Commanders course hagana 1947 It was only natural, then, that when I was 20, beginning of l947, I was called up to appear before an examining committee of the high echelon of the Hagana, selecting candidates for the commanders course. We were given a series of tests to decide whether we are suitable. The physical tests, including the use of light arms, available then to the hagana, were over. And there came the turn of the orals. The examining board was comprised of veteran commanders, whose turn in the field was long finished, thus the questions they asked unconceivable situations. All of a sudden I found my self surrounded by many large units owning heavy fire power. It didn’t seem to me there is any other solution to such a situation except giving the order: “Back to camp”. The examiners were dumbfounded, except for one, unbeknown face, that smiled.
A week later I got the answer. God was on my side, and I was selected as one of the hundred – 99 boys and one girl – to comprise the last commanders course of the hagana, as an underground.
There
was only one man – not a military man, neither was he young, who noticed well the new winds that were blowing in the Middle East. Winds that were to shake and sweep away the existing doctrines, and the Hagana will never be as it was at the beginning of l947. In charge of the Jewish defence now stood a short man, with a white mane of hair. Under his command will live and die these one hundred.
