1. Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen was a Polish-born Israeli general and Chief of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War.
12 Facts About Shmuel Gonen
1. 2.
Pilnik, Gonen immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine with his parents and three siblings at the age of three.
3.
Shmuel Gonen served in the Haganah at fourteen, and participated in the battles over Jerusalem in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, being wounded five times.
4.
Shmuel Gonen commanded a tank company during the 1956 Sinai Campaign and was awarded the Medal of Courage.
5.
Shmuel Gonen was later charged with overseeing the integration of the new Centurion tank into the IDF, and later commanded the first battalion composed of these tanks.
6.
Shmuel Gonen was known to set especially low-speed limits for the men of his brigade, only to flout these speed limits himself.
7.
Shmuel Gonen was overly strict, often meting out severe punishment to soldiers accused of minor offenses such as failure to polish their boots.
8.
In March 1968, Shmuel Gonen oversaw the armored corps in the Battle of Karameh in Jordan, where Yasser Arafat and the PLO had their base.
9.
Shmuel Gonen continued to rise through the ranks, and on 15 July 1973, he replaced Ariel Sharon as Chief of the Southern Command.
10.
Shmuel Gonen was removed from all command upon the publication of the Commission's interim report, but this was revoked once the final report was released, and Gonen was given a new position on the General Staff.
11.
Shmuel Gonen resigned from the IDF in 1974 and left for Africa, where he embarked on various business ventures.
12.
Shmuel Gonen never returned to Israel except for short visits.