Israel's Arms Factory
Was Underground

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f the millions of Israelis the opening through which raw
and tourists from abroad materials were delivered to the
who celebrate Yom Ha'atz- workers underground.
maut, few have heard of
The washing machine, a six-
the Ayalon Institute, much less foot-long, cast-iron boiler at the
been to it.
other end of the shed, also pivots
Yet Ayalon, now a museum, is without effort, revealing the lad-
one of the most important sym- der on which the munitions work-
bols of the heroic War for Inde- ers descended to or climbed up
pendence which the Jews of the from the factory.
yishuv (Palestine) waged — first,
This is their story, as our guide
against the British occupying related it to us.
force and, later, after indepen-
Long before the U.N. resolu-
dence, against the invading tion of Nov. 29, 1947, calling for
armies of five Arab nations.
the creation of an independent
Atop Kibbutzim Hill, just Jewish state, the high command
north of the Rehovot railroad sta- of the Haganah had realized that
tion, a faint breeze stirs the laun- an armed struggle would in-
dered shirts, sheets and towels, evitably ensue and that arms
hanging on a
would be need-
clothes line
ed to conduct it
which has been
successfully.
there for half a
;-= There was a
century. The
1-) decision to use
line is connect-
r!,), the British
ed to a 100-foot-
Sten gun as the
long shed
most effective
which contains
weapon. A
a washing ma-
sample was
chine at one
f2 smuggled into
end and a bak-
(i) the country
ery oven at the
and, after
other. The
many experi-
shed, in turn, is
ments, the gun
part of a com-
was successful-
rationing in besieged Jerusalem
plex of build- Water
ly reproduced,
after the cutting of the pipeline in 1948.
ings which,
and in large
until the end of
quantities —
the war, comprised the kibbutz as many as 4,500 —by Ta'as, the
known as Ayalon. The laundry Haganah's military industry,
and the oven stand idle; and the based in Tel Aviv.
buildings of the kibbutz are now
But there was no ammunition
empty, save for the museum of- available; the manufacture of the
fice and afield research center of 9 mm. Stan bullet was a top pri-
the Society for the Protection of ority. As early as 1938, Haganah
Nature, the museum's sponsor.
had managed to buy and bring
But during the years of rebel- into Palestine from Poland sec-
lion against the British and of ond-hand, bullet-making ma-
war against the Arab countries, chines. Skilled Ta'as workers
the Ayalon kibbutzniks, in the repaired the equipment and mas-
midst of battle, managed peace- tered the techniques of bullet pro-
fully to cultivate their apple or- duction. But the long and
chards, milk their cows and go complicated process of manufac-
about the hundred other tasks of ture required continuity and a
farm life. Little did they realize, space large enough to hold the
nor did the British in the sur- machinery and materials — not
rounding army garrisons, that 30 to mention the dozens of workers
feet beneath the washing ma- who would be needed.
chine and the oven an under-
It was decided that an under-
ground munitions factory was at ground factory should be set up
work, turning out the millions of and that an actual, working kib-
bullets without which the war butz should be established on top
would have been lost.
of it, as a kind of Potemkin Vil-
Trained guides recount the lage that concealed reality — but
dramatic saga, show a film about a village that was not just a fa-
the factory and actually escort cade but one that was truly func-
museum visitors down the 30-foot tioned, as well.
ladder which leads to the scene
Kibbutzim Hill was chosen as
of the secret operation. The door the site of the kibbutz: First, be-
of the 10-ton oven, which once cause there were other kibbutz-
turned out hundreds of loaves of im on the hill, so that the
bread for the kibbutz and neigh- establishment of a new one would
boring Rehovot, swings easily
and quietly to one side, revealing UNDERGROUND page 114