During the British Mandate in Palestine ,
with the onset of the Second World War, the need arose for a land continuum
between the Middle East and Europe .
The British, with the help of thousands of workers (Australians, New
Zealanders, and South Africans, alongside men of Eretz Israel ) laid
down the track for a rail line between Haifa ,
Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon .
Through a super-human effort of only one-year's work, the men bore the tunnels
into the rock of Rosh Hanikra, suspended 15 bridges along the route of the
railroad track and built supporting walls to fend off the sea waves. Two of the
tunnels with a combined length of about 200 meters were quarried into the cliff
of Rosh Hanikra and a bridge was suspended above the big grotto-opening between
the two tunnels.
Between the years 1943 to 1948, the railroad tracks that passed through
the tunnels served the British for their military requirements. In the summer
of 1944, Jewish refugees from the concentration camps were brought to Israel by means
of the train that passed through the Rosh Hanikra tunnels. They were exchanged
for German citizens of Templar extraction who were living in Eretz Israel whose
sons served in the Nazi army. To prevent the passage of Lebanese weapons and
soldiers into the territory of the country slated to arise, fighters of the
Carmeli division of the Haganah blew up the bridge suspended above the big
grotto opening on a stormy night in March 1948.
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