Assisted by the Fascist Powers, a full scale Arab revolt broke out in 1936. Attacks were made on British forces stationed in Palestine under the League of Nations Mandate. These forces were there, ostensibly, to help form a “Jewish National Home,” but in actuality the British used the principle of divide-and-rule among the Arabs and Jews. Raids were made aginst British communications systms, police posts and army bases, against Jewish settlements. The British, reluctantly, were forced to rearm the Jews. Quasi-military units, called “Supernumerary Police,” were immedeately formed. These troops were issued such standard British military equipment as the SMLE 303 rifle, the Webley 455 revolver and the Lewis 303 MG. Meanwhile, the Hagana, which had changed its tactics from static defense to mobile offensive warfare, considered the Supernumerary Police an excellent training vehicle for future officers. One of the men the Hagana called to duty with the S.P. was young Moshe Dayan, then honeymooning in England. Meanwhile, the Hagana organized mobile field platoons, called “P.U.S.H,” placing and active duty lasted for a period of 6 months. Many of Israel’s future leaders were trained in these field units, among them Dayan and Yigal Allon (later to be Deputy Prime Minister of Israel), learning the new tactics of fluid warfare and surprise attack. A technique called “Hammer and Anvil” was developed whereby the anvil unit would ambush and engage an Arab force until the hammer group, led by Dayan, would join the conflict and crush resistance. Much in formation on firearms, logistics and tactics was cataloged for futrure use. An interesting development was a “cloth cartridge catcher” for the 9mm Hispano Suiza submachine gun. This device caught the tell-tale ejected shells.
