Gush Etzion Convoy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The convoy of ten, or Gush Etzion Convoy, was one of many convoys sent by the Haganah to the four blockaded kibbutzim of Gush Etzion ("The Etzion Bloc"), south of Jerusalem in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. The initial convoys to the bloc used open pickup trucks ("tenders"), since the British claimed that armored vehicles would irritate the Arabs. The convoys were accompanied by official mandate police "monitors" (notrim) in uniform.
The convoy of ten was the first failed attempt using this method. Its four vehicles were ambushed on the main road north of King Solomon's pools on December 11, 1947. Ten of the convoy personnel were killed, four injured and only four escaped unhurt. On December 14 an additional person was killed in another attack on a convoy. The Haganah then decided that henceforth it would use armored "sandwich" vehicles in the convoys.
