further enriching the historical, military and cultural lessons that the battlefield tour taught us.
From our experience, MERCIAN soldiers and officers can be said to be greater informed about Middle Eastern geopolitics and the cultural history of Israel, as well as having learned lessons from the three conflicts that can be applied to our military conduct today.
The Gadot Lookout, Golan Heights.
El Saki, attacked in
1973 on the holiest
day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, thus providing the name to the conflict. In this example, officers and soldiers considered how to defend the ground from the advancing Syrians and the conduct of the war was explained to us.
These discussions helped further our tactical understanding of defensive
with a significant cultural insight into a city with great historical and contemporary importance, visiting the Western Wall,
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and seeing the black dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, revered by the Jewish, Christian
View of the old city of Jerusalem
The grave of LCpl Marriott of the Sherwood Foresters, an antecedent of the MERCIAN regiment
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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