Operation Boatswain Memorial

Operation Boatswain Memorial in Mount Herzl

The Operation Boatswain Memorial is a memorial dedicated to a group of 23 fighters who died at sea in 1941, during World War II. They fought for Palmach, a paramilitary group in Palestine. Operation Boatswain was a mission to damage oil refineries in Tripoli, Lebanon. The mission failed, and the bodies of the fighters were never found. In Hebrew, these men are known as <span title=" transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">Kaf Gimel Yordei HaSira ("the twenty-three who went down with the ship").

The commander of crew was the Haganah member Zvi Spector. A British special operations officer, Major Sir Anthony Palmer was an observer on behalf of the Special Operations Executive. The oil refineries were controlled by Vichy France, which was ruled by Nazi Germany.

The memorial is located next to the Garden of the Missing in Action in the National Military and Police Cemetery in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The memorial was built with stone of exposed concrete in a shape of boat in a corner of a water pool. The stone has the names of the 23 fighters, including the name of the British officer who was lost with them. The memorial was built in 1951 by the architect Dr. Asher Hirem who also planned the national military and police cemetery in Mount Herzl and many other memorials in Israel.

Palmer Square and Kaf Gimal Yordei HaSira Street in Tel Aviv Port are named after the crew. These are the places where the crew was last seen.

Other websites

Media related to Memorial for the Kaf Gimel (23) Boat Seamen at Wikimedia Commons

• Special Operations Executive - Operation Boatswain in the site of the Jewish Soldiers Museum in the World War 2