page_title: Palmach
section_title: Military organization
hierarchical_section_title: Palmach / Military organization
caption_attribution_description: English: The "German Squad" of the Palmach on a training march.
context_page_description: 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 on 15 May 1941. By the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence 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 Palmach contributed significantly to Israeli culture and ethos, well beyond its military contribution. Its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture.
context_section_description: The Palmach was organised into regular companies (six in 1943), and five or six special units.
  Palmach special units included:
  Ha-Machlaka Ha-Germanit: the "German Platoon" (aka the Middle East Commando) performed covert operations and sabotage operations against Nazi infrastructure in the Middle East and the Balkans.
  Ha-Machlaka Ha-Aravit: the "Arab Platoon" performed covert operations and espionage missions against Arab militias, which frequently attacked Jewish settlements. It was the base for the Israeli Defense Forces's and the Israeli Border Police's Mista'arvim units.
  Palyam (Sea Companies): the naval force of the Palmach was formed in 1943, attached to the Palmach's Staff Battalion (the 4th Battalion). They were in charge of underwater demolition and maritime activity units. The majority of their activities were related to the escorting of ships of Aliyah Bet, immigration ships (66 of them in all) bringing Jewish refugees from Europe by boat, despite the British White Paper of 1939, which introduced restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
  Palavir (The Air Companies): made up of Jewish pilots, the Palmach air force was incorporated into the Sherut Avir (predecessor of the Israeli Air Force) upon the Sherut's foundation in late 1947. Eighteen Taylorcraft Auster Mk V aircraft and two Mk IIIs were purchased by Aviron from RAF scrapheap at Tel Nof 14 January 1947, with at least 13 aircraft restored to flying condition. First delivered late Feb 1948, these were used by the Palavir's, Tel Aviv, Galilee and Negev Squadrons for supply, reconnaissance and light attack roles.
  Sabotage Units: explosives experts who became the basis for the Israeli Engineering Corps in the IDF.
  The Palmach put an emphasis on training field commanders (מפקדי שטח) and formed the basis for the Israeli army.
  During the 1948–49 War of Independence the Palmach was expanded to form three infantry brigades commanded by Yigal Allon:
  Yiftach, with three battalions operating in Eastern Galilee (1st and 3rd and later 2nd)
  Harel, with three battalions operating (4th, 5th and 10th) in the Jerusalem area commanded by Yitzhak Rabin (then age 26)
  Negev, with four battalions (2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th), one of which was the jeep mounted "Negev Beasts"
  The Command Battalion controlled naval, air and commando companies.
  The battle cry of the Palmach commander was "!אחרי" (Aharai), which literally means "after me!" or "follow me!". It refers to the commander leading his troops instead of sending them out and staying behind.
caption: The German squad
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