List of Lehi operations explained
The following is a partial list of Lehi operations. Lehi split from the Irgun in August 1940, and dissolved in late 1948.
Operations by year
1942
- May 1 – Attempt on Assistant Superintendent Geoffrey J. Morton, head of the CID in Tel Aviv and Jaffa and the policeman who killed Avraham Stern, with a huge improvised explosive device containing sixty sticks of gelignite which was hidden in a roadside ditch. It was detonated as a car containing Morton, his wife (who worked in Jaffa as a teacher) and bodyguards passed an orange grove close to their home. Because the car had moved out to overtake a bicycle they were not caught by the full force of the blast and although their car was wrecked the occupants escaped with concussion.[1] [2] [3]
1944
- January 28 – Failed attempt to blow up St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, at the wedding of the Marquess of Douro to Diana, daughter of the British general Douglas McConnel.[4]
- February 14 – Two British constables were shot dead when they attempted to arrest Lehi fighters pasting up wall posters in Haifa.[5]
- March 13 – Lehi kills a Jewish CID officer in Ramat Gan.
- March 19 – A Lehi member was shot dead while resisting arrest by the CID in Tel Aviv. Lehi retaliated with an attack in Tel Aviv that killed two police officers and wounded one.[6]
- March 23 – Lehi attack in Jerusalem kills a police officer and wounds another.
- August 8 – Attempt on Harold MacMichael, high commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan. Both he and his wife narrowly escaped death in an ambush that Lehi had mounted on the eve of his replacement as high commissioner. During his tenure, MacMichael was the target of seven unsuccessful assassination attempts, mainly by the Lehi. This was the last one.[7]
- September 29 – Assassination of CID officer Thomas James Wilkin. Wilkin was the Commander of the Jewish Division and right-hand man of Geoffrey J. Morton (see Shoshana Borochov).[8]
- November 6 – Lord Moyne, British Deputy Resident Minister of State in Cairo was assassinated by Lehi members Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri; this operation triggers The Hunting Season. Moyne's driver was also killed. Hakim and Bet-Zuri were executed for the murders.
1945
1946
- In 1946, several British high officials, including Sir Stafford Cripps, Ernest Bevin, and Anthony Eden received letter bombs apparently sent by Lehi.[9]
- February 26 – Irgun and Lehi fighters attacked three British airfields and destroyed dozens of aircraft. One Irgun fighter was killed.[10]
- April 25 – Lehi fighters attacked a Tel Aviv car park that was being used by the British Army's 6th Airborne Division, killing seven British soldiers and looting the arms racks they found. They then laid mines and retreated.[11]
- June 17 – Lehi attacked railroad workshops in Haifa. Eleven Lehi members were killed during the attack.[12]
- September 9 – Two British officers were killed by an explosion at a public building in Tel Aviv. A British police sergeant, T.G. Martin, who had identified and arrested Lehi leader and future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, was assassinated near his Haifa home.[13]
1947
- In 1947, several letter bombs were sent to President Harry Truman in the White House. They were intercepted by White House mail room workers, who were on alert because of similar looking letter bombs sent to British officials.[14] Former Lehi leader Nathan Yellin-Mor admitted that letter bombs had been sent to British targets but denied that any had been sent to Truman.[15]
- January 12 – A Lehi member carried out a truck bombing of a police station in Haifa, killing two British and two Arab constables, and wounding 140.[16]
- April 23 - Lehi mines a train outside Rehovot. The bombing kills five British officers, two Arab adults and a 3-year old, Gilbert Balladi.[17]
- April 25 – Lehi bombed a British police compound, killing five policemen.
- May 4 – Acre Prison break – Irgun members working with Jewish prisoners inside Acre Prison managed to blow a hole in the wall, and assault the prison, freeing 28 Jewish prisoners. Nine Irgun and Lehi fighters, including commander Dov Cohen, were killed during the retreat.[18] Five Irgun fighters and eight escapees were later captured.
- May 15 – Two British soldiers were killed and seven injured by Lehi. A British policeman was also killed in an ambush.
- June 4 – Eight Lehi letter bombs addressed to high British government officials, including Prime Minister Clement Attlee, were discovered in London. A British soldier was killed in Haifa.[19]
- June 28 – Lehi fighters opened fire on a line of British soldiers waiting in line outside a Tel Aviv theater, killing three soldiers and wounding two. One Briton was also killed and several wounded in a Haifa hotel. A Jewish fighter was also wounded.
- June 29 – Four British soldiers were wounded in a Lehi attack at a Herzliya beach.
- September 3 – A postal bomb sent by either Irgun or Lehi exploded in the post office sorting room of the British War Office in London, injuring two.[20]
- September 26 – Irgun fighters robbed a bank, killing four British policemen.[21]
- November 13 – Lehi grenade attack on British soldiers in cafe leaves 1 dead and 27 wounded.
- November 19 – Lehi summarily executes five adult members of the Shubaki family in the village of Arab al-Shubaki.
- December 25 – Lehi members machine-gun two British soldiers in a Tel Aviv cafe.
1948
- January 4 – Lehi detonates a truck bomb against the headquarters of the paramilitary al-Najjada located in Jaffa's Town Hall, killing 15 Arabs and injuring 80.[22]
- February 29, March 31 – Cairo–Haifa train bombings 1948
- March 3 – Car bombing in Haifa killed 11 Arabs[23]
- April 9–11 – About 110 Arabs massacred (the estimate generally accepted by scholars, instead of the first announced number of 254) during and after the battle at the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, by 132 Irgun and 60 Lehi fighters.[24] [25] [26] [27] [28]
- May 3 – A Lehi book bomb posted to the parental home of British Major Roy Farran was opened by his brother Rex, killing him. Roy Farran was court-martialed on a charge of murdering an unarmed 16-year-old member of Lehi during his command of an undercover Palestine Police unit.[29]
- September 17 – Assassination of Folke Bernadotte
- October 28 – Al-Dawayima massacre (killing of Arab civilians by IDF Battalion composed of former Irgun and Lehi members).
See also
External links
Bibliography
. Rise and Kill First. Ronen Bergman. Illustrated. Random House. 2018. 9780679604686.
. Terror out of Zion. J. Bowyer Bell. Transaction Publisher. 1976. 9781412835725.
. Major Farran's Hat: Murder, Scandal and Britain's War Against Jewish Terrorism 1945–1948. David Cesarani. 2009. Vintage Books. London. 9780434018444.
. A Death in Jerusalem: The Assassination by Jewish Extremists of the First Arab/Israeli. Kati Marton. Knopf Doubleday . 2011. 9780307800503.
. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Benny Morris. 2004. 978-0-521-00967-6. Cambridge University Press.
Notes and References
- The Times (London) 23 December 1996, Geoffrey Morton
- Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Political assassinations by Jews: a rhetorical device for justice.
- Geoffrey J. Morton, Just the Job: Some Experiences of a Colonial Policeman (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1957
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/8144150/The-Duchess-of-Wellington.html Obituary for the Duchess of Wellington
- Bell, 1976
- Web site: Terrorist attacks in British Palestine. Johnston. Robert. April 5, 2015. www.johnstonsarchive.net. 2017-05-29.
- Book: Ben-Yehuda, Nachman . Nachman Ben-Yehuda . Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice . Albany, NY . . 1993 . 204.
- Bergman, 2018, pp. 3-5
- Smith and Morris, 1949, pp. 229–230
- Web site: ETZEL. 2017-05-29. 2023-05-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20230502201816/http://www.etzel.org.il/english/index.html. dead.
- Web site: The Tel Aviv Car Park attack April 1946 - ParaData. 2017-05-29. 2014-02-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20140202171226/http://www.paradata.org.uk/article/863/related/39522. dead.
- Web site: Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Lehi). Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 2011-03-27.
- Marton, 2011
- News: Letter-Bombs Mailed to Truman in 1947. Pace. Eric. 1972-12-02. The New York Times. 2017-05-29. 0362-4331.
- Book: Nachman Ben-Yehuda
. Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice . N. Ben-Yehuda . Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 331 . SUNY Press . 2012. 9780791496374 .
- Web site: Timeline of British Rule in Palestine (1918-1947). www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. en. 2017-05-29.
- http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/04/23/87518901.html?pageNumber=1 Palestine Terrorists Kill 8 In Bombing of Troop Train
- Web site: Acre Jail Break. Britains-smallwars.com. 2011-03-27. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080727024032/http://britains-smallwars.com/Palestine/Acre.htm. 2008-07-27.
- Web site: events:1947 - British Forces in Palestine.
- The Sunday Times, Sept 24 1972, p. 8
- [Donald Neff]
- [Yoav Gelber]
- Book: Bose, Sumantra . 2007 . Contested Land . Harvard University Press . 230–231 . 9780674028562 .
- Kana'ana, Sharif and Zeitawi, Nihad (1987), "The Village of Deir Yassin", Bir Zeit, Bir Zeit University Press
- Morris, 2004,: Chapter 4: The second wave: the mass exodus, April—June 1948, Section: Operation Nahshon, p. 238
- Book: Milstein, Uri. Uri Milstein
. History of the War of Independence IV: Out of Crisis Came Decision. University Press of America, Inc.. 1998. 0-7618-1489-2. Lanhan, Maryland. Hebrew, English. Uri Milstein. 1987. Alan Sacks. Alan Sacks.
Chapter 16: Deir Yassin, Section 12: The Massacre, page 376-381
- Morris. Benny. 2005. The Historiography of Deir Yassin. Journal of Israeli History. 24. 1. 79–107. 10.1080/13531040500040305. 159894369. Benny Morris.
page 100-101
- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293947/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi britannica.com
- Cesarani, 2009
