3/22/2011 - The Ayalon Institute

After breakfast we went to the Ayalon Institute, the home of a top secret operation that began in the late 30's and ended in 1948.  It is located at Kibbutzim Hill and was an underground bullet factory built under the laundry and bakery.  It involved 60 members of the Hagganah and members of Hatzofim Aleph, a pioneer group.  It also involved people from a local Jewish clandestine military.  They were later joined by the Palmach trainees from Kibbutz Heftzibah and members of the "Habonim."

The underground complex was 250 square meters (300 square yards) and was covered by four meters (13 feet) of earth.  Outwardly the Kibbutz appeared normal with living quarters, workshops, a chicken coop, cow barn and gardens.

Those who worked in the factory referred to those who didn't as "Giraffes" because they are tall with their heads in the trees, never looking down at what is going on beneath them.

The machinery was purchased in 1938 from Poland and smuggled by the underground to Beirut, Lebanon, and from there to Israel in 1942.  This was the largest bullet factory with more than two million 9mm bullets being produced for use with the Sten Sub-machine gun, the personal weapon used in the 1948 War of Independence.

One of the key ingredients for the bullets was brass.  As it happened a wealthy man who was a lipstick maker approached the British and asked for more brass to allow him to provide more lipstick to Middle Eastern women.  The British approved of this, allowing the extra brass to go to the Ayelon Institute.

Those people who were working in the underground facility quickly became very pale and some became ill.  A doctor was brought in and he prescribed vitamin supplements and the use of UV lights to give the workers needed color in their skin.

After the 1948 War of Independence, the factory no longer had to be kept underground and top secret and was moved closer to Tel Aviv.  The members of Hatzofim Aleph left Kibbutz Hill and established Kibbutz Ma'agan Micha'el in 1949 just south of Haifa.