Avraham "Bren" Adan | |
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Adan near the Suez Canal; October 27, 1973
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Native name | אברהם "ברן" אדן |
Born |
Kfar Giladi, British Mandate Palestine |
October 5, 1926
Died | September 28, 2012 Ramat HaSharon, Israel |
(aged 85)
Allegiance | Israel |
Service/branch | |
Years of service | 1943–1977 |
Rank | Aluf |
Commands held |
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Wars |
Avraham "Bren" Adan (Hebrew: אברהם "ברן" אדן, 5 October 1926 – 28 September 2012) was an Israeli major general and former head of Southern Command who served in the military between 1947 and 1973.
Adan was born in Kfar Gileadi, British Mandate Palestine, in 1926 as Avraham Eidelson. He joined the Palmach in 1943. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War he was a company commander in the 8th Battalion of the Negev Brigade, and participated in Operation Uvda, in which the brigade captured the Jordanian outpost of Umm Rashrash, now known as Eilat, at the southernmost tip of the newly created country. It was he who raised the Ink Flag claiming the territory for Israel, as depicted in the famous photograph of the event. The iconic image has been compared to Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
Adan joined the Armored Corps in 1949 and founded the first Sherman tank unit in the IDF. During the 1956 Suez War, Lieutenant Colonel Adan commanded the 82nd battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade in the Sinai, defeating several Egyptian forces in the region. After the war he became the operations officer of the corps, then the commander of the 7th Brigade and the Armored Corps School. During the June 1967 Six-Day War, Adan was the deputy commander of the Armored Corps and of the 31st Armored Division, fighting again in the Sinai. On 10 March 1969, he became the commander of the Armored Corps.