Irgun bombing of police headquarters in Haifa explained

Irgun bombing of Haifa police headquarters
Partof:Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine
Location:Haifa police headquarters
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The Irgun bombed the district police headquarters in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine on September 29, 1947.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The attack killed ten or twelve people, including civilians and British and Arab policemen, in addition to injuring 53 or 54 others.

According to Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, the barrel bomb, which was used in this attack, was an innovation of Amichai Paglin. It was used extensively in the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Palestine War.[6]

History

Background

In August 1947, the packet steamship SS Exodus, loaded with Zionist Jewish migrants from France, most of whom were Holocaust survivors without legal immigration certificates for Palestine, attempted to partake in Aliyah Bet.[7] The Royal Navy boarded her in international waters and took her to Haifa, where ships were waiting to return the migrants to refugee camps in Europe.[8] The refugees were barred from entering Palestine and the ship was deported to Hamburg.[9]

Bombing

The Irgun was Zionist a paramilitary group active in the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine. Along with Lehi, which had already bombed a police station in Haifa earlier in the year,[10] [11] [12] they represented the "first postmodern terrorist movement", according to terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman.[13]

According to Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, the barrel bomb, which was used in the Irgun attack on the Haifa police quarters on September 29, 1947, was an innovation of Amichai Paglin, the Irgun's chief operations officer and bomb designer.[14] Police characterized it as a "brand new method."

The northern police HQ in Haifa came to their attention, but it was surrounded by sand-filled barrels and a mesh fence of barbed-wire. Paglin set to work designing a bomb that could penetrate the fence and blow up the building. He hit on the idea of using an oil barrel. Haifa was one of the great oil ports in the 1940s[15] and standard 55-gallon steel oil drums came into common usage only a few years earlier during WWII; they were first developed by the Axis powers (Germany and Italy) but were quickly adopted by Allies and widely available.[16]

Paglin's bomb design consisted of an oil barrel with tires mounted on the ends allowing it to roll. It was filled with 500 pounds of explosives. The bomb was hoisted onto the top of a lorry under a canvas tarp to keep it hidden. The height of the lorry was higher than the top of the fence surrounding the police station. A cord inside the lorry released the barrel which sent it down a short ramp, also mounted on the lorry roof, launching it over the fence onto the police grounds. Momentum carried the barrel bomb towards the police building. The bomb had an automatic "lock" that stopped the wheels spinning when it hit an obstacle such as the building, so that it would not roll backwards. There up against the wall, a pre-lit fuse ran out and the bomb exploded. In the attack 10 people were killed and 54 injured,[17] of which 33 were British. Four British policemen, four Arab policemen, an Arab women and 16-year old were killed.[18] The 10 story building was so heavily damaged that it was later demolished.

The exact details of the bomb, including photographs and diagrams, were mailed by Paglin to British authorities and newspapers a few days after the attack. Irgun named the attack "Operation Hambaf", a contraction of the words Hamburg, the city where the SS Exodus returned to, and Afalpi, the name of another refugee ship redirected by the British to Cyprus.[19] The press initially reported on the bomb as simply a bomb in a tar barrel,[20] but later reports dubbed it a 'Barrel Bomb' (with quotes) or the "barrel bomb technique of the Jewish underground".[21] [22] The police called it "a brand new method".

References

  1. News: BLAST SET BY IRGUN TO SPEED ARMY EXIT; Palestine Terrorism Flares Again -- Death Toll in Haifa Is 10 Britons and Arabs . en . The New York Times . 2023-12-17.
  2. Book: Nic Dháibhéid, Caoimhe . Terrorist histories: individuals and political violence since the 19th century . 2017 . Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group . 978-1-315-56069-4 . Political violence . London New York . Weaponry remained a preoccupation of Paglin’s throughout the period of the insurgency, and it was in this area that he really proved his worth to the Irgun. As well as commanding multiple arms seizures, Paglin also focused intently on the home production of weaponry and explosives, displaying considerable innovation in their design and manufacture. Among the explosives he developed were contact- mines for trains, lorry bombs and remote- controlled heavy mortars, which the British dubbed V3s (after the V1 and V2 German mortars) and which featured extensively in the sabotage and bombing operations of the Irgun after the summer of 1945. Another innovation was the ‘barrel- bomb’, a barrel on wheels which was catapulted from the back of an armoured car on 29 September 1947, severely damaging the central police station in Haifa, killing 12 and injuring 54..
  3. Web site: Ruins of the British Police Station in Haifa After an Attack by the Irgun . 2023-12-17 . ארכיון הסרטים הישראלי - סינמטק ירושלים . en-US.
  4. News: TERRORISTS STRIKE IN PALESTINE AGAIN; One Is Hurt as Mine Derails Train -- Bomb Hurled at Arab Shop -- Cunningham Back . en . The New York Times . 2023-12-17.
  5. [J. Bowyer Bell|Bell, Bowyer J.]
  6. Book: Quigley, John . The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective . 2005-02-08 . Duke University Press . 978-0-8223-8676-6 . Sten Guns and Barrel Bombs: The Realization of the Zionist Dream . 10.1515/9780822386766-009.
  7. 2013-11-05 . Stewart . Ninian . The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol . 10.4324/9781315038995.
  8. News: Nozick . Daniel . January 25, 2017 . Hebrews on the High Seas . .
  9. Web site: September 29, 1947 . 10 Killed and 77 Injured in Haifa Reprisal Blast . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529032506/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19470929&id=16EtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=r3EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1341%2C6687284&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 30, 2015 . . United Press.
  10. Book: Conflict in the Holy Land: from ancient times to the Arab-Israeli conflicts . 2020 . ABC-CLIO . 978-1-4408-6747-7 . DiPrizio . Robert C. . Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado.
  11. News: HAIFA BLAST ENDS PALESTINE TRUCE; KILLS 4, INJURES 142; Explosive-Laden Truck, Parked by Terrorists, Wrecks Police Station and Rocks City . en . The New York Times . 2023-12-17.
  12. News: Outrage Stuns Country . en . The New York Times . 2023-12-17.
  13. Web site: JP O'Malley . April 25, 2015 . After studying pre-state Jewish terrorists, author asks: Does terrorism work? . June 30, 2015 . Times of Israel.
  14. Book: John Bowyer Bell . Terror Out of Zion . Transaction Publishers . 1976 . 9781412835725 . 245 . June 28, 2015.
  15. Web site: December 31, 1947 . Enraged Arabs Kill 41 Jews After Bombing . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529032932/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19471231&id=P1tIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D08DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6477%2C3870015&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 29, 2015 . . United Press.
  16. Book: Lindsay, N.R . Equal to the Task - The Royal Australian Service Corps . Historia Productions . 1991 . 978-0-9808415-0-3 . Chapter 17 . 2015-07-14 . https://archive.today/20130819113237/http://books.historia.com.au/equal-to-the-task_v1-raasc/e1-p4_infra/e1-c17_o-f.html . 2013-08-19 . dead.
  17. Book: Henry E. Mattox . Chronology of World Terrorism, 1901-2001 . McFarland . 2004 . 9781476609652 . 54 . June 28, 2015 . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529034812/https://books.google.com/books?id=XofeCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 . 2018-05-29 . live.
  18. Web site: September 29, 1947 . 10 Killed and 77 Injured in Haifa Reprisal Blast . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529032506/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19470929&id=16EtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=r3EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1341%2C6687284&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 30, 2015 . . United Press.
  19. Web site: September 29, 1947 . Nine Killed in Explosion Set By Jews . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529032653/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=897&dat=19470929&id=dNQKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HFADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5834%2C1142054&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 30, 2015 . Prescott Evening Courious . Associated Press.
  20. Web site: 1947 . Page 393 . June 30, 2015 . The Illustrated London News, Volume 211, Issues 5659-5671.
  21. Web site: January 14, 1948 . Late News Bulletin . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529035259/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19480114&id=zdc-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=40wMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3027%2C782846&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 30, 2015 . The Tuscaloosa News . United Press.
  22. Web site: February 2, 1948 . Palestine Post Home Destroyed . live . https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529035459/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19480202&id=Kx5PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lR8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2538%2C1946565&hl=en . 2018-05-29 . June 30, 2015 . The Bulletin . United Press.

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