One of the most positive chapters in the history of the British Administration In Palestine, was their consent to accept the suggestion of the Jewish Oganizations here, to establish a special police force, sort of Field Police, for the Defence of the Jewish Settlements around the country.  The Hagana was to gain by it, as it enabled young Jewish  fighters to legally carry weapons, and the Hagana High Command hastened to use the new framework, for the needs of training, and development of these policemen, but mainly to use them as instructors and commanders for the different courses that the Hagana was conducting around the country.  It is maybe ironic, that the British Government, which was hostile to the idea of establishing an independent Jewish State, became, through the salaries paid to these policemen, a financial source, and enabled the first great legal framework for the preparation of the nucleus of the later Israeli  Defence Forces.  

The life of the Notrim circled around two main circles.  The first was the official circle, including the shining uniforms and buckles, and the second, the main one, of training different kinds of soldiers, according to the needs of the Hagana.

 I found it difficult to combine the hard work of training in Section Commanders Units, with the wasted time devoted monthly, on the first of each month  hours to  spent  on polishing military shoes, so they shine exactly to the commander’s satisfaction, buckles that would shine like gold, and all the brass buttons on the uniform.  The same rules that applied in all the British Police forces deployed around the Empire, where the sun never set.

But there was no choice.

I remember a British Police Officer, in charge of a large area, that would come to watch the monthly parade, that took place right after the allotment of the salaries.  

He was somewhat different from the other British officers I cam across.

It seemed he was taking greater notice what’s in his men’s hearts, as if he more than others, what was going on under the formal framework, where right before his eyes is being established an army preparing for life or death kind of war.  

One Sunday something happened, that proved my suspicions. Meged , the base of our Mobile Guard (called Man), would spruce up as a regular Military British Army Base.  All the paths would be cleared.  The tree barks were whitewashed, and the kitchen utensils would be washed and paraded in neat rows. The Cook, another policeman, who exhibited a hatred to cooking, as great as his animosity against hygienic rules, would overcome this particular feeling for the one day. He would wash and polish everything necessary for the inspection.  One of the usual characteristics of such a base were the flower beds along the paths near the gate. The British officers were known for their fondness for flowers, and would take bouquets for their wives.

Our own base never succeeded in growing flowers, but, as mentioned, it was a necessity.  There was not one flower to be seen around the Base.  Two of us volunteered to go to the farms around us, and collect a proper bouquet.  We cut all the flowers to the same length, and planted them along the two sides of the main path, so it would seem natural.

The British Officer appeared exactly on time . Administered the allotment of salaries, inspected the guard, and then he was heard saying: It’s my wife’s birthday today, and I decided to pick the flowers myself.”  Our faces fell.  The sergeant, commander of the guard, suffered an immediate attack of pain in his left side and prepared to get a heart-attack, which he always knew would come.  Nothing helped; offers by other sergeants and the commander on duty, the district sergeant to pick the flowers instead of the suffering man who worked so hard that day.  The cook appeared offering English tea (although in his civilian life he was a house painter) – the offers were refused, the officer declared that his loyalty to his wife demanded him to pick the flowers himself.  We felt as if the Spanish Armada was going to squash us.  The officer exited and went  straight to the flower bed on the left.  The sergeant, who by then suffered at least seven heart attacks, and wondered how he was still alive, saw behind the fog that covered his eyes, how the officer bends down towards the first flower and picks-pulls it out of the sand where we had stuck it.  The sergeant, half fainting, watched the face of the officer who kept a poker face, bending again, but this time pulling the flower out more gently.  Not a word was uttered. A complete silence.  He bent again and again,  each time pulling another flower.  Sometime later he was observed measuring the  lengths of all the flowers, when to his delight he found out that in Eretz-Israel all the flowers grow to the same length, something that will make it easier for his wife. When the left flower bed was all gone, the officer found himself with a beautiful bouquet of different flowers, all the same length.  The district Sergeant, who was known for his sense of humor, not so much for his discerning tact, asked the officer whether he would like to congratulate the man responsible for such a piece of gardening.  The officer did not say a word.  Returning the sergeant’s salute, just before he entered his car, he seemed to be winking at the sergeant. But it may have been a speck of dust that arose from the thorny greens, that mistakenly got into the  beautiful bouquet.  

After completing my two year compulsory service, I gave in to family pressure, to let Security matters alone for a while, and devote some time to study in the Technion to be a civil engineer.  But only few days after I registered , I was invited to try the entry exams to the Hagana Commanders Course.  I was accepted.   

We were one hundred cadets.  The commanders were the cream of the Hagana leaders.  This course was taken very seriously by both the lecturers and the cadets.  We were given lectures in all field subjects, by the very best commanders the Hagana had at its disposal.  

Life in the tents, and the food, as sparse as it was tasteless.  The cooks of the Hagana did not inherit their mothers’ skills in the kitchen.  But this was only a secondary  aim of the course.  Unlike the above the programs were very interesting and varied.  We worked very hard for many hours each day. A special effort was made to Night Training.  It was l947.  The British Mandate was in full command of the country.  Choice British troops, the Red-capped Flown paratroopers (called Kalaniot – poppies – in our slang) were stationed around, acting under the command of British Administration. A hard hand against the inhabitants – especially the Jewish community.  

The British Foreign Office, who never approved of the Balfour Declaration, considered to Jewish  population here, a foreign element, disturbing the existing order and harming British interests in the area, would not even consider the other side of the coin.  The great potential of an organized, obedient public, with a democratic tradition in an area comprised of Feudal countries, or Military regimes.  Under such circumstances it  would be easy  to understand the instructions of the High Command of the Hagana ,  to plan the course so it will prepare and train commanders of relatively small units, needed for underground activities against the foreign occupiers, while the training of commanders to the larger units, for  night and day field duty against organized Arab forces seemed secondary.  

I remember very well the appearance of David Ben-Gurion before us. He was  and sets of lectures , and series of lectures.  Head of Defence in the Jewish Agency – a task parallel to that of a Minister of Defence today.   We were all seated in the big hall of Kibbutz Ganigar.  “the Old Man” entered with a quick step. Climbed the stage .  The course commander declared:  “present, one hundred students and the staff” Ben-Gurion did not hestitate for a moment.  Neared the edge of the stage, and said “one hundred, How many girls?” “One” the commander answered.  “where is she sitting?” Ben-Gurion asked.  She got up, somewhat embarrassed. Then “the Old Man” asked her “who  are you being prepared to fight against?”, her answer, which was not distinct,  gave Ben-Gurion the a sign to enter a disputed subject that was discussed  among the high echelons.  “You have to prepare for a war that will rage the minute the British leave the country.  It will be conducted by regular  Arab armies, which will invade in addition to the irregular  forces that are already active around us. 

His lecture was enlightening, and as if announcing the historical evens that were yet to follow.  It seemed to me that these words were enough to obligate the course Command, and indeed the whole Hagana Force, to immediate conclusions of future plans, the acquisition of arms and other necessities for a regular army.  Undoubtedly it was not as easy to  carry it out, as it was to say or write the words, as the courses were conducted underground, and training and maneuvering cannot be done executed under the public eye, and the British alert eye could get to it easily. It was especially difficult to acquire arms, in quantity.  The shortage of sources and resources caused the result  that the Jewish Community was not ready for the  frontal struggle with foreign armies.  The price was paid in lives.  

Following the exhilaration I felt after this Historical essay, came laborious training days and a series of lectures.  The training included  long tracking journeys in order to build up body and soul.  Many of us remember the ascent to Jouara, called ‘via –de- la – rosa , when we carried the heavy  3” rocket thrower on our backs.  It was the heaviest weapon  the Hagana owned in those days.  Shame was the only reason we did not fall under its weight and the heat of the day of the tracking, and almost always it was after a hard day of training.  But we were young, and happy go lucky, and overcame the hardships; friendships flourished on the basis of the shared experiences – friendships that were tested later in the test of the battles, and if we survived, continues until today.

One  of the usual exercises in these courses was a charge of a company towards a fortress hill.  The attackers were  allotted several tasks: one part  charging, running, onto the hill, the others serving as a backing force of fire for the attackers, to enable their advance.  In the middle of the exercise , we hear the voice of an Arab shepherd shouting “mush min hon” (in arabic ‘go away’)  It was not the first time for this shepherd to witness a course maneuver, he knew and recognized every move better than the cadets, and certainly the cadet who was the commander on duty that day.  He motioned with his finger to signify that it was the wrong route of advance, pointing to the right route, which affords a better cover, from the imaginary fortress on the top of the hill.

When we reached the summit and analyzed  the exercise, we awarded the Arab shepherd the highest mark, of all participants that day.  

The routine of the course was disturbed one day, when we were notified that the British were planning to come up to Jouara to investigate and apprehend the participants.  We were given the order to break up camp, and within hours we escaped through the fields in two groups to two different  Kibbutzim.  As far as underground training, it was a very enlightening exercise, but on the other hand revealed the fact that we were under foreign and hostile occupation and that our  getting rid of it will not be a simple matter, both politically and militarily.  

The course was over.  The cadets were posted to their different permanent commands all over the country.  Some as platoon commanders, and others as Company commanders, of active units.  In fact the graduates of this course immediately entered the Fighting Hagana Structure.  

Not too long after, it became evident that this was the last Hagana Commanders Course in the underground.  

Hostile activities, mainly against public transportation, started in November l947 and six months later, The State of Israel was declared, and in its wake, the invasion of Israel by the armies of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt.  These armies joined the irregular forces that were fighting against Israel since November l947.  The fresh Platoon and Company Commanders were made to use all the knowledge they acquired in the course, and what they lacked was tested in the battlefield, when they felt the absence of long range weapons and the lack of knowhow on how to command relatively larger units.  

When the war ended, someone bothered to count survivors.  We were one hundred, only fifty survived.