Grandma's army

At the end of the War of Independence, the IDF had over 100,000 full-time men and women in uniform, as compared to the mere handful of full-time soldiers at its beginning. In addition to 12 brigades, mostly infantry, it had several regiments of artillery. The first armoured regiments were equipped with light armoured vehicles: some captured, some "requisitioned" from the departing British troops; a few tanks; including two Cromwells "bought" from the withdrawing British, and some reconstituted from American scrap. The Navy consisted, at first, of reconverted illegal immigrant vessels. There were the elements of an Air Force - Spitfires and Messerschmidts, acquired mainly in Czechoslovakia. Also, light civilian planes which the Haganah had used for reconnaissance and communications purposes. Some World War II US war surplus bombers, which had been used as scrap, were bought. These carried out their first "strategic attack" on Cairo, en route to Israel...

  The War of Independence of the Jewish people in the land of Israel began on the 29th of November 1947 -   a result of the Arabs’ objection to the UN resolution regarding the partition of the country into an Arab state, and a Jewish state. The Arab population within Mandatory Palestine immediately rejected the resolution, and declared war on the Jews. The goal of the Arabs was initially to block the Partition Resolution and to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, hoped to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan. Up until 1 April 1948, it was the Arabs in Palestine who took the offensive - with the help of volunteers from neighboring countries. The yishuv suffered severe casualties and disruption of passage along most of the major highways. From April until May 14 th 1948, the Haganah and Etzel forces succeeded in launching attacks against the Arabs, in which, the force of Palestinian Arabs wa...