Bert "Yank" Levy
This guy is kind of off of the Adventure travel/survival subject but I recently purchased a copy of his book on guerilla warfare and it has some psudo wilderness skill in it , ie., caomflage, cover/consealment, movement at night etc.
I also found a 1942 Life magazine which featured Yank and it had a picture of his knife collection. I found it interesting that he had the some of the same knives as myself and some of you.
anyhoo, here is a little info about the man and a few pics too. Also follow the attached link to view a scan of the Guerilla warfare book written by Yank.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3819332/Guerrilla-Warfare-by-Yank-Bert-Levy
Bert “Yank” Levy, by
Phil MatthewsPart One
The Combatives Freedom Fighter
Born: 5/10/1897
Died: 2/9/1965
Levy Sentry Removal Technique NARA
“Yank” Levy was by far one of the most interesting characters of the war to instruct
Allied Troops in Close Combat techniques. This short article attempts to give a brief
overview of some of the biographical details that have been found.
A Jewish Canadian by birth Bert Levy was born in the city of Hamilton in Ontario
Canada on the 5th of October, 1897. His parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio in the
United States when he was three months old and he appeared to have the normal
schooling of an American child of the time. Although Levy?s father Sam was a
chauffeur and printer at age eighteen young Levy joined the Merchant Navy and
travelled the world as an engine stoker. The year was 1916, after working for
approximately a year he arrived in Palestine where he disembarked and joined the 39 Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. There is some debate that Levy fought with the Jewish
Legion in Palestine but on this my findings are unclear, I?d love to know more.
Levy fought with the Fusiliers from 1918 to 1919 throughout Palestine and Jordan. It
is likely that it was there that he first learned of one of his later heros, the celebrated
British guerrilla fighter T.E Lawrence (most commonly known as Lawrence of
Arabia).
Guerrilla warfare was at that time something of an unknown (and often despised)
quantity amongst the Army of the British Empire. It went totally against the “rules of
war” they adhered to.
Against overwhelming and formidable odds from Turkish and German troops
Lawrence managed to raise a guerrilla band of Arab tribesmen who harried raided,
ambushed and sabotaged that enemy occupied country out of all proportion to their
few numbers.
Lawrence later wrote a book which he entitled “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
(recommended reading) about these exploits, from his being in that area at the time I
cannot help but feel that the spirit and tactics captivated the young Levy.
As soon as his duties with the Fusiliers had finished he made his way back to
America, filled with youthful enthusiasm he travelled and was involved in a lot of
adventures (and mis-adventures) in Central and Southern America.
In the 1920’s and 30’s he was breaking Government blockades as a gun runner and a
soldier of fortune in such countries as Nicaragua and Mexico. Some of his
experiences he later put to pen in order to aid others but in this I’m getting ahead of
myself.
The 1920s were a time of youthful optimism to an international generation which had
experienced the horrors of the First World War. Revolution in the South American
states was endemic and there were many opportunities for the adventurous and
idealistic of the time.
Narrowly escaping death on a number of occasions Levy returned to the United
States, unfortunately as happens with many impressionable young men he fell in with
“the wrong crowd”. Deported from the US after serving six years in prison for armed
robbery (something in his life he would always regret) the older and wiser Levy took
to travelling and next made his appearance in Spain in the late 1930s. The decade is
best remembered for its period of huge financial insecurity and loss, best known in the
United States as “The Depression” it had far reaching implications for the rest of the
world.
Extreme politics have a habit of developing in such trying times; this was true of
Germany and also in Spain. A Military coup by the Spanish Army sparked a massive
civil war as the population fractioned into right against left wing. The Fascist right
wing faction was headed by an officer named General Franco who tried to set himself
up as a Nationalist Dictator. The opposing left wing was a side composed of nominal
Spanish communists and a rag tag bag of nationals, intellectuals and, more
importantly for us -the Internationals.
Inspired by the war against fascist tyranny many young men from countries all over
the world had heard the cry for help and responded. Not only was this a battle against
a Dictator backed by the German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler it was felt it was the “thin
edge of the wedge” against it?s doctrines spreading to the rest of the world.
At that time Italy was run by the Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini and even in Britain
the British Union of Fascists run by Oswald Mosley was gaining in support and
membership.
It was a time of hope and idealism; many had thought the absolute nightmare of the
First World War had done away with the peoples need for war. In latter times
however others would say that the war in Spain was a direct warning that the world
should have been heeded more closely to the rise of Fascism.
The International Brigades were formed from volunteers from many countries,
individuals who had not only travelled to Spain from their respective countries but
managed to make it through the lines.
As an English speaker Levy managed to join the British Company of the
Internationals, here he distinguished himself via his prior experience in war.
Becoming an officer in the British Machine Gun Battalion he gained his lifelong
nickname of “Yank”.
Involved with many of those in the fight he also found himself meeting someone who
would later change his life totally, a man by the name of Thomas Wintringham who
was his battalion commander.
After just over a year of fighting Levy was captured after he was wounded in the
battle at Jarama. He spent the next six months of his life as a Prisoner of War in a
horrific camp; luckily for him the Canadian Government raised mighty protests at his
treatment and arranged for him to be released. As soon as he had regained his health
he tried to return to the fighting in Spain. All too soon though the resistance there was
crushed.
Despite the bravery and heroism of the Spanish freedom fighters and the International
Brigades that cause was lost.
The War Years
The War with Nazi Germany was looming and some concerned persons who had
experienced their brutality first hand were planning.
Tom Wintringham was a Communist who had friends in high places, in 1939 and
early 1940 he set about planning a school for guerrilla warfare to teach others to resist
the Nazi Invader. At a property donated by the estate of the then Earl of Jersey and
financed by a Mr Edward Hulton (Owner of the Picture Post) the Osterley Park
School for the Home Guard Training Centre opened in June 1940.
Just as SOE learned, finding Instructors with relevant knowledge was a hard thing.
Wintringham had from his days with the International brigades known many people
with direct experience of Guerrilla Warfare, most however were dead or in Spanish
prisons.
Of the remaining veterans three Spanish ex-miners (who had a great knowledge of
using explosives against Tanks, Troops and buildings) were signed up.
The majority of the remainder of the Instructors were also veterans of the Spanish
Civil War, however they were so short staffed at Osterley at one point that Boy Scouts
were employed to show how to set up wire ambushes across roads to decapitate
Enemy Motorcyclists!
Highly skilled and knowledgeable the Instructors may have been the fact that they had
fought in the Spanish Civil War was ultimately the Schools undoing despite its
massive popularity.
The school was in operation from June until September 1940, it was then taken over
by the War Office and later in October moved to another location.
The training was run over the weekends (Sat/Sun) so the Home Guard members didn’t
have to run the problems getting time off their work. I have found this to be the case
for the majority of Home Guard and even Aux Unit training courses. The difference
here is the attendance figures.
I?ve never been good at mathematics but bear with me here.
According to the noted Home Guard researcher David Caroll ?nearly five thousand
officers and men from the Home Guard? (who were attending courses lasting only
two days) benefited from the instructors “personal experience and expertise”.
Here’s the math (for the mathematically illiterate like me)
3 months equates to approximately 12 weekends (approx)
5000 trainees divided by 12 weekend equals 416.6 trainees per weekend (approx)
According to Charles Graves in his official account of the Home Guard the total was
4, 940…. this leaves us with a total of 411.6 trainees per weekend.
Either way that means that over 400 members of the Home Guard (and others) were
turning up for each weekend course offered by the Osterley staff. If you consider that
this was at a time when travel wasn?t as widespread as it is now, where petrol
rationing was in force and the people attending were engaged on essential war work
the majority of the time it really is staggering!
The War Office and the “Establishment” saw this and were worried, the popularity of
the training school showed just how much interest there was in the subject and how
little “official” training was going on.
They did what they usually do in such cases, if you can’t destroy its credibility then
absorb it, make it part of the establishment?.
It was taken over for the duration, Tom Wintringham was out -the Spanish miners
were still there but the War Office had made a Lieutenant Col Pollock Commanding
Officer. Other Instructors who were found to not be reliable (politically -because they
were of left wing backgrounds) were quietly removed also.
Levy had only taught at the school for one month but the War Office recognised his
great knowledge and depth of practical experience and kept him on, teaching at the
War Office No.1 School and other places.
Levy had been employed at Osterley as a jobbing Instructor, that is to say he had a
wide range of skills and could lecture on many subjects of Guerrilla Warfare.
Covering for any shortage or gap in instruction his main lecturing subject was
however Knife Fighting and Hand to Hand Combat.
Going Alone
After training the British Home Guard for around fifteen months after the Osterley
School had closed, Levy was then officially “lent” by the War Office to the United
States Army. The fact that the US Government ?overlooked? the fact he had been
convicted and deported shows again just how short they were of experienced
instructors. As one newspaper wrote
He was so good at his “art” that the United States brought him here from England
during WW2 as an instructor, despite the fact that he had been deported in 1933
after serving six years for armed robbery.
Levy was a man who couldn’t waste his time; he also had little time for the people
who had treated his comrades? in arms so badly. In his time in England training the
Home Guard he had written his master piece on Guerrilla Warfare which had a
forward from Tom Wintringham. Published by Penguin in the United Kingdom and
by a joint collaboration between Penguin and the Infantry Journal in the United States
Levy spent the remainder of his War Instruction on a lecture circuit. He trained many
soldiers, sailors and civilians in the subjects he know so well. He also made the cover
of many American magazines including Life Magazine in 1942.
Levy updated his book on Guerrilla Warfare several times until his death. I have two
of the editions (the 1941 United Kingdom and United States versions), other updated
versions were written. If you can get a cheap copy of his book I recommend it, it’s a
great work written by someone who really researched his craft. It also gives a good
insight as to how desperate Britain was back then. If anyone else has a version I don’t
have and they want to e-mail which edition they’ve got maybe we can work out how
many they made and what differences there are.
Levy was teaching his methods of close quarter combat in isolation from other
instructors from that time as far as I have been able to discover. As I’ve already
explained I’d love to know more.
The book he wrote was first published by Penguin in Britain and then in the US in a
joint venture with the publishing company Infantry Journal. The latter edition was
more illustrated than the original but the text remained the same. There are some leads
to suggest that it was privately reprinted again in 1954 but the next generally available
reprint was in 1964 by the fledgling Panther Publications. The Vietnam War had
just begun, as a result the US radical and civil disobedient movements also began.
Guerrilla Warfare had a new reader base by both soldier and civilian again. A new
introduction was added by the author of “Modern Guerrilla Warfare” Franklin Mark
Osanka. Osanka was an expert in techniques of fighting Communist Guerrilla
Movements, Panther were later renamed Paladin Press and the book was a high
seller for many years. Levy was a very interesting man and left a long legacy.
At the age of 67 after suffering from illness Bert Yank Levy died on the 9TH of
February 1965.
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