The 19-Year-Old Female Officer Who Sneaked into the Six-Day War and Ended Up in Military Prison
In 1967, a 19-year-old Israeli female officer snuck onto an APC to fight in the Six-Day War. After surviving heavy combat from Jenin to the Golan Heights, she faced a court-martial and 35 days in prison for insubordination.
In September 1967, three months after the Six-Day War, the stories that the war itself didn't have time to tell began to emerge. Behind the headlines of great victory lay countless personal plots: split-second decisions, acts of valor, mistakes, loss, and incidents that seemed scripted for a movie. One such story was published 59 years ago this week on the front page of Yediot Aharonot. The protagonist: a 19-year-old female officer whose identity was initially withheld, who boarded an armored personnel carrier (APC) without permission, joined an armored unit in combat, went missing from the IDF, survived an anti-tank shell impact, and was sentenced to 35 days in military prison at the war's end.
The War Caught Her on a Bus
Kirshner was born to a veteran family in Netanya, a graduate of Tchernichovsky High School and a former member of the Scout movement. Even her name carried a military memory: her father Ezra, a former Irgun commander, named her Anat in memory of David Raziel, the organization's commander known as "The Champion Ben-Anat." She performed her military service in a reserve armored brigade. Near Independence Day in 1967, she completed officers' training course and was sent on leave until she was supposed to report to her new unit in the Southern Command.
On the morning of June 5, her reporting date to the south arrived. She boarded a bus and began making her way to the new unit. Mid-journey, regular radio broadcasts were cut off. An announcer's excited voice announced that war had broken out. Anat conducted what she later described as a brief "soul-searching." She decided that at that exact moment, she could be of greater use to the IDF specifically in the unit she already knew. At the first stop where the bus pulled over, she got off, turned around, and headed back north toward the armored brigade.
Helmet, Pants, and an APC
When she arrived at the unit, only about fifteen minutes remained before the force was set to move out. Around her, the commotion of battle reigned: engines roared, soldiers loaded equipment, and commanders tried to get the vehicles rolling. One of the soldiers gave her a pair of pants and a helmet. Anat put them on and boarded one of the APCs. The commanders noticed her and ordered her to disembark immediately and report to her assigned unit in the Southern Command. It was a direct order.
Except Anat simply didn't carry it out. Amid the chaos, no one checked whether she had actually left. The soldiers sitting with her in the APC chose to remain silent, and the armored column rolled out with the young officer inside. Throughout the night, APCs and tanks moved toward the Jordanian border in the Jenin area. By morning, Jordanian forces began firing at the convoy with cannons and mortars. In the APC where Anat sat, one of the soldiers stood up. His steel helmet slipped from his head, and seconds later he was hit and fell. He was the brigade's first fatality.
The shelling intensified. Soldiers were killed and wounded, and Anat leaped over the side of the APC and ran with the fighters to take shelter behind a stone wall. The sights hit her hard. She burst into tears, but managed to pull herself together and began helping bandage the wounded. One of them, whose hand had been severed, refused to let her treat him, fearing the sight would shock her.
With the battle's end, Anat discovered that Eitan, the brigade's operations sergeant and one of her close friends, had been killed and his body lay by the roadside. She took a golden chain from his body and continued with the force. Her clothes were stained with blood, and she changed into Jordanian uniforms found in a captured military warehouse.
"I Didn't Want to Die"
Later, the unit left one of the cities it had captured and fell under heavy shelling. The APC in which Anat was riding was hit by an anti-tank shell. She and another officer jumped out. The officer was killed, and Anat emerged unhurt. Together with the surviving soldiers, she ran toward a nearby hill. This time she could no longer hold herself together.
"I didn't want to die," she recounted later.
She went into shock and began to cry. Ironically, the soldiers around her brought her back to her senses. They told her that her presence in the APC helped them overcome the horrific sights and continue fighting. If they managed to hold on thanks to her, they told her, she too must overcome it. Anat calmed down and returned to function.
For three days and nights, she barely slept. She continued with the unit, watched forces breach a bridge over the Jordan River, and was subsequently sent with the brigade north to the Golan Heights. At some point, exhaustion overtook her. She fell asleep inside the APC and did not notice that the unit was participating in battles to conquer the heights. Only when the battle in the area ended did she wake up.
While She Fought, the IDF Searched for Her
While she was fighting, the IDF was searching for her in the Southern Command. No one knew where the officer who was supposed to report on the first morning of the war was located. At the headquarters of the Chief Women's Corps Officer, growing concern was expressed, and attempts were made to locate her, but to no avail. According to the newspaper report, during the days of the war, no one even dared to call her parents to ask if they had heard from her.
Only a few days after the fighting ended did military personnel call the Kirshner family in Netanya. The parents were horrified. Until that moment, they had no idea their daughter was considered missing. Her mother recalled Anat's deep connection to her previous unit and called the armored brigade. There she was reassured: Anat is alive, safe, and sound.
On the eve of Shavuot, the mother left her home and walked down Herzl Street in Netanya. Suddenly she saw her daughter walking toward her in the Jordanian military clothes she had worn during the battles. The street encounter was emotional. At home, Anat told her parents and sisters everything she had been through. Her mother was angry—not because she went into battle, but because of the indiscipline she had displayed.
From Battles to Military Prison
A few days later, Anat returned to her unit in the Southern Command. This time, a military policewoman was waiting for her. She had been absent without leave, ignored a direct order, and participated in battles she was forbidden to join. She was put on disciplinary trial and sentenced to 35 days of detention.
In a short time, the young woman who had survived shellings, treated the wounded, and moved with armored forces from Jenin to the Golan Heights found herself changing clothes once again and entering a military prison. Her mother called the commander of the armored brigade. According to the article, he tried to calm her down and said:
"Mrs. Kirshner, with a daughter like this, you can be proud."
In the army's upper echelons, too, they evidently realized the case was more complex than a standard disciplinary infraction. Upon the recommendation of the Chief Women's Corps Officer, Col. Stella Levi, Southern Command GOC Yeshayahu Gavish decided to commute her sentence. Within about a week, Anat was released from prison and returned to service as an officer in an IDF unit in the Gaza Strip.
