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Jewish units in the British Army

Jewish units in the British Army
First Hebrew Battlion of Judea (First Judeans)

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Jewish units in the British Army

image by T. F. Mills

An old-timer told me he was in the British Army during World War Two, serving in a few units. He said that companies of Jewish soldiers from Palestine used to have an unofficial flag — a Union Jack with the blue-white flag in canton. Some of the British commanders forbade the use of the flag, some ignored it.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 30 June 1997

According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, white and blue flag was adopted by Jewish Brigade Group in WWII (like the current one?). The white flags with (blue?) David star, and with a small UJ in the canton show in photo of a Chaplain in Sabbath service of the 38th Royal fusiliers (WWI).
Jaume Ollé, 31 May 1998

I am not sure what flags are being referenced here, because British brigades do not carry flags. Battalions carry a King's Colour and Regimental Colour, but I don't think these Jewish units of the British Army were every issued any because they disbanded too soon.

In WWI, the Royal Fusiliers (a London regiment) formed three Jewish battalions in Jan. 1918. The 38th Bn was composed of Jewish immigrants from Russia. The 39th was composed of US and Canadian volunteers. The 40th was actually formed in Palestine when the battalions arrived there in June. Many of the 40th Bn had served in the Ottoman Jewish police, and therefore the 40th Bn appropriated the latter's "Hashomar standard". Collectively the three battalions were known as the "Jewish Legion". The badge of all three battalions was a menorah on a scroll inscribed in Hebrew "Kadima" (Forward). The battalions disbanded in Palestine in 1919, and most of the soldiers settled there.

In WWII, the British Army formed The Palestine Regiment in Palestine in Sept. 1942, consisting of Jewish and Arab battalions. Their badge was an olive tree in a circle inscribed "Palestine" in English, Hebrew and Arabic. When the badge was issued, some 60 Jews mutinied because it contained an Arabic inscription, but there was no further trouble in the regiment. In Sept. 1944 the three Jewish battalions were grouped into the independent "Jewish Infantry Brigade Group" in Egypt. The Palestine Regiment disbanded in Aug. 1948, and its personnel provided a trained nucleus for the Israeli army. British divisions and independent brigades wore shoulder sleeve "formation signs". The Jewish Brigade formation sign was a yellow Star of David on a blue-white-blue vertical tricolour square patch. In most photographs the blue stripes are barely visible whereas the star is very evident. This leads me to believe that the star must have been heavily fimbriated, or heavily embroidered so as to cause shadows.

The brigade held a victory parade in Antwerp, Belgium at the end of the war. A photograph shows them saluting a dipped Zionist flag as they march past. I would guess that this flag (which was not the brigade's) was blue and white like the current Israeli one, but the stripes are a little thinner, and the lines of the star are very thin.
T. F. Mills, 31 May 1998

Nimtza-bi 1948 (Ha-Degel) shows a photo of that white and blue flag and the text "Flag hoisting ceremony at the Jewish Brigade Grup HQ, at the presence of Moshe Shertok (later Moshe Sharet, first foreign minister of Israel) and Brigadier Benjamin. The flag was not used as a unit flag but as a national flag and it was carried by the Brigade in the victory parade in London."
Nahum Shereshevsky, 2 June 1998

In the celebrations of the Liberation Day (April 25, 1945) in Italy at <www.corriere.it> there was a band of "La Brigata Ebraica".
Francisco Santos, 1 May 2003

The "HYIL" (Hativa Yehudit Lo'hemet = Jewish Fighting Brigade") was a British unit of then "Palestinian" Jews. This unit was active in the Italian front in WWII.
Dov Gutterman, 1 May 2003

First Hebrew Battlion of Judea (First Judeans)

photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 15 March 2007

I visited Tel Aviv in Februaty 2007 had a chance to see the Haganah Museum where I took this photo: blue over white holizontal bicolour flag, charged with yellow (or gold ) menorah in the center and "First Judeans" on white field. Some inscriptions in white are written on blue field.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 15 March 2007

This is the flag of the a military unit. The inscription in Hebrew is "HaGdud HaYivry Rishon LeYehuda" (First Judea Hebrew Battalion). This battalion was established in 1920 by veterans of the "Hebrew Battalions" which were incorporated within the British Army during WWI (most of them from the 40th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers). The "First Judea" was dissolved by the British Army on May 1921.
Dov Gutterman, 15 March 2007

There were three Jewish battalions, numbered 38th, 39th and 40th Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, raised in 1918 from locals, British and Russian Jews. By this reckoning, the '1st Judeans' would have been the 38th, rather than the 40th, Battalion. But all were disbanded in 1919. Would this mean that if the HaGdud HaYivry Rishon LeYahuda was formed in 1920, then it is really an ex-servicemen's association flag, and not an Army flag?
The menorah as shown on the flag, placed on a scroll with the motto 'Kadimah' was the cap badge of all three battalions.
Ian Sumner, 11 June 2007

I believe that the 1st Judeans was a new regiment composed of all three battalions. Thus, it would be a successor unit and not an ex-serviceman's association. Upon the disbanding of the 1st Judeans, many of its members went on to found the Haganah, which in turn led to the current IDF.
By the way, I think "numbered 38th, 39th and 40th Battalions...raised...from locals, British and Russian Jews" is also not correct. The 38th was British, the 39th local (Palestinian), and the 40th (which never saw action) Americans and Canadians. The cap badges were not the Menorah for "all three" as you wrote: The cap badges were a Star of David for each, red for the 38th, blue for the 39th, and purple for the 40th. (Actually, they may have worn the Fusiliers' badge and worn these on their sleeves.). After they were combined into the 1st Judeans, they wore the Menorah as a badge with the word "Kadima."
Nathan Lamm, 11 June 2007

Not Russian but American Jews. It was a regular army battalion which was combined from veterans of the three "Jewish" battalions. Since most of the soldiers of the 38th (the British Battalion) and the 39th (The American Battalion) decided to return home, those battalions were disbanded and the few that decided to stay join the 40th (The Israel-land Battalion) and it was renamed as the 1st Judea. The Battalion was disbanded in May 1921, right after 1921 riots, and this disbanding of the only Jewish force in Palestine brought to the establishment of the HaHagana, the Jewish underground.
Dov Gutterman, 11 June 2007

Incidentally, an article in Bulletin of the Military Historical Society, February 2000, p.161, states that the stars of David were sewn onto a khaki backing and worn on the sleeves. But it also gives the colours in a different order - purple (38th), red (39th) and blue (40th) - but doesn't give a source.
Ian Sumner, 12 June 2007

Could be. I got most of what I know from the Encyclopaedia Judaica and Vladimir Jabotinsky's book on the Legion, but I don't have either work in front of me.
Incidentally, in many sources, the entire enterprise (including the earlier Zion Mule Corps of Galliopoli, but especially the 38-39-40 Royal Fusiliers and the 1st Judeans) are called the "Jewish Legion", which, I believe, was never an official name and perhaps never even used at the time. This is not to be confused with the Jewish Brigade (Palestinian Jews) of the British Army during World War II.
Nathan Lamm, 12 June 2007