THE ORIGINS OF GRANDMA'S ARMY - I
After the outbreak of WWI, Zeev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor submitted a resolution to the commander of British forces in Egypt, asking him to form a Jewish Legion, and propose to England its usefulness in Palestine. The commander told his Zionist visitors: "Under the law I am not entitled to accept foreigners into the British army. I can offer you only one thing: to form a mule transport unit from your young people and send it to a different Turkish front". In April 1915 “the Zion Mule Corps ”, so named by its commander Colonel John Henry Patterson, sailed from Egypt to Gallipoli. It consisted of 562 mostly Palestinian Zionists, five British officers, eight Jewish officers and 750 mules. As the Zion Mule Corps was the only transport unit on the peninsula, it was soon involved in transporting water, ammunition, food and other supplies to the front lines - under heavy fire. Probably, this was the first purely Jewish fighting corps that went into action since Jerusal...