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The Night of the Trains (or Operation Party) was a sabotage operation of the British railways in Palestine ("Palestine Railways") on November 1, 1945. The operation was one of the first carried out by the Jewish Resistance Movement, before its official establishment, and symbolized its founding.
During the operation Palmach units sabotaged a network of railways around the country and blew up three British guard boats in Jaffa port and in Haifa, and a combined Irgun–Lehi unit attacked Lydda railway station, which is the key junction between the Haifa – El Kantara main line and the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway. An estimated 1,000 men were involved in the operations. [1]
Approximately fifty Palmach units, which included sappers and guard, severely damaged 153 points along the railway system in Mandate Palestine, primarily at railway junctions and bridges above them. The operations took place around 11:00 p.m., fully synchronized in order to prevent a British response. Shootings occurred[ clarification needed ] in two places with no casualties. Over 242 breaks in the railway lines were made, and a stationmaster's office, telephone installation, and petrol wagon were bombed.
At the same time, the Palmach's marine unit, the Palyam, sank three British guard boats, two in Haifa and one in Jaffa. These boats were part of the closure imposed on the shores in order to prevent Jewish immigration. In Haifa Yohai Ben-Nun led the operation and in Jaffa, Yossi Harel and Zalman Cohen did, after a briefing by Yitzhak Sadeh. In both cases the sappers arrived in boats, dived under the British boats, and attached explosives with a delay mechanism to the boats.
That same night an Irgun unit, led by Eitan Livni, raided a train station in Lod. During exchanges of fire,the fighters destroyed one train engine and damaged six others. During the raid, an Irgun fighter, two British people (one soldier and one policeman), and four Arabs[ specify ] were killed. The operation took a relatively heavy toll, most likely because the raiding team was late in arriving at the target, meaning that British officials were already on high alert. [2] A Lehi unit launched a sabotage operation against the oil refinery in Haifa, but the explosives detonated prematurely as they were being carried, and as a result the Lehi member carrying them was killed. Severe damage was caused to the facility, but the oil tanks, which were the intended target, were left untouched.
A subsequent confrontation at Ramat Hakovesh lead to the area becoming a "No Go" area for British forces. Two weeks later the District Office in Tel Aviv was set on fire and in the riots that followed, involving 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, six Jews[ specify ] were killed. [3]
The operation raised morale in the Yishuv, after the heavy restrictions by the British on Aliyah and settlement. The operation mostly created satisfaction within the Yishuv leadership and Palmach and Haganah members that saw that they were able to simultaneously operate a large number of units in a large number of locations. David Ben-Gurion wrote to the leadership of the Haganah that this operation has its rewards—though they may not be immediate. The response in Britain was great as well. Government officials condemned the operation and the press published detailed articles about the sabotage actions.
Media related to Railways in Palestine, 1936 at Wikimedia Commons
The Irgun, or Etzel, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine and then Israel between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.
Zionist political violence refers to politically motivated violence or terrorism perpetrated by Zionists. The term is used to describe violence committed by those who support the political movement of Zionism, and violence committed against opponents of Zionism. The violence often takes the form of terrorist attacks and has been directed against both Jewish and Arab targets. The most active period of most notable Zionist political violence began on June 30, 1924, through the 1940s, and continues to the present day, usually for the purpose of expanding Zionist settlements in Palestine.
Haganah was the main Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the region, and was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Operation Agatha, sometimes called Black Sabbath or Black Saturday because it began on the Jewish sabbath, was a police and military operation conducted by the British authorities in Mandatory Palestine. Soldiers and police searched for arms and made arrests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and several dozen settlements; the Jewish Agency was raided. The total number of British security forces involved is variously reported as 10,000, 17,000, and 25,000. About 2,700 individuals were arrested, among them future Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett. The officially given purpose of the operation was to end "the state of anarchy" then existing in Palestine. Other objectives included obtaining documentary proof of Jewish Agency approval of sabotage operations by the Palmach and of an alliance between the Haganah and the more violent Lehi and Irgun, destroying the Haganah's military power, boosting army morale and preventing a coup d'état being mounted by the Lehi and Irgun.
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach was established in May 1941. By the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in three fighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units. With the creation of Israel's army, the three Palmach Brigades were disbanded. This and political reasons compelled many of the senior Palmach officers to resign in 1950.
The Jewish Resistance Movement, also called the United Resistance Movement (URM), was an alliance of the Zionist paramilitary organizations Haganah, Irgun and Lehi in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was established in October 1945 by the Jewish Agency and operated for some ten months, until August 1946. The alliance coordinated acts of sabotage to undermine the British authority in Mandatory Palestine.
Palyam was the sea force of the Palmach.
The Saison was the name given to the Haganah's attempt, as ordered by the official bodies of the pre-state Yishuv, to suppress the Irgun's insurgency against the government of the British Mandate in Palestine, from November 1944 to February 1945.
A successful paramilitary campaign was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine from 1944 to 1948. The tensions between the Zionist underground and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 and intensified with the publication of the White Paper of 1939. The Paper outlined new government policies to place further restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases, and declared the intention of giving independence to Palestine, with an Arab majority, within ten years. Though World War II brought relative calm, tensions again escalated into an armed struggle towards the end of the war, when it became clear that the Axis powers were close to defeat.
The Night of the Bridges was a Haganah venture on the night of 16 to 17 June 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine (1944–7). Its aim was to destroy eleven bridges linking Mandatory Palestine to the neighboring countries Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan and Egypt, in order to suspend the transportation routes used by the British Army. Attacks on a further three bridges had been considered, but were not executed.
The 6th Airborne Division in Palestine was initially posted to the region as the Imperial Strategic Reserve. It was envisioned as a mobile peace keeping force, positioned to be able to respond quickly to any area of the British Empire. In fact the division became involved in an internal security role between 1945 and 1948.
Yaakov Banai born Yaakov Tunkel, Alias Mazal served as the commander of the Lehi movement's combat unit. Banai was a senior Lehi member who masterminded numerous military encounters against British and Arab targets during the Mandate period and the 1947–1949 Palestine war.
Amichai Paglin, codename "Gidi" was an Israeli businessman who served as Chief Operations Officer of the Irgun during the Mandate era. He planned and personally led numerous attacks against the British during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine, commanded the battle to conquer Jaffa in the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, and participated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Following independence, he ran an industrial oven factory together with his father, and was later appointed Prime Minister Menachem Begin's counter-terrorism adviser. Only a few months after his appointment, however, Paglin was killed in a car crash.
Hamaas was a weekly publication of the Lehi, an armed Zionist militant group in Mandatory Palestine. Other publications by the Lehi included the daily Mivrak, the monthly HeHahzit, and BaMahteret.
Events in the year 1948 in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Operation Boatswain was the first of the operational missions carried out by the Palmach as part of the cooperation between the Jewish Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine and the British during World War II. The mission to sabotage oil refineries in Tripoli was unsuccessful, ending with the disappearance of 23 Palmach commandos and British SOE officer Major Sir Anthony Palmer after their boat was lost at sea on 18 May 1941.
This is a timeline of intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine.
Yehiel Dov Dresner was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine and one of 12 Olei Hagardom.