Bert Levy redirects here. For people with similar Harry McDevitt imposed a severe sentence in the peninames, see Albert Levy (disambiguation).
tentiary. After serving six years, in 1933 he was released
and deported to Canada (he was presumed to be a Cana[4][12][13][14]
Bert Yank Levy (October 5, 1897 September dian citizen at the time).
2, 1965)[2][3][4] was a soldier, military instructor and
author/pamphleteer of one of the rst manuals on
guerrilla warfare, which was widely circulated with more
than a half million published.[3][5][upper-alpha 3] He served
with irregular forces in several parts of the world in the
1920s and 1930s, most notably in the Spanish Civil War,
and was a signicant gure at the Osterley Park training school for the British Home Guard during World War
II.[3][8] Similar combat training was provided to forces in
the United States and Canada, and he was an itinerant
lecturer and provocateur on the subject.
2 Military career
2.1 Field service
He served in ve wars many of the wars and insurrections between 1911 and 1945.[11][15] Trying to nd the
truth of Levys exploits is problematic, as Levy tended to
embellish his biography.[upper-alpha 4]
From 1918 to 1919 Levy served with the 39th Battalion,
Royal Fusiliers (part of the Jewish Legion) in Palestine
and Transjordan. That tour ended when he was gassed
and contracted malaria.[3] He trained in Nova Scotia,
England, and Egypt, and was dispatched as a machine
gunner. In September 1918 his unit moved through the
Egyptian desert. The unit entered the Jordan River valley,
taking control of Es-Salt in a campaign against the Turks.
With two other members of the Thirty-ninth, he encountered scouts of Colonel T. E. Lawrence. The scouts
invited them to tea, and told them stories of amazing
feats, and Levy decided on a lifelong career in guerrilla
warfare.[4] In 192021, he was, in his own (attributed)
words mixed up in Mexico towards the end of the
revolution there. Subsequently he was involved in gunrunning in Nicaragua, where he served under General
Sandino.[5][11] In Nicaragua, he outtted a ship with sandbagged Lewis gun emplacements in case of a surprise
en route by U.S. patrol vessels. His service with the
Sandinistas was cut short when the United States and U.S.
Marines appeared, as he had no desire to ght his fellow
countrymen.[4] Another scenario is that the Sandinistas
deemed the continued reliability of Americans to be dubious as a force opposing the Marines, and they were involuntarily retired.[9]
Background
Levy was born in Hamilton, Canada to a Jewish family. His family moved to Bualo, New York when three
months old, and then to Cleveland, Ohio when he was
seven years old.[4][9] His parents were Samuel Levy, a tailor and horse doctor, and Sarah Pollock. Bert Levy had
nine siblings. To counter a frail constitution, Levy became a Boy Scout and a boxer. He grew up on the streets
and claimed that his "real education was in the school of
hard knocks".[5] At age 16, he quit school after his father
was seriously injured by a trolley. He took employment
with the Kaber Printing Company in Cleveland for four
years to help support his younger siblings.[4]
In 1916, he joined the British Merchant Navy working as a stoker.[2][10] In the spring of 1918, Levy enlisted in the Thirty-Ninth Royal Fusileers.[4] Levy continued boxing through World War I and was the regimental
bantamweight champion. After returning to Cleveland
from the war, he briey turned professional. He fought in
23 matches before retiring in order to maintain family
harmony.[9]
He married Mary Prezenter, who was a clerk. They had In 1921 Levy was employed to train Mexicans in the use
one daughter.[4] He was a pipe smoker, and played the of the Lewis gun. He left after 6 months when some
mandolin.[11]
trainees used their guns on prisoners.[5] Levy also claimed
In 1927 he was arrested along with four other men and to have participated in troubles in countries to the south
to thirty years
a woman for a series of robberies. During the search, of Mexico, and to have been sentenced
[6]
The
Levys
were now
imprisonment
for
gun
running.
police discovered a cache of guns. Levy was convicted
[4]
broke,
and
living
in
marital
discord.
[12]
He was convicted of
and sentenced to 2550 years.
the January 1927 armed robbery of a Philadelphia A&P During the Spanish Civil War Levy served with the
food market. Even for his only criminal conviction, Judge International Brigade as an ocer in the Saklatava Bat1
3
3.1
3.3
Canada
That the handbook was available for 1725 per copy was 3.4 World War II: later years
a factor in its being widely circulated. Over a half million
copies were printed.[8][9][upper-alpha 5]
In 1943 Levy designed a combat knife, which he unsuccessfully tried to patent and market through the cutlers
W. R. Case & Sons.[2][4][28]
3.2
United States
shot each other during an argument. Levy gave a successful US lecture tour and had his face pictured on the
cover of Life Magazine proclaiming him to be an: Ace
Guerrilla, and having a multipage story titled How to be a
Guerrilla.[22] Later, he returned to the UK to form part of
Wintringhams occasional 'ying squads mobile training units which toured provincial Home Guard units in
temporary, often unocial, training camps.[2]
After appearing at Harvard University, where he was
billed as an Instructor in cad warfare for the British
Commandos, Bert Yank Levy, veteran of every war or
revolution since 1911, spoke on his work to a mixed gathering of the Naval Supply Corps, Harvard ROTC, and
students on Monday in the Stadium. He particularly emphasized the need for individual civilian warfare. He lectured on the Home Guard and the tactics of insurgency.
The Harvard Crimson noted: ""Yank expects to leave
this country within a few days to return to Britain, where
Goebbels has promised that he will be among the rst to
be shot when the Germans capture England.[15]
The United States Infantry Journal called him the greatest instructor on defensive ghting.[8] His life story was
illustrated in a comic book entitled Jewish War Heroes,
published by the Canadian Jewish Congress in January
1944.[10]
His approach to asymmetrical warfare was seen by
some as an unfortunate portent of post-World War II
conicts.[9][29]
REFERENCES
5 Published works
Levy, Yank Bert (1964) [1942].
Guerrilla
Warfare (PDF). Foreword by Tom Wintringham
(1942?); Introduction to the 1964 edition by
Franklin Mark Osanka; 1964 Editors Notes by
Robert K. Brown. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin
Press. ISBN 0-87364-020-9. Archived from the
original (PDF) on April 22, 2014. Retrieved April
15, 2014.
6 See also
Guerrilla Warfare by Che Guevara
History of guerrilla warfare
International Brigades order of battle
Jewish Legion
On April 15, 1954, he was pardoned by Pennsylvania
On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Zedong
Governor John S. Fine for the 1927 conviction for armed
robbery.[4] He had served six years of a 2550 year sentence, before being deported to Canada. He thereafter
learned that he was by birth an American citizen, and that 7 References
the deportation was illegal. His lawyer invoked Levys
chronic arthritis and penury, his law abiding conduct with Notes
his wife and daughter in Los Angeles, and his list of good
works in helping the war eort. The petition for executive [1] Id#: 0604036 Levy, Bert (Yank) September 2, 1965
Cleveland Plain Dealer; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel
clemency was approved by the state parole board, and
#129. Notes: Levy. Bert (Yank) Levy husband of Mae,
then the governor. He was represented by Hanley Rubenfather of Mrs. Toby Rosen, and grandfather, brother of
sohn, a Philadelphia attorney, who said that Levy only
Harry (deceased) and Mrs. Rose Levy (deceased), Mrs.
wanted to wipe out the one blot on his record, so that
Sadie Diamond (deceased), Mrs. Jennie Applebaum, of
[12][14]
At the time of his pardon,
he could live in peace.
Cleveland, Mrs. Bessie Armour, of Los Angeles, Alex L.,
Levy was in hospital. Medical expenses had dissipated
of Battle Creek, Mrs. Hilda Nibur, of Los Angeles, and
his earnings from lectures and book sales. His attorney
Morris of Cleveland,Ohio passed away in Los Angeles, on
for the pardon proceeding concluded that he had paid his
Thursday, September 2. Services in Los Angeles Sunday,
debt to society.[13]
September 5. [1]
[2] One source mistakenly states that his date of death was
February 9, 1965. However, it appears that this was due
to a failure to appreciate the use of a d/m/y format, and
that numbers were transposed.[2]
[3] According to one source, Wittringham was the primary
author. Transcribers note: The book from which this
introduction comes, was written by Tom Wintringham,
based upon the experience of both Wintringham and
Levy, but calling heavily upon Wintringhams historical
and theoretical knowledge. This introduction, not published in American post-war reprints of the book, acknowledges Wintringhams authorship of the book. [6][7]
[4] Like some other soldiers of fortune (e.g., William E. Fairbairn), Levy was fond of making up stories to enhance his
prowess as an adventurer".[4]
[5] At that level of publication, it rivaled another famous
American pamphlet, Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
Citations
[1] Lynch, Lace (April 3, 2012) [1965]. RootsWeb: LEVYL [LEVY] obits mentioning Bert Levy - Cleveland, Ohio.
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com. 5 September 1965; Plain
Dealer; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #129. Archived
from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved April 21,
2014.
[2] Matthews, Phil (2006). Yank Levy Part One: The Combatives Freedom Fighter. CQB Services. Archived from
the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved March 21, 2007.
[3] Sugarman, Martin. Against Fascism Jews who served
in The International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War
(PDF). Jewish Virtual Library. pp. 9, 77. Archived
(PDF) from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved
April 16, 2014.
[4] Levine, Allan E.. Bert Yank Levy. American National
Biography on line. Oxford University Press. Archived
from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 16,
2014.
[5] Levy, Yank (1942). Guerrilla warfare. New York, NY
; Washington, D.C.: Penguin; Infantry Journal.
[6] Wintringham, Tom H.; Levy, Yank (2008) [1941].
Guerrilla Warfare, Introduction Source: Guerrilla Warfare, by Yank Levy. Marxists Internet Archive. Transcription by Phyll Smith; HTML Markup by Brian Reid
(UK ed.). Penguin Special S102. pp. 510. Archived
from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20,
2014.
[7] Cullen, Stephen (2006). Home Guard Socialism: A Vision of a Peoples Army (PDF). Coventry: University of
Warwick. p. 25. Archived (PDF) from the original on
April 21, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
[8] Bert Yank Levy (PDF). Redpath Chautauqua Collection (Brochure). White Plains, New York: The Redpath
Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 20,
2014. Retrieved April 16, 2014. republished at The University Libraries, University of Iowa
Further reading
Baxell, Richard (September 6, 2012). Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the
Struggle Against Fascism (Hardcover). London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 400. ISBN 1845136977.
Beckett, I. F. W. (September 15, 2009). Encyclopedia of Guerrilla Warfare (Hardcover). Santa Barbara, California: Abc-Clio Inc. ISBN 0874369290.
ISBN 9780874369298
Truby, J. David (May 1978). "'Yank' Levy: Prince
among Paladins. Soldier of Fortune.
Woolbert, Robert Gale (January 1943). "'Yank'
Levy CAPSULE REVIEW: Guerrilla Warfare.
Foreign Aairs. (subscription required (help)).
Unknown. Tipton Tribune. November 1944. p.
1. Retrieved April 9, 2014. (subscription required
(help)).
EXTERNAL LINKS
9 External links
. Photo credits Dmitri Kessel. How to be a Guerrilla: 'Yank' Levy preaches the art he has practiced
('Yank' Levy Teaches Guerrilla Fighting)". Life 13
(7). frontcover; 4043, 45. August 17, 1942. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
Rae, George Menendez, Pencils (February 1944).
Jewish War Heroes (Comic book) (1). Canadian
Jewish Congress. p. 3. Archived from the original
on April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
10
10.1
10.2
Images
10.3
Content license