We conducted the first experiments near the Sharon Hotel in Herzliya, shooting into the Mediterranean. This was our base and practically the first artillery base of the Israeli Defense Forces. This mortar, or our “heavy artillery,” as we called it, contributed much to our war efforts. It was used by Yitzhak Sadeh and his troops in their attempts to

Moreover, only a small number of scientists volunteered to serve in the Haganah.1 Later, though, they were joined by a limited number of students from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion in Haifa.

I was asked by Oded Messer, operation officer of Yitzhak Sadeh, to bring our M-2 mortars to another battlefield, Iraq al-Manshiyya. We fired several shells from this canon, which had a barrel made from a train wagon axle. This weapon was quite effective. It was not heavy and could be carried by hand, unlike the M-3, which was heavy and dangerous. I

A fuse would be attached to a propeller, which would not rotate when the ship was anchored. Upon sailing, the propeller would rotate and after a predetermined number of rotations, it would ignite the detonator, which would activate the explosives in the mine.

The third year of our studies was more interesting. Prof. Moshe Weizmann taught us organic chemistry. He resembled his brother, Chaim Weizmann, and constantly told us, “This world is full of miracles, kinderlach [“children” in Yiddish]. My brother is a good chemist [he invented a method to produce acetone from starch, a process that helped the Unit

According to Asher Asher, Israel Pelach developed an infrared lamp to illuminate targets at night (42).

with an electrical wire and the experiment succeeded. When he repeated the experiment in the open sea near Caesarea, waves shocked the boat and it sank. Yohai Ben-Nun was not discouraged and asked him whether he could design a “remote-controlled naval missile” with a range of 1,800 meters. Sharon agreed and set out to design a missile, which he cal

We were asked to design a fuse that would initiate an explosion when the ship was on the high sea far from port.

During my service as a policeman, I participated in a reconnaissance-commanding course. We surveyed Arab villages near our neighborhood. In those days, we did not have cameras with which to take pictures of enemy “objects.” Instead, we employed the techniques used by Gary Cooper in the film For Whom the Bells Tolls and drew them (Picture 7). This w