Shmuel Gonen: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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{{One source|date=September 2022}}{{Infobox military person
| name = Shmuel Gonen
| image = Shmuel Gonen.jpg '''Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen''' ({{lang-he|שמואל גונן}}; 1930 – 30 September 1991) was an [[Israel]]i general and Chief of the [[Israeli Southern Command|Southern Command]] of the [[Israel Defense Forces]] during the [[Yom Kippur War]].▼ | caption = | birth_date = {{birth-date|1930|}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1991|09|03|1930|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Wilno]], [[Wilno Voivodeship (1926–1939)|Wilno Voivodeship]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]]<br />(now Vilnius, [[Lithuania]]) | death_place = [[Milan]], [[Italy]] | nickname = 'Gorodish' | allegiance = [[Palmach]] <br />[[Israel Defense Forces]] | serviceyears = 1944–1976 | rank = [[Major General]] | unit = | commands = 82nd Battalion<br/>[[7th Armored Brigade (Israel)|7th Armored Brigade]]<br/>Training Division<br/>[[Southern Command (Israel)|Southern Command]]<br/> Solomon Region, [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] | battles = [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] <br />[[Suez Crisis]] <br />[[Six-Day War]]<br/>[[War of Attrition]]<br/>[[Yom Kippur War]] | awards = [[File:Medal_of_Courage.svg|25px]] [[Medal of Courage]] | laterwork = }} ▲'''Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen''' ({{lang-he|שמואל גונן}}; 14 December 1930 – 30 September 1991) was ==Early life== Born in [[ After the war, he remained in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), rising through the ranks of the Armored Corps. He commanded a tank company during the 1956 [[Suez crisis|Sinai Campaign]] In 1966, he was appointed commander of the [[7th Armored Brigade (Israel)|7th Brigade]]. It was in this capacity, during the [[Six-Day War]], that he led his troops from the [[Rafah]] salient right up to the [[Suez Canal]]. After the war, he delivered a famous speech, entitled "My Glorious Brothers, Deserving of Fame", which included the famous line: "We looked death straight in the face, and it lowered its eyes at us." Throughout his army years, Gonen was not well In March 1968, Gonen oversaw the armored corps ==Yom Kippur War and Agranat Commission== Gonen's response to the Egyptian attack during the Yom Kippur War and his actions during the first days of fighting (culminating in the disastrous attack on [[Hizayon]] on October 8) was deemed a failure by the army's General Staff, and he was replaced on 10 October by [[Haim Bar-Lev]]. The [[Agranat Commission]], which investigated the events leading up to the war, wrote about him that: :'' He failed to fulfill his duties adequately, and bears much of the responsibility for the dangerous situation in which our troops were caught.'' He was removed from all command upon the publication of the Commission's interim report, but this was revoked once the final report was released, and Gonen was given a new position on the General Staff. In both the media and public perception, however, he was considered responsible for many of the fiascos of the war. Line 29 ⟶ 46: :''The most tragic figure to emerge in the Israeli military hierarchy from the war was Shmuel Gonen. The ignominy of being superseded as commander on the southern front at the height of the war was compounded by his being forced to leave the army after the final Agranat Report. Although the Israeli establishment usually finds suitable jobs for retired generals, he was offered none. Gonen believed [[Moshe Dayan|Dayan]] to be responsible for his disgrace and would tell reporters that he had considered walking into Dayan's office and shooting him.'' :''Instead, he spent thirteen years in the jungles of the [[Central African Republic]] searching for diamonds with the intention, he said, of becoming wealthy enough to hire the best lawyers in Israel to prove the Agranat findings mistaken and clear his name. He reportedly made and lost one or two fortunes but rejected appeals by his family and friends to abandon his obsession. A reporter who visited him in the jungle after nine years found him somewhat mellowed, self-aware, and not without sardonic humor, and still sprinkling his conversation with apt quotes from the [[Talmud]]. The tough soldier appeared to find satisfaction in coping with the brutal challenges of the jungle rather than nursing his grievances in the cafes of [[Tel Aviv]]. Some would see it as a form of [[penance]]. He died of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in 1991 during one of his periodic trips to Europe. Among the few possessions returned to his family were maps of Sinai, on which he had In an interview with the ''[[Maariv]]'' daily newspaper on 7 August 2003, his His tragic life story was the subject of a play, ''Gorodish'', by Israeli author [[Hillel Mittelpunkt]]. Line 39 ⟶ 56: {{IsraelSouthernCommandChiefs}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonen, Shmuel}} Line 46 ⟶ 64: [[Category:1991 deaths]] [[Category:Recipients of the Medal of Courage]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]] [[Category:Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery]] [[Category:Military personnel from Vilnius]] [[Category:Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent]] |