Скачать или смотреть Campaign Series: Middle East. Assault on an Ancient City 19-05-1948 (Israeili Minor Victory)

With the end of the British Mandate, and the immediate declaration of the State of Israel, Jerusalem became the focal point of the War for Independence. The cultural and religious significance of the city to both sides was enormous.
The Old City of Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the first Jewish nation, was the site of their most sacred temple. A remnant of the temple's outer structure, the Western or Wailing Wall, was still an object of deep religious devotion.
At one time, Jerusalem had also been the holiest of Islamic places. The early Muslims prayed in the direction of the ancient city in which was built, on the ruins of the Jewish Temple, a beautiful shrine known as the Dome of the Rock.
In the middle of May 1948, the situation for the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was grim. Cut off from the Jewish stronghold in the New City to the west, their positions were being slowly reduced by Arab irregular forces. Worse, the British-led Arab Legion had crossed the Jordan River, and was fast approaching the city. Desperate circumstances called for a desperate plan.
The Palmach's Harel Brigade, which had been fighting in the Jerusalem corridor for weeks and was severely depleted, would make a secondary attack on Mount Zion. The Irgun and Stern Gang, radical Zionist splinter groups, reluctantly agreed to create a diversion at Herod's Gate. An engineer team was to use demolitions to smash through the Jaffa Gate at the foot of the Citadel, then the main assault by an Etzioni Brigade company would break through to relieve the embattled Jewish Quarter.
The thick walls of the Old City, as they had many times in history, would once again be stormed in battle.