172
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
this. But when the British finally intervened, it was to strike
a bargain with the Arabs. In return for the safety of the surviving Jews, the Arabs were to take all the Haganah arms and
equipment. To prolong a hopeless struggle against odds of
fifteen to one would have meant the eventual destruction of
the Jewish fighting force as well as the loss of vehicles. The
Haganah commander capitulated. The English escorted his
men to Jerusalem. To the Jews it meant the loss of almost
their entire fleet of armored trucks in Jerusalem. They also
lost twelve men. The Arab toll in this "Battle of the Roads"
was 135 dead.
The next day on sale everywhere in the Holy City were
gruesome photographs of the battle: the burnt and mutilated
bodies of Haganah men, which for some perverse Arab reason,
had been stripped of clothing and photographed in the nude.
These naked shots hit "Holy" City markets afresh after every
battle, and sold rapidly. Arabs carried them in their wallets
and displayed them frequently, getting the same weird, abnormal "kick" that our perverts derive from nude photographs
of women.
After our first night at the home of Faris's cousin, we
moved to our permanent headquarters near by on Deir
Aboutor. This was a two-storied house that according to the
stationery I found there was once the "Todd Osborne House."
It had served as the "Mission to Mediterranean Garrisons,
S. F. Couples, Superintendent." On my third day in Jerusalem I risked crossing to the Jewish side—the Jews were in
control of most of the New City—to reach the YMCA for a
night's rest and a hot shower such as I hadn't enjoyed since
London. There was another urgent reason: the lice had multiplied and the itching had become unbearable. I had no means
to delouse my clothing. I had no place to take a bath. The
only antidote was DDT—obtainable only on the Jewish side.
Crossing from one side to the other was dangerous, though
the distance was only about five hundred yards. Trigger-happy