Ayalon: An Underground Ammunition Factory

 
   Southeast of Tel Aviv, we got to visit the site of a secret ammo factory built under a commune, which played a crucial role in Israel's fight for its own place in the world.

  On the site of Ayalon, there was a kibbutz training center, which was started in the 1930's.   Here, people could learn how to form and run a kibbutz: a communal living setting typically involving farming, where resources were pooled and tasks were shared. When a Zionist group came to Ayalon in 1945, they were just the recruits the Haganah (a Jewish paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine, from 1921–48, which became the core of the Israel Defense Forces or IDF) were looking for. It was then that the Jewish underground began to implement their plan to build and operate a secret underground ammunition factory, in preparation for the fight for Israel's independence. 45 of the 75 people in the kibbutz training facility were enlisted in this clandestine operation. The 30 who were not "in the know" were called giraffes, for giraffes only see what is ahead of them, and they don't look down or around. The secret team worked day and night for 21 days to build the carefully laid plans for the bullet factory, saying they were building a large, underground refrigeration unit. The machinery required for producing the bullets was purchased in Poland and was smuggled into this hidden ammo factory that would produce more than 2 million bullets from 1945 to 1948, the 3 years between the end of WW2 and the foundation of the State of Israel. The way they obtained the copper they needed to make the bullets was by saying that the copper was needed to make lip stick cases in a factory in Tel Aviv, which seemed plausible enough for them to secure the copper the needed.
 
   Above ground, the Kibbutzim Hill seemed to be a peaceful commune with its living quarters, dining hall, chicken coop, cow sheds, vegetable garden, laundry, bakery and workshops. At the height of operations, 40,000 bullets a day were made, all under the noses of the British, who even came to there to have their laundry done, and to enjoy their ice cold beer.  The utmost secrecy was upheld by carefully orchestrated and strategic daily plans.  The loud laundry and sewing machines ran the same 8 hours as the downstairs machinery, to disguise the noise. The smell of fresh bread from the bakery would mask the scent of gun powder. The 45 operators would take turns appearing in the fields where they were supposed to be working, and also sat under the underground sun lamps to give them the appearance of having worked outside and the benefits of sunlight which they missed while laboring below.  They used a secret stairwell under the laundry machine to show up for group gatherings and meals, pretending to have come in from the fields. The bullets were smuggled out however they could: in half-filled milk jugs and in empty diesel trucks.

  The ingenuity, courage and perseverance of these people struck me.  If their operations had been detected, they would have faced imprisonment or even hanging, as both Jews and Arabs were under the British Mandate at that time, and were to have no access to, use of, or production of any type of weaponry. They successfully kept their secret and produced their bullets, which ended up being the only supply which was not in shortage during the war that was to come. There is no doubt that the efforts of the Haganah members who chose to labor here under harsh conditions played a crucial role in the success of the War of Independence. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion praised them for their heroic efforts.