The Israeli Defense Forces used American M4 Shermans as early as in the 1948 war. Israel obtained her first Shermans through stealing them, buying them in the Philippines or getting demilitarized ones from scrapyards around Europe. The first one, nicknamed "Meir", was obtained in May 1948; the British Army intended it for destruction, but soldiers handed it over to Hagana instead, that fitted it with a 75mm gun. One more was found at scrapyard in Israel and armed initially with an external mounted 20mm gun (the tank was named "Tamar") and later a 75mm gun. Other similar covertly acquired ex-British Sherman tanks were named "Ada" and "Ruth II". In November 1948 35 more were purchased from Italian scrapyards. All these were non-operational, only 4 were completely repaired until the end of the war and 14 by November (some necessitated re-arming with the Krupp 75 mm field gun). By late 1953 Israel had 76 operational Shermans and 131 nonoperational.