Ayalon Institute
The Ayalon Institute (Hebrew: מכון איילון, Ayalon Institute) was an underground ammunition factory on the kibbutz hill in Rehovot (Israel), disguised as a kibbutz that operated a laundry. The factory was established in 1945 and produced ammunition until 1948. Today the site is a museum and a historical memorial. The factory was built secretly in less than a month, was eight meters underground, and was operated by the Haganah .
Historical background
In the 1930s, the Zionist leadership in British Mandate Palestine ( League of Nations Mandate for Palestine ) decided that weapons should be procured for self-defense and the struggle for independence. Thereupon plans for arms smuggling and the construction of secret arms factories were drawn up and implemented. The simple submachine gun ( Sten Gun ), which was used as a personal weapon in the Palmach , was also relatively easy to manufacture underground. However, the Haganah struggled to get the associated 9-millimeter ammunition for it. The head of the underground Israel Military Industries , Yosef Avidar - later head of the territorial command authority of the Israeli armed forces, the Israeli Central Command - developed a plan according to which machines for a secret ammunition factory should be smuggled in. As a result, twelve corresponding industrial machines for punching, drilling, cutting etc. brass were acquired in Poland in 1938. Due to the world situation, however, the Zionists only managed to embark them as far as Beirut ( Lebanon ). They were stored in a Haganah warehouse for nearly four years. With the help of Jewish people who served in the British Army in the Mandate area, the machines finally got to Palestine.
The location for the factory - the kibbutz hill in Rechovot - was a region where newcomers got an introduction to kibbutz living. With this knowledge and skills, the groups spread across the country to set up new kibbutz cooperatives. This place had several advantages: The British Mandate Forces were familiar with the kibbutz activities that took place here. In addition, it was a hill, which made it possible to work on it without being seen by the surroundings; things can be accommodated in it without changing the appearance of the surface. In addition, a railway connection passed in the immediate vicinity; Steam locomotives passing by covered the noise of the secret factory.
The Haganah approached a group of young immigrants with the question of whether they would be willing to take responsibility for a state secret instead of their original dream of setting up their own kibbutz. Only when the group had agreed without dissenting votes, the 45 young women and men were given details of the mission. This recruitment also meant accepting responsibility for a life-threatening situation not only for themselves, but for significantly more people: The group of these 45 young adults would have to maintain absolute silence - also with regard to their families - otherwise all those affected would lead to certain death fall to the British Army. The army had its nearest quarters within walking distance of the kibbutz hill.
A kibbutz was built above the secret ammunition factory to camouflage the factory from the eyes of the British Army. Not even all of the kibbutz people knew that a cartridges forge lay beneath their feet. The uninitiated were called "giraffes" by the workers. During this time, animals for the newly created zoo in Tel Aviv were transported from the only port in Haifa by train that passed Rechovot. The giraffes had special wagons with a hole in the roof through which they could stick their heads. This gave them an excellent view of the area, but not what was under their feet.
The group that worked in the secret factory produced around 2.25 million cartridges between 1945 and 1948 - an average of 40,000 cartridges a day - right under the eyes of the British Army.
Factory operation and risks
In just three weeks, the mound was dug up and a 250 square meter concrete tub was constructed eight meters underground. It had walls about half a meter thick and a concrete ceiling. A regular kibbutz was laid out above this - dining room, assembly room, children's house, etc. In addition, a laundry and a bakery were built. The underlying plan was detailed, as it had to fully anticipate and try to avert risks that could prevent the construction and operation of a secret ammunition factory: an entrance was necessary to get into the factory, as well as an opening to allow heavy steel machines to enter the room lower. The question of air circulation was essential for survival, as were believable and plausible camouflage stories for the workers in the cartridge factory. The following solutions were found: The large hole to bring the machines underground was covered by the ten-ton oven in the bakery. This could be moved on rails, but was set in concrete to prevent any light from shining underground. The bakery's chimney served as part of the ventilation system. Its counterpart - one side to draw in fresh air, the other side to remove the exhaust air - was accommodated in the technical system of the laundry. Their industrial washing machine was also mounted on a rail system and camouflaged the secret entrance to the factory.
The washing machine, whose operation had to mask both the noise and the smell of the factory, was in constant use. However, this carried the risk of noticeable wear and tear of the laundry. A solution was also found for this problem: the kibbutz opened a laundry service. For a small fee, people from the surrounding kibbutzim brought their laundry. Even the British Army had their uniforms washed. To prevent the soldiers from coming to the kibbutz, the laundry service was expanded to include a pick-up and delivery service. Another serious problem - the unsuspecting acquisition of the brass, which was needed as the raw material for the cartridges - was solved in an equally elegant way: The kibbutz explained to the British Army that they were a trade in the production of the cases for high-quality lipsticks ( kosher ). The British Army accepted the declaration - also because of its reinforcement by some high quality kosher lipstick cases for senior British officers - and let the kibbutz work.
One floor below, 45 women and men have been working in the ammunition factory for more than three years. They worked in two shifts, stamping brass, bending, drilling and rolling it, cutting it, filling cartridges with gunpowder, and finishing off by manually pressing on the lids made in another factory. In the last step in particular, it was important not to use too much force to avoid the cartridge exploding. By following a strict work protocol for every manufacturing step, as well as control loops, the people in the factory did what they could to avoid accidents or worse. Impressively, the worst accident that happened in the entire period in which more than two million cartridges were hand-filled with gunpowder was the severing of a phalanx on a saw. As the quality of the gunpowder that was smuggled was poor, there was a test station underground. To ensure that their product was usable, cartridges were selected at random and fired in the shooting range. In exactly the minutes in which the heavy train rumbled by outside, the camouflaging noise could be used for the shooting tests.
Each time the group had less than three minutes to "disappear" into the factory without being seen. There was no air conditioning, and although the air in the factory was circulated six times an hour, working conditions in the small underground room were harsh. At temperatures of more than 40 ° C, production had to be throttled because the risk of the gunpowder self-igniting became too great. The lack of sunlight made people's skin pale, which made their camouflage stories - working in distant fields - questionable. It also increased the risk of vitamin D deficiency and disease. On the advice of a doctor, additional food rations were organized and a sun lamp was installed in the factory, under which the workers were exposed to UV radiation every day. After each shift, it had to be ensured that no trace of the work could be seen on clothing, in hair or on shoes. Therefore there was a strict control of bags, shoe soles and hair in order not to miss any brass shavings. In order to give the impression of being normal kibbutz members, all workers took part in lunch in the dining room: at lunchtime they therefore left the factory, formed small groups in the area, and then came to eat as if they had just returned from the field.
In the first year of the factory's existence, the pre-packed boxes with ready-to-use cartridges were brought out of the kibbutz in the double bottoms of milk cans - an everyday and unsuspicious item in agriculture at the time. However, the risk of discovery was high, as the cartridge-filled jugs were heavier than jugs filled with milk. Therefore, a way had to be found that would make it possible to bring cartridges to all places in Palestine that were preparing for a defense. The solution was bold: from time to time a diesel tanker would come at night; the driver was only known to the person on watch at the kibbutz. He came to the kibbutz, knocked a code on the door of the bakery, went into the factory, brought in new raw materials, picked up packed boxes and stowed them in the cavity of the truck. Since the people in the factory never met the driver, he was nicknamed "Elfe" because the necessary material was just lying there in the morning. For the Haganah, it was of enormous importance that the individual underground groups never knew each other. In the worst case - the exposure and arrest by the British Army - only members of their own group could be betrayed.
The cartridges were distributed across the country by being passed on from their production site through the Haganah group network. In this way, i. H. By providing ammunition for the Palmach fighters, the ammunition factory with the code name Ayalon Institute played a role in the history of the founding years of Israel.
present
When the State of Israel gained independence, there was no longer any need to work underground. Hence, cartridge production was brought to light and became part of the centralized military industry. The group of 45 young immigrants decided to stay together as a group and pursue their dream of founding a new kibbutz. In 1949 they founded the Ma'agan Micha'el kibbutz near Zichron Ya'acov. But the knowledge of the secret ammunition factory that they had kept was not passed on. It was not until 1975 that the secret was lifted and the story became more widely known.
Today the Ayalon Institute is a museum. In 1987 the factory was restored to open the kibbutz and the production facility to the public. The site is one of the listed Israeli Historical Monuments. The Jewish National Fund plays an important role in this; he supported the restoration and preservation of the place. There is a eucalyptus grove on site with picnic tables and large tents for group events, as well as guided tours of the existing buildings and factory. The US television producer Laurel Fairworth decided in 2015 to make a film about the history of the factory. In addition to the film, a shorter version of the docu-drama was created, which is shown as an introduction to the guided tours in the museum.
The guided tour goes through the laundry and shows the secret entrance to the factory under the washing machine. The tour itself takes an alternative route - a specially constructed spiral staircase in the bakery - eight meters underground. The main room of the factory can be viewed there - the machines are still working. The electricity to drive the machine's transmission belts went unnoticed and illegally diverted from the railroad in the 1940s. A small “Thank you for that!” Sign on the wall of the museum testifies to this today. The tour also shows the room with the sunlamp, toilets - the contents of which were pumped up and fed to the kibbutz's regular sewage system - and the packing station for the cartridges. It ends with a walk across the site, which is so well preserved with its buildings because it was used for military purposes after independence. There is a small reception room with snacks and ice cream.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ SPIHS - Israel Heritage Sites - The Ayalon Institute (Machon Ayalon): Kibbutz Hill in Rehovot. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 27, 2010 ; accessed on December 10, 2010 (English).
- ↑ a b c JNF Impact: Dramatic story of top-secret pre-state bullet factory headed to big screen In: blogspot.com , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ a b The Ayalon Institute In: jewishvirtuallibrary.org , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ a b Jessica Steinberg: Secret bullet factory aims at big screen | The Times of Israel In: timesofisrael.com , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel In: mfa.gov.il , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ^ Ayalon Institute Museum In: touristisrael.com , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ Ayalon Institute - Bullet Factory Rehovot - המועצה לשימור אתרי מורשת בישראל In: shimur.org , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ Heritage Site Preservation In: jnf.org , accessed December 5, 2018.
- ↑ The Secret Beneath the Hill In: ayalondocumentary.com , accessed December 5, 2018.