6th Airborne Division in Palestine The 6th Airborne Division in Palestine was initially posted to the region as the Imperial Strategic Reserve . It was envisioned as a mobile peace keeping force , positioned to be able to respond quickly to any area of the British Empire . In fact it became involved in an internal security role between 1945 and 1948 . Palestine had been a British Mandate since the end of the First World War . Under the terms of the mandate , Great Britain was responsible for the government and security of the country . It had long been a stated British aim to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine and between 1922 and 1939 over 250 , 000 Jewish immigrants had arrived in the country . However Arab resistance and the Second World War prompted the British to curtail immigration . The time also saw the rise of the Jewish Resistance Movement , which eventually came into conflict with the British authorities . When the 6th Airborne Division arrived in response to increasing terrorist activity , it became involved in internal security , being responsible for cordons and search operations , guarding convoys and key installations . As the situation worsened , the men of the division had to patrol the towns and cities , enforce curfews and deal with rioting by the civilian population . They also protected Jewish and Arab settlements from sectarian violence . This was not without loss to the division and several members were killed and wounded during this time . The end of the British mandate coincided with the post war reduction of the British Army back to peace time levels , and the division ' s numbers were gradually reduced . By the end of their tenure in Palestine , the division ' s strength was reduced in real terms , to less than brigade size . In 1948 it was disbanded soon after its withdrawal from Palestine . Background . It was during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War that a British Army , known as the Egyptian Expeditionary Force , first arrived in Palestine . The British Empire forces , commanded by General Edmund Allenby , defeated the occupying Turkish Army and ended 400 years of rule by the Ottoman Empire . Around the same time , the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Baron Rothschild which has since became known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917 . The letter stated : " His Majesty ' s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people , and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object , it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non - Jewish communities in Palestine , or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country . " Mandate . In July 1922 , the British Mandate of Palestine was created . Under the terms of the mandate , Great Britain was responsible for the government and defence of the country and for the establishment of a Jewish homeland . Then in September 1922 , the League of Nations and Great Britain decided that any Jewish homeland would not be formed in the land to the east of the River Jordan . This instead became a separate country known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan . Encouraged by the British , 265 , 000 Jewish immigrants , mainly from Europe , came to settle in Palestine between 1919 and 1939 . Arab resistance and violence to this influx of immigrants came to a head in 1937 , and the Peel Commission recommended that two states should be formed , one Arab and one Jewish , which would divide the country between them . Then in May 1939 , the British restricted the number of Jewish immigrants to 75 , 000 in the White Paper of 1939 . By the end of 1945 , Jewish immigration had almost reached the 75 , 000 White Paper limit . Arab concerns led to the British putting further restrictions on immigration . Even when the scale of the Holocaust became known , the British stance remained the same . This led to an inevitable confrontation between the British authorities , illegal Jewish immigrants , and militant Zionist groups . It became a widespread belief within the Jewish community that the British were practising antisemitism and were no different from Nazi Germany . However , between 1945 and 1948 a further 85 , 000 Jewish immigrants , mostly survivors of the Holocaust , entered the country illegally . Jewish resistance movements . During this time the Jewish Resistance Movement was formed , comprising several pre - existing Jewish groups . In 1921 , the part - time Haganah was formed and trained as a national army . Most Jewish males and some females were required to join . After the Second World War , it obtained numerous surplus weapons to equip its members . The Haganah gave priority to increasing the Jewish population by bringing immigrants into the country from Europe . It always attempted to give prior notice of an attack so that any security service personnel in the area could be evacuated . When Axis forces posed a threat to the Middle East in the Second World War , the Haganah organized a full - time , elite force , the Palmach . By 1947 , this organization numbered around 2 , 200 members . Palmach members were subject to military discipline ; many of them had served in the British forces during the war . In 1937 , a splinter group was formed by those not happy with the Hagana methods . This group was called the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel or Irgun in short . It launched a campaign of violence against the government in 1944 , carrying out several terrorist attacks . By 1945 , Irgun had an estimated membership of 1 , 500 . A third group was the Lehi , the Hebrew acronym of " Fighters for the Freedom of Israel " , known in the British press as the Stern Gang . Lehi membership consisted of only around fifty men . It was the only Jewish group that contemplated working with the Italians and Germans during the war , and afterwards assassinated members of the British authorities . By 1946 , both the Irgun and Lehi had declared war on Great Britain . British 6th Airborne Division . Despite its name , the 6th Airborne Division was one of only two British airborne divisions raised during the Second World War . Before being deployed to Palestine , the division had served only in Europe . It had participated in the Normandy landings and the Battle of the Bulge . After the Rhine crossing in March 1945 , it spent six weeks advancing across Germany to the Baltic Sea . At the end of the war in Europe , it had been planned to send the division to Burma to form an airborne corps with the 44th Indian Airborne Division . However , the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and the Japanese surrender , ended the war and changed British plans . The 6th Airborne Division was nominated to be the Imperial Strategic Reserve . Together with a Royal Air Force troop - carrier formation , they were to be located in the Middle East as a quick reaction peace keeping force for the British Empire . By September 1945 , the division was en route to the region for airborne training . However , conditions in Palestine were deteriorating . By the time the division arrived , instead of training , it was deployed on internal security . During the Second World War , the division comprised the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades and the glider infantry 6th Airlanding Brigade . However the 5th Parachute Brigade had been sent to India ahead of the rest of the division . So when the division was dispatched to the Middle East , the 2nd Parachute Brigade was assigned to bring them up to strength . In May 1946 , after the 1st Airborne Division was disbanded , the 1st Parachute Brigade joined the division , replacing the 6th Airlanding Brigade . In August 1946 , the 5th Parachute Brigade returned from the Far East , and joined the division , but was disbanded soon afterwards . The next major manpower development came in 1947 , when the 3rd Parachute Brigade was disbanded and the 2nd Parachute Brigade , while remaining part of the division , was withdrawn to England , then sent to Germany . Operations . 1945 . Still commanded by its last wartime commander , Major General Eric Bols , the division began deployment to Palestine in 1945 . The advance party arrived on 15 September , followed by the Tactical Headquarters on 24 September , then the 3rd Parachute Brigade on 3 October , the 6th Airlanding Brigade on 10 October and the 2nd Parachute Brigade on 22 October . After arriving by sea at Haifa , the newly arrived troops were sent to camps in the District of Gaza to acclimatize to the conditions , and to regain their fitness after the long sea journey from England . By the end of the month divisional headquarters was established at Bir Salim . The 2nd Parachute Brigade at remained at Gaza , the 3rd Parachute Brigade moved to the Tel Aviv and Jaffa region , while the 6th Airlanding Brigade moved to Samaria . It was not long before the division became involved in operations , enforcing a night time curfew at the end of October after the railway in the divisional area was sabotaged . On 13 November the British Government confirmed they would examine the conditions of Jews in Europe and consult the Arabs to ensure Jewish immigration , at the time around 1 , 500 persons a month , was not hindered . Unhappy that the announcement did not go far enough , the Jewish National Council arranged a twelve hour strike for the next day . Rioting started in Tel Aviv and the Jewish part of Jerusalem , which resulted in the 3rd Parachute Brigade being deployed to patrol the streets for the following five days . The first operation involving the 6th Airlanding Brigade followed two attacks by the Palmach on coastguard stations over the night of 24 / 25 November . Palestine Police Force dogs tracked the attackers to the settlements of Rishpon and Sidna Ali . In the following cordon and search operation , the police were stoned by the inhabitants , and the soldiers on the cordon had to prevent reinforcements from other settlements reaching the villages . The next day , 26 November , the police were involved in hand to hand fighting with the villagers and eventually withdrew , calling on the brigade to enter the settlements and enforce law and order . Leaving some men behind on the cordon to hold back the estimated 3 , 000 crowd , the remainder of the brigade entered the settlements . Here they carried out several baton charges and for the first time used tear gas to disperse the crowds . In the clean up operation , 900 persons were later arrested . Near the end of the year , over the night of 26 / 27 December , several attacks were carried out by the Irgun on police stations , Palestine Railways installations and one British Army armoury . The 3rd Parachute Brigade again enforced a night time curfew on Tel Aviv . Then on 29 December , it took part in Operation Pintail , the search of Ramat Gan , for Irgun members involved in the attacks . The brigade questioned the 1 , 500 inhabitants , arresting eighty - nine . 1946 . The first mission of 1946 was Operation Hebron on 8 January . This time the objective was the cordon and search of the town of Rishon LeZion by the 3rd Parachute Brigade and the police , during which fifty - five suspects were taken into custody . For the rest of the month , the brigade was involved in several smaller operations . In Operation Pigeon on 30 January , they searched the Shapira district of Tel Aviv . On 5 March Major General James Cassels took over command of the division . The next action involving the division was over the night of 2 / 3 April , when units of the Irgun attacked railway installations in the divisional area . While one attack on the Yibna railway station and police post was in progress , a mobile patrol from the 9th Parachute Battalion arrived , detonating a mine while crossing a bridge . Three of the patrol were wounded , but the others took off after the saboteurs . Reinforcements arrived from the 5th and 6th Parachute Battalion s . In the morning , tracks of around thirty men were discovered leading away from the area . A spotter plane later located the men and directed a section of the 8th Parachute Battalion to intercept them . After a small battle , fourteen of the saboteurs were wounded and twenty - six prisoners taken . In March the 1st Parachute Brigade joined the division . The 6th Airlanding Brigade left the division on 13 April , but remained in Palestine as the 31st Independent Infantry Brigade . This reduced the division ' s manpower by around twenty - five per cent as the strength of the airlanding brigade had been almost equal to that of two parachute brigades combined . At 20 : 45 on 25 April , the Lehi carried out an attack on a divisional car park in Tel Aviv . On that night , the car park was guarded by ten men from the 5th Parachute Battalion . The attackers , around thirty men , established a fire base in a house overlooking the car park . The attack began with a bomb thrown into a guard tent . Gunfire was directed at all of the soldiers in the area , then twenty of the attackers stormed the car park . Once inside the compound , they entered the guard tents , killing four unarmed soldiers and looting the rifle racks of weapons . Another two off - duty soldiers , responding to the attack , were killed approaching the car park . In total , seven men from the division were killed . This was the first deliberate attack by any group targeting the British Army , which had not established defences against any form of assault . During the following day seventy suspects were rounded up , but no evidence of their involvement could be found . In response to the attack , the British imposed a road curfew from 18 : 00 to 06 : 00 each night and all cafes , restaurants and public entertainment venues in Tel Aviv were closed between 20 : 00 and 05 : 00 . However this was not enough for some members of the division , who attacked Jewish houses in Qastina and Be ' er Tuvia , injuring some of the occupants . Those involved were later punished by the British Army . Attacks on the security services had increased to a level that on 19 June all ranks were ordered to be armed at all times on or off duty , and to travel in pairs during the day and in threes at night . Near the end of June the division received orders for Operation Agatha , the arrest of Jewish leaders " suspected of condoning " or being involved in sabotage or murder of civil and military personnel . Agatha was a nationwide operation involving not only the 6th Airborne Division but the Palestinian Police Force and all other army units in the country . Secondary objectives were to gather intelligence and arrest any members of the Palmach that could be found . Operation Agatha started at 04 : 15 on 29 June . The 2nd Parachute Brigade was responsible for Tel Aviv , the 1st Parachute Brigade for Jewish settlements around Ma ' abarot and the 3rd Parachute Brigade for those around Givat Brenner . The operation ended on 1 July after 2 , 718 suspects had been arrested . Many had no connection to the resistance movements and were instead arrested for harassing the searchers or for refusing to give their names when asked . The 6th Airborne Division alone arrested 636 persons , 135 of them for being suspected Palmach members and ten were Jewish leaders . The next major incident was on 22 July , when the British administrative and military headquarters located in the King David Hotel were bombed . No members of the division were directly involved , but the Royal Engineers of the 9th Airborne Squadron were called in to take charge of the search for survivors and secure the part of the building left standing . Over the next three days they located six survivors and the bodies of ninety - one victims . To assist in the search for those responsible , the 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions moved into Jerusalem on 23 July . The British response to the bombing came on 30 July , when the division carried out Operation Shark . Believing that the bombers were being sheltered in Tel Aviv , every dwelling and building was searched for members of the Lehi and Irgun , and the population questioned . During the operation , a cordon surrounded the city and a curfew was imposed on its inhabitants . To allow the population to buy food and other essentials , the curfew was lifted for two hours every second day , until the end of the operation . The division ' s three parachute brigades were each given one quarter of the city to cordon and search while the fourth quarter was the responsibility of the 2nd Infantry Brigade , attached to the division for the operation . Over four days each brigade questioned around 100 , 000 people , and 787 were detained for further questioning . During the searches , five arms dumps were found , containing four machine guns , twenty - three mortars , 176 rifles and pistols , and 127 , 000 round of ammunition . Also found were £50 , 000 of forged bearer bond s , forging equipment and a large amount of explosives . The division ' s next operations were Bream and Eel , searching for arms in Dorot and Ruhama , by the 3rd and 8th Parachute Battalions , and the 9th Airborne Squadron Royal Engineers . The two villages were cordoned at dawn on 28 August . Over the next six days the settlements were searched , during which a large quantity of assorted weapons , including heavy machine guns and mortars , were found . Over the remaining months of the year the division carried out patrols of the rail and road networks , which were being mined . Some of the mines killed men from the division attempting to disarm them , until orders were issued to blow the mines up rather than disarm them . Then on 2 December a road mine killed four men from the 2nd Forward Observation Unit ( Airborne ) . A change in command occurred on 13 December when Major General Cassels left the division and was replaced by Eric Bols , now commanding the division for the second time . 1947 . Between 29 December 1946 and 3 January the division ' s brigades carried out seven search operations in Tel Aviv , arresting 191 people . On 2 January several attacks were made on roads in the division ' s area . One attack wounded eight men of the 4th and 5th Parachute Battalions . Another attack on the same day was carried out by the Lehi against the 1st Parachute Battalion headquarters in Tel Aviv , killing a Jewish policeman and wounding two soldiers and another police officer . Then on 18 January the 6th Airborne and 1st Infantry Division swapped locations , the airborne division now assuming responsibility for the north of the country . Although it remained part of the division , the 2nd Parachute Brigade was withdrawn to England on 24 January . Upon their arrival in the north , the 1st Parachute Brigade assumed responsibility for the District of Galilee , and the 3rd Parachute Brigade for the District of Haifa , with division headquarters located in the Stella Maris Monastery . The 1st Parachute Brigade also took under its command the Transjordan Frontier Force and a battalion of the Arab Legion to cover their large area . In the north the division was mainly responsible for the security of the port of Haifa , the largest in the country , where they protected oil installations , the Mosul - Haifa oil pipeline and prevented illegal immigrants from landing on the coastline . On 31 January it was announced that all non - essential British civilians were to be evacuated , due to the worsening situation . The evacuation took place from Haifa between 5 and 8 February , under the control of the 8th Parachute Battalion and the Royal Navy . On 4 May a group of around forty men carried out the Acre Prison break , releasing forty - one Jews and 214 Arabs . At the same time a mortar attack was carried out on the 2nd Parachute Battalion ' s camp , as a diversion . The first unit to reach the prison was a platoon from the 1st Parachute Battalion , 35 minutes later . Other men from the battalion and some divisional units were bathing in the sea a short distance from the prison . A truck load of escaping prisoners opened fire on one unit ' s armoured car . The escaping truck then reached an improvised road block set up by some bathers and crashed under fire . The division ' s bathing party killed four attackers , four Jewish and one Arab escapee , and recaptured thirteen Jews . The bathers had eight men wounded during the short battle . While this was going on , the 1st Parachute Brigade was establishing a cordon around Acre and the surrounding area but no further escapees were caught . The next attack was on officers from the 9th Parachute Battalion on 28 June . The officers were dining at a restaurant when two men of the Irgun approached and fired machine guns through the windows . One officer was killed outright while several others were wounded . The officers returned fire and the car the gunmen were escaping in crashed ; later examination revealed at least one of them had been wounded . On 19 July two police officers on patrol in Haifa were shot in the back and killed . The following day the 3rd Parachute Brigade cordoned the area and imposed a night time curfew , which was not lifted until 30 July . Leadership of the division changed again on 19 August , when Major General Hugh Stockwell was given command . In October the British War Office announced the division would be reduced by one brigade . The 3rd Parachute Brigade was disbanded , leaving the 1st Parachute Brigade in Palestine and the 2nd Parachute Brigade in England . The 1st Parachute Brigade assumed responsibility for Haifa and to cover all its commitments the 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment was attached to the brigade . At a meeting on 29 November , the United Nations General Assembly decided to end the British Mandate on 1 August 1948 . Palestine would be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish states , with Jerusalem becoming an international city . The Jewish state would have fifty - six per cent of the land with a population of 490 , 000 Jews and 325 , 000 Arabs , while the Arab state would have 807 , 000 Arabs , but only 10 , 000 Jews . The population of Jerusalem would be around 105 , 000 Arabs to 100 , 000 Jews . On 13 December trouble came from another quarter , in the town of Safed , opposite the Golan Heights . Fighting had started between the Arab and Jewish inhabitants . The police requested help from the army and a company from the 8th Parachute Battalion was assigned the task . Arabs fired at the British unit on 21 December without causing any injuries . 1948 . Tension in the Golan Heights area remained high and on 9 January the Jewish settlements of Dan and Kfar Szold were attacked by Arab irregulars from the Arab Liberation Army , who crossed the border from Syria . The division responded by immediately sending a troop of armoured cars from the 17th / 21st Lancers to each village . By the afternoon the 1st Parachute Battalion had joined the battle and air support from the Royal Air Force was called in . The battle ended with the Arabs withdrawing ; their casualties are not known . Nine Jews were killed or wounded by the Arabs , the British troops uninjured . To assist in controlling the region , an ad - hoc formation called Craforce was established . Under the command of the division ' s commander , Royal Artillery Brigadier C . H . Colquhoun , were the division ' s artillery , the 17th / 21st Lancers , the 1st Parachute Battalion and the 1st Battalion Irish Guards . Craforce became involved with breaking up attacks between Arab and Jewish forces . The Arabs did not directly attack the British , but did engage them when British attempted to intervene in an attack on Jewish settlements . In February the Arab Liberation Army , under the command of Fawzi al - Qawuqji , was estimated to be around 10 , 000 strong . It was believed around 1 , 000 volunteers from neighbouring Arab states joined each month . On 18 February it was announced that the 6th Airborne Division would be disbanded when they left Palestine . The 1st Parachute Brigade handed over Haifa to the 1st Guards Brigade on 6 April . Gradually the division ' s units left the country . The division ' s last units , comprising part of divisional headquarters , the 1st Parachute Battalion and the 1st Airborne Squadron Royal Engineers , departed on 18 May . Aftermath . Since the end of the Second World War , the campaign in the British Mandate of Palestine had cost the British 338 dead . The numbers for the 6th Airborne Division between October 1945 and April 1948 were fifty - eight men dead and 236 wounded due to enemy action , a further ninety - nine men died , from causes not associated with a hostile act . During their searches of Jewish and Arab settlements , men from the division had located 99 mortars , 34 machine guns , 174 sub machine guns , 375 rifles , 391 pistols , 97 land mines , 2 , 582 hand grenades and 302 , 530 rounds of ammunition . In February 1948 the 2nd Parachute Brigade moved from England to Germany , becoming part of the British Army on the Rhine . The 6th Airborne Division was disbanded in April 1948 , shortly after their return to England , leaving the 2nd Parachute Brigade as the only brigade - sized airborne formation in the British Army . Being the only surviving parachute formation , in June its battalions were renumbered : the 5th ( Scottish ) Parachute Battalion became the 2nd Battalion , Parachute Regiment , while the 4th / 6th Parachute Battalion became the 1st Battalion , Parachute Regiment , and the 7th ( Light Infantry ) Parachute Battalion became the 3rd Battalion , Parachute Regiment . Finally , in July 1948 , the brigade was renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade , taking the numbers " 1 " and " 6 " from the two wartime airborne divisions . On 14 May , the day before the end of the British mandate , David Ben - Gurion , chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine , announced the establishment of the state of Israel in parts of what was known as the British Mandate of Palestine . The announcement was the catalyst for the start of the 1948 Arab – Israeli War . The infant state of Israel had , by the end of the war , mobilised around 100 , 000 soldiers forming twelve brigades and fledgling naval and air forces . These forces defeated the combined armies of five Arab states , forcing the majority of them back out of Israeli territory .