Tom Derek Bowden was a British army officer noted for his role in

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

and helping create the Israeli

Paratroopers Brigade The 35th Paratroopers Brigade (, ''Hativat HaTzanhanim'') is an Israeli military airborne infantry brigade. It is a selective unit, which accepts new recruits following physical tryouts and interviews, and consists of volunteers. It forms a m ...

Early life and military career

Bowden was born in Surrey, the son of a well-to-do South London family. He married Eva Heilbronner with whom he had four children.

Military career

Bowden enlisted the British cavalry in 1938 at age 17, and serving in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

with the

Royal Scots Greys The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the Army of Scotland that became a regiment of the British Army in 1707 upon the Union of Scotland and England, continuing until 1971 when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of ...

during the Arab revolt in Palestine. He served under

Orde Wingate Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Orde Charles Wingate, (26 February 1903 – 24 March 1944) was a senior British Army officer known for his creation of the Chindits, Chindit deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory duri ...

. In 1941, Bowden, now an officer, led a British cavalry charge into battle on horseback against Vichy forces in

Vichy Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789. Known f ...

-held Syria-Lebanon. Bowden was badly wounded in the leg. After six months recovery at the home of the Appel family in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, Bowden volunteered for the

Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom) The Parachute Regiment, known colloquially as the Paras, is the Airborne forces, airborne and elite infantry regiment of the British Army. The 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, first battalion is part of the Special Forces Support Group under ...

. He trained in Egypt, and fought in Sicily, Italy and on

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

with the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

, and parachuted into the

Battle of Arnhem The Battle of Arnhem was fought during the Second World War, as part of the Allies of World War II, Allied Operation Market Garden. It took place around the Netherlands, Dutch city of Arnhem and vicinity from 17 to 26 September 1944. The Alli ...

, where he was taken prisoner. When his German captors discovered letters from his Israeli girlfriend, kibbutznik, Hannah Appel, in his gear, the officer who examined his papers said to him, "Now you will see how we treat the Jews,'" and sent him to the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

where he was made to work carting Jewish corpses to disposal pits. After a month at Bergen-Belsen, Bowden was sent to a POW camp near Hamburg where he remained until liberation. After the war, Bowden went to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, then ruled by

Marshal Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 until his death ...

, to work as a parachute instructor. "But the Israeli thing was starting up and I thought to myself, I'd better get there - we don't want another Belsen." Bowden entered British Mandatory Palestine clandestinely, through Cyprus, joining the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

under a pseudonym, Captain David Appel, although he spoke no

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. He served at the Battle of Latrun, fighting alongside Holocaust survivors to keep the road between Jerusalem and the coast open. He later told an interviewer for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, "We were up against the British army-trained Trans-Jordan Frontier Force and had no water or supplies. I was in command of a lot of Polish chaps who only spoke Yiddish, so I had to learn a few words to order them to fire at the enemy." After the accidental shooting of

Mickey Marcus David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus (February 22, 1901 – June 10, 1948) was a United States Army colonel, later Israel's first general, who was a principal architect of the U.S. military's World War II civil-affairs policies,Ossad, Steven L."Out of t ...

, an American volunteer fighting for Israel who was mistaken for an Arab when he stepped from his field tent and did not realise that he was being asked in Hebrew for a password, the English-speaking 7th

volunteer Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

Brigade was formed. Bowden led a unit that fought in the Galilee. In 1998, Bowden told an interviewer that he, like everyone else, knew that Arab armies would attack the Jews as soon as the British withdrew, "I was going to make sure they didn't get stamped on. (The Arabs) were going to kill the whole sodding lot of them! I'd seen enough annihilation." In 1949,

Chaim Laskov Haim Laskov (; 1919 – 8 December 1982) was an Israeli public figure and the fifth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Biography Haim Laskov was born in Barysaw in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Belarus). He im ...

asked Captain Bowden to create a paratroop school, and to establish the predecessor of the

. He did so, writing a training manual with the help of his Hebrew-speaking secretary Eva Heilbronner and training soldiers with British Army surplus equipment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Tom Derek 1921 births 2019 deaths Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Royal Scots Greys officers Royal Scots Greys soldiers British Anglicans British Army personnel of World War II British Christian Zionists British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine British Parachute Regiment officers British World War II prisoners of war Special Air Service officers Mahal personnel of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Military personnel from Surrey