Battle of Yad Mordechai

Infobox Military Conflict


caption=
conflict=Battle of Yad Mordechai
partof=1948 Arab-Israeli War
date=19 May 1948
place=Yad Mordechai, Israel
result=Israeli managed retreat
combatant1=Israel
combatant2=Egypt
commander1=Unknown
commander2=Unknown
strength1=130 local fighters
20 Palmach fighters
strength2=9,000
casualties1=26 dead 49 wounded
casualties2=About 2000 dead and wounded|

The Battle of Yad Mordechai took place at the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Yad Mordechai is a small kibbutz in southern Israel, founded in the 1930s and renamed in 1943 after Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943. Its name means "Mordechai's Memorial".

On 19 May 1948, five days after Israel's declaration of Independence, Yad Mordechai was attacked by a column of the Egyptian Army, with airplanes, artillery and tanks. It was defended by 150 men and women with 55 light weapons, one machine gun, and a two-inch mortar. Although vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the defenders fought fiercely and resolutely, feeling that the new battle was a direct continuation of that of five years before. They managed to destroy some of the tanks, and to turn back the enemy.

Thus they prevented an Egyptian land assault on Tel Aviv and allowed Israel's forces to reform their line of defence north of Ashdod, as well as setting the tone for the rest of the war.

On the sixth day of the battle, after having run out of ammunition completely, and losing over half of its fighting force to injuries and death, the defenders had no choice but to withdraw. The 26 defenders who died during the battle were buried in a mass grave under the command bunker. The kibbutz was held by the Egyptian army for half a year and was eventually released on 5 November 1948.

References

*Yad Mordechai, "Encyclopaedia Judaica"
*TRELLIS database, University of Guelph, keywords Yad Mordechai