Journal of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center
No.16, Spring  2008


 

BRITISH MEDALS GRANTED TO YOAV BYRON

 

Colonel A. K. Miller with Yoav Byron

 

On the 5th March 2007 a ceremony was held in Tel-Aviv by Colonel A.K. Miller, the British Military Attaché to Israel, and his wife Mrs. Carol Miller, to grant Judge (Ret.) Yoav Byron two British service medals, the 1939-45 Star and the War Medal 1939-45, for his role as an Arabic-English interpreter for the 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Gurkha Rifles battalion in Iraq during May-August 1941.

On this occasion Judge (Ret.) Yoav Byron (Kattan) delivered the following speech:

Sixty six years ago, during the Second World War, in March 1941 in Iraq. Rashid Ali al-Gilani was made the Prime Minister of Iraq. His regime was pro-Nazi. He sent into exile the pro-British Monarch and family and wished to over-throw the old British alliance in favour of the Axis Powers.

In April 1941, in order to anticipate the occupation of Iraq by the Nazis, Britain dispatched the 20th Indian Division to Basra, including the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Gurkha Rifles. When more British forces reached the Shatt-al-Arab river, the Iraqi Government declared war on Great Britain on May 2, 1941.

British forces occupied the city of Basra on May 7, 1941. They declared that they needed interpreters. I met that demand and volunteered and was accepted by the 20th Brigade. On May 10, 1941 I was sent to the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Gurkha Rifles together with Captain Jeffreys, from the intelligence Service, who was later assassinated brutally in Nasiriya. I had a bit of luck when Captain Jeffeys decided to go alone without me to that fatal meeting in Nasiriya.

Yoav Byron (Kattan), Feb. 1941

The camp of the 2nd Battalion was near Basra in the British Base of Shaiba. On 28.5.1941 I accompanied the 2nd Battalion that advanced with the 20th Brigade in the march on Baghdad. I remained with the 2nd Battalion during the advance along Iraq from the south to the north, including subdue of Ur Junction Station, and the capture of Nasiriya, Baghdad and the Northern Iraq. Then, the 2nd Battalion fought in Syria against the French Vichy Forces in July 1941, and took part in the occupation of Eastern Syria, up to Deir-Ez-Zor on the Euphrates River. So I took part in these two campaigns: the Iraqi campaign against the Rashid Ali Gilani regime, the Nazi collaborators, and the Syrian campaign against the French Vichy Forces. For this service I was awarded by the Israeli Government, the Medal of the Warriors against the Nazis and their collaborators.

In late August 1941, when the 2nd Battalion left Iraq to take part in the Persian campaign, my services came to an end, because I did not speak Persian. I was born on August 12, 1923, so I was under 18 years of age at that period.  

I would like to remark that one day before the occupation of Basra by the British Forces, there were riots, during which all Jewish shops and business stores were looted. But in Baghdad the situation was much more serious. On June 1-2, 1941 there was a pogrom, during which about 130 Jews were killed and hundreds were wounded. If it were not for the occupation of Iraq by the British Forces, another holocaust might have taken place within the Jewish community in Iraq.

For my above-mentioned service of 66 years ago I am awarded today with two British service medals: the 1939-1945 Star and the War Medal of 1939-1945. I wish to send from here, to far away England, my gratitude to Brigadier David Willis, Chairman of 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association, who took care of my eligibility for the above medals.

On my own behalf and on behalf of my wife Aliza-Louis I want to thank, from the bottom of our hearts, Colonel and Mrs. Carol Miller for their kind hospitality and their marvelous organization of this occasion.

I greet all the guests, you, Mr. Mordehai Ben-Porat, Chairman of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, and my entire family.