176 ISLAM AT WAR
the Israelis, they were inevitably looking over their shoulders at their allies
in an atmosphere of mistrust. They could thus never really take full advan-
tage of their overwhelming superiority, while the Israeli forces, operating
on internal lines of communication, were able to take advantage of this
situation, switching forces from front to front and developing attacks against
one Arab force conscious of the fact that there would be no concerted
military pressure brought to bear on them on other fronts.The psychological importance of Jerusalem to both the Jews and the
Muslims was such that the Arab Legion spent much of its military re-
sources in an effort to capture and hold the Holy City. On May 22, 1948,
the Third Regiment of the Legion—disciplined Bedouin tribesmen—
pushed forward against the Old City and reached the Damascus Gate,
despite heavy small-arms fire from the Jewish defenders of the city.
The Third Regiment then pushed against the principal enemy position,
the old Notre Dame de France monastery complex. This large stone com-
plex, dominated by towering stone walls, was strongly defended by a force
of desperate Jews.
The spearhead attack by the Fourth Company, Arab Legion, supported
by two anti-tank guns, pushed forward to the walls of the monastery, only
to find itself trapped in crossfire of accurate small arms. Efforts to relieve
it with an attack by armored cars were stopped when the Jews blew up a
wall of the monastery and it collapsed on the vehicles. Jewish soldiers
then attacked the Arab Legion’s remaining armored cars with Molotov
cocktails, reducing them to flaming wrecks that blocked any further mo-
torized advance against the monastery. Despite the murderous fire, the one
company held its position, losing 50 percent of its strength as killed or
seriously wounded until May 24, when the attack was abandoned. During
the attack the company lost all its officers and NCOs except one. As the
shattered company withdrew, so too did the other Legionnaires. If all of
the Muslim armies had demonstrated the discipline and staying power of
this formation, the war could not have been lost. The battle had reduced
the Third Regiment to a strength of 500 men.
Despite having broken the attack of the Third Regiment in Jerusalem,
the Jewish situation in Jerusalem was desperate—they had little food or
ammunition. They thus turned their attention to capturing the police fort
at Latrun. Thus the Jews would open the road from Jerusalem to the sea
and resupply and reinforce the city’s Jewish defenders. The main effort
in the battle to control Jerusalem now switched to the south.
Opening up the road required the Jews to attack and capture Latrun,
held by the Fourth Arab Legion Regiment, another of the professional