Battle of Ammunition Hill
The Ammunition hill (in Hebrew Giv'at HaTachmoshet, גבעת התחמושת) was a Jordanian post in East Jerusalem, and was one of the hardest battles in the Six Day War.
| Battle of the Ammunition Hill | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Six Day War | |||||||
 A trench on the Ammunition Hill, with the Police School seen in the background, Jerusalem, 1967. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Israel | Jordan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mordechai Gur | Yossi Yafe | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Reinforced company | About 150 soldiers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 37 killed, 21 of them on the hill | 71 | ||||||
The hill was a part of a site which included the Police School, and a trench connected these two parts. The site was built by the British in the 1930's, and was used to store the Police School's ammunition. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the post remained under Jordanian control, and was one of the 3 posts meant to prevent Israel from linking-up West Jerusalem with Har HaTzoffim (Mount Scopus), which was an Israeli enclave in East Jerusalem, and controlled on the road to the old city.
The post consisted of tens of bunkers built along 3 main trenches, and when the Six Day War broke out, the post was defended by a reinforced Jordanian company of 150 soldiers, of the El-Hussein regiment (number 2).
The fighting in the Police School site and the Ammunition Hill began on June 6, 1967, at 2:30 AM. The task of capturing the hill was given to the Israeli 3rd company of the 66th regiment, of the Paratroopers brigade's reserve force (55th brigade), and during the battle, a force of the 2nd company joined the fighting. The battle ended at 7 AM. 37 soldiers were killed in the battle, 21 of them were killed on the Ammunition Hill.
10 of the soldiers who fought in this battle were given citation by the Israeli chief of general staff. The commander of the paratroopers brigade was Mordechai Gur, and the commander of the 66th regiment was Yossi Yafe.
In 1975 a memorial site was inaugurated, in which a part of the old post was preserved and a museum was built. On a wall in the museum, the names of the 182 soldiers killed in the battles for the liberation of Jerusalem are written. In 1987 the site was declared national memorial site, and each year the main ceremony of Jerusalem Day is held there.
