The New York Times · 5 May 1947

CP-1947-063

BOMBING FREES 251 IN PALESTINE JAIL; 15 SLAIN IN BATTLE

IRGUN BLASTS WALL — Jews and Arabs Flee Prison as Terrorists Battle British — ASSAULT AT HANGING SITE — Five Jews Killed in Attack on Troops Near By—Six Bombs Hurled at Army Camp

By Clifton Daniel, Special to The New York Times

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, May 4—Zionist terrorists blasted open the ancient and formidable walls of Acre’s central prison today, liberating 251 Jewish and Arab prisoners in one of the biggest jal breaks in history.

Some of the eighty convicted terrorists imprisoned there escaped. [According to The Associated Press the prison had held 555 persons.] In a furious battle around the double walls and moats of the towering citadel and in running gun fights around the historic Crusaders’ town fourteen Jews, including three terrorist attackers, were slain. One Arab prisoner was killed.

Ten Jews were injured and ten captured. One of the dead attackers wore the uniform of a captain in the British Royal Engineers. As the liberated Jewish prisoners fled in stolen army trucks that were waiting for them, six were wounded and two recaptured. One suspected terrorist also was wounded and another captured uninjured.

Two Arab prisoners were injured and nine recaptured unhurt. Insane Prisoners Wounded It was announced later that British troops had intercepted a jeep and a light truck north of Acre after the attack and had found in them two Jews dead, three injured and seven unhurt.

How many were attackers and how many were prisoners was not specified. [A late report on the London radio, recorded by the National Broadcasting Company, said 212 of the freed prisoners were still at large.] Several insane prisoners were slightly wounded when hand grenades were thrown into their cell-block as a diversionary measure.

This suggested that the attackers had got inside the prison buildings. Responsibility for freeing 120 Jews and 131 Arabs was promptly acknowledged by Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization), militant right-wing underground army, in a communication to the press. The organization said that its forces had engineered the prison break without aid from anyone.

A party of paratroopers returning from a swim in the Mediterranean near Acre was fired on shortly after the spectacular prison break. The soldiers, who always travel with arms in Palestine, replied with a fusillade that killed five Jews. The dead men were not immediately identified.

Assault Planned in Detail A British prison official was slightly injured and a British constable was shot during the assault on the prison and five British soldiers were hurt when their truck ran over one of the road mines strewn by the attackers to block reinforcements for Acre.

Thirty minutes after the attack a party of men hurled six bombs from a truck into an army camp two miles north of Acre. It was not known immediately whether casualties resulted. Although one of the least costly attacks in British lives, the prison break was the most daring and sensational one yet made by the underground.

The blow had obviously been planned minutely for many days. Despite its spectacular success, it cost the guerrilla forces more in killed, wounded and captured than had any recent incident in Palestine. This may have been the underground’s pay-off for the hanging of four convicted terrorists in the same prison on April 16.

The assault that broke down the walls that Napoleon had not been able to reduce was planned and executed with the usual dash and precision of the terrorists, many of whom had served in the armies

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