Battle of the Ammunition Hill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A trench on the Ammunition Hill, with the police academy seen in the background, Jerusalem, 1967.

Date	June 6, 1967
Location	31°47′58″N 35°13′41″E / 31.79944, 35.22806 (Ammunition Hill)Coordinates: 31°47′58″N 35°13′41″E / 31.79944, 35.22806 (Ammunition Hill) Ammunition Hill, North-East Jerusalem
Result	Israeli victory

Belligerents

Israel

Jordan

Commanders

Mordechai Gur, Yossi Yafe

Strength

Reinforced company

About 150 soldiers

Casualties and losses

37 killed, 21 of them on the hill

71 all of them on the hill

Capture of East Jerusalem

Ammunition Hill – The Old City – Ogusta-Victoria

The Ammunition hill (Hebrew: גבעת התחמושת‎, Giv'at HaTahmoshet) was a military post in Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem, and was the site of one of the toughest battles in the Six Day War.

[edit] The battle

The hill was a part of a site which included the police academy, and a fortified trench that connected between its two sections. The site was built by the British during their Mandatory government of Palestine in the 1930's, and was used to store the police academy's ammunition. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the post remained under control of the Jordanian Arab Legion, and was one of three major posts meant to prevent Israel from linking-up West Jerusalem with Mount Scopus, which was an Israeli enclave east of the Old City, and which controlled one of the city's major arteries.

The post consisted of tens of bunkers built along the three main trenches. When the Six Day War broke out, the post was defended by a reinforced Jordanian company of 150 soldiers, of the El-Hussein regiment (number 2).

The fighting in the police academy site and the adjacent Ammunition Hill began on June 6, 1967, at 2:30 AM. The task of capturing the hill was given to the Israeli 3rd company of the 66th regiment, of the Paratroopers Brigade's reserve force (55th brigade), and during the battle, a force of the 2nd company joined the fighting. The battle ended at 7 AM. 37 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle, 21 of them were killed on the Ammunition Hill.

10 of the soldiers who fought in this battle were given citations by the Israeli chief of general staff. The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade was then Mordechai Gur, and the commander of the 66th regiment was Yossi Yafe.

In 1975, a memorial site was inaugurated in which a part of the old post was preserved and a museum was built. One wall in the museum lists the names of the 182 Israeli soldiers killed in the battles for the capture of Jerusalem. In 1987 the site was declared national memorial site, and each year the main ceremony of Jerusalem Day is held there.