Code Name: Ayalon

- [Announcer] Major funding for this program has been provided by... - [Announcer] Jewish National Fund, USA, strives to build a strong, vibrant future for the land and people of Israel through strategic initiatives and Zionist education.

(melodious music) - [Announcer] Additional support provided by these individuals and institutions.

- [Narrator] Can you hear the drumbeat of war?

(suspenseful music) In the early days, before Israel was a country, occupied by the British, surrounded on all sides by those who wanted to kill off those working to found a Jewish state, a handful of teens were pressed into service for a dangerous mission too explosive to be recorded in this hidden diary.

Decades later, with the push of a recessed button, a secret was revealed.

A trap door under a rusty washing machine swung aside to reveal a classified assignment that changed the Middle East forever.

(suspenseful music) (keyboard keys clicking) In the period from the 1930s until the late 40s, the Haganah, the Jewish underground military organization, was quietly building up an army.

- Eventually, I was led to a basement in the Rehavia High School, where there was an induction ceremony, and what was it?

Three guys whose faces I never saw behind a table with a Jewish flag draped on it, and no lights, everything dimmed, and they're interrogating me and the two or three friends who were lined up here.

We must have passed muster because at some moment, they confronted us, in one hand with a Bible and in the other hand with a pistol, and gave us an oath of allegiance.

- [Narrator] In darkened basements and under the bright sun, thousands pledged to give their lives in support of a country that didn't yet have a name.

A people who longed to live in a land of their own, come quickly to understand what it will take for that to happen.

And in this cauldron of desperation, the young grow up quickly.

In the process, heroes emerge and they help shape the course of history.

- [Shlomo Hillel] We have taken upon ourself that we would agree to change the course of our life.

- We were Zionists, so that was understood that if something has to be done, it is done.

- Well, no one ever spoke to us before that, about the future, about the creation of the State of Israel.

All of a sudden, we became part of something which was much beyond of what we were doing and what we were thinking.

- [Narrator] Establishing a Jewish state was never going to be easy, as history had shown for decades.

(melodious music) - [Reporter] In 1917, Lord Allenby conquered the holy land and the Jews were promised a national home in Palestine by the Earl of Balfour, a policy endorsed by Woodrow Wilson and by the League of Nations, which made Palestine a British mandate.

(trumpeting music) But in 1939, Great Britain was faced with war, and at Haifa in Palestine, was the terminus of an oil pipeline from Iraq.

Overnight, the Middle East became a vital strategic area.

Through it, ran the Suez Canal, Britain's lifeline to the Far East.

Peace had to be maintained in the Arab states so that Great Britain would be assured of an oil supply to fuel her planes, and tanks, and ships, in the coming battle.

(melodious music) To calm the Arab world, London produced in 1939, a white paper, which strictly limited immigration into Palestine.

- But of course, the paper is issued in the spring of '39, exactly at the time when Jews are most desperate to get out and most desperate to leave, and suddenly, the last remaining place where they really might be able to get to, is slammed shut.

- And to rebuke... - [Narrator] This turnabout in British foreign policy, highly significant for Palestine, quickly fades into the shadows as the world turns its attention to a more pressing matter, a hideous, murderous affront to humanity, one that is to take six years to resolve.

- Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday, the 8th of May.

We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoice.

- [Narrator] But while the victors rejoice in the streets, in the camps, the horror of the holocaust is coming into focus, and slowly, the conscience of the world begins to turn toward the plight of the Jews.

- It is my attitude that the American government couldn't stand idly by while the victims of Hitler's madness were not allowed to build new lives.

- Truman is very much moved by the plight of the Jews in these DP camps, because, you see, there there were millions of displaced persons all over Europe, Jews, non-Jews, of all backgrounds, all nationalities.

But the others had homes to go back to.

Most of these Jews, when they went back to those homes, A, there was no family there, B, there was nobody from their community there, a community that once had 40, 50, 60, 80,000 people, there'd be nine people left.

And in certain places, when the Jews went back, how they were greeted by their non-Jewish neighbors, "What?

You're still alive?"

Because the non-Jews were living in their houses and taking over their farms, taking over their businesses.

It wasn't always a pleasant welcome, "We're so glad you survived."

- Some way had to be found to take care of those displaced persons, give them a place to live, something to eat, and something to wear, and it was up to us to try to get it done.

- [Narrator] These behaviors forced David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Haganah, to change his policy toward the British.

He now believes a peaceful solution with the Arabs has no chance, and he intensifies a ramp up to war.

At the same time, Palestinian-Arab objection to the influx of Jews is on the rise.

For families that had worked the land for generations, there is a great sense of anxiety as thousands of new Jews arrive.

They are scared, territorial, and suspicious of the growing Jewish economic power, and push back whenever and wherever their anger erupts.

Most notably, the 1936 through '39 Arab Revolt against the British administration, demanding Arab independence and the end of Jewish immigration.

- The British saw them at this point, as a pain in the neck, you know, these Jews in the middle of this sea of Arabs, and it didn't matter what had just happened.

In fact, at one point, when the British catch a ship trying to get...

The Exodus, when they catch the ship trying to illegally bring people into Palestine, they catch it, they take them back to Germany.

I mean, you wanna talk about a public relations disaster?

Taking people who had survived the death camps off these boats back into Germany.

No anti-PR person could have thought of a worse thing to do.

- [Narrator] There is raging animosity among the factions in Palestine.

The British act at a high state of alarm, especially in the aftermath of attacks on British soldiers by both Arab and Jew.

- [Roy Rodrick] We weren't very happy of course, but I don't think we took any action against the population, you know, because we knew it wasn't them that had done it, it was the terrorists.

- You must realize that during the British mandate from 1919, to May 15th, 1948, whatever we did was illegal from their point of view.

- [Narrator] Particularly when it comes to arms and ammunition.

The worst offense.

- In those days, the British were very strict about many things in the underground that we were doing, illegal immigration.

But the most specific and the most dangerous thing from the point of view of the British, was the production of ammunition and the production of arms, because for everything else, you would've gone to jail.

I mean, even for terrorist activity or whatever, but for the production of arms and ammunition, it could be death penalty, and there has been death penalties by the British in those days.

- [Narrator] Everyone in Palestine knows two things for sure.

First, it is only a matter of time before the British would leave the country.

And second, the moment the British are gone, the Arabs will attack in force.

(suspenseful music) - It was clear that when they would leave, there will be fighting in Israel, in Palestine, because both the Arabs and the Jews wanted to have the whole country for themselves.

Well, nothing new.

- You couldn't just wait till May, okay, we've declared independence, now we're gonna produce arms.

You had to be prepared, you had to be ready, because you knew war was gonna break out.

The Zionist leaders, the leaders Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, others, knew war was coming.

- The Haganah was starting to wonder, "How shall we survive?

How shall we fight for Israel?"

- [Narrator] And fight was the new word in the Jewish vocabulary.

No longer the passive inhabitants of the shtetls, no longer the meek Yiddish speaking victims of aggressors.

- So, suddenly, now there was a chance to take your fate into your own hands, and it must have been a very both liberating and heady experience in this... "I can do something now, I can fight back, I can resist."

- [Narrator] These Zionists were anxious to demonstrate to the world a new breed of Jew, one who is physically fit, self-reliant, and destined to determine their own future.

- They saw a chance for survival, but they also knew, they knew it very well, that it wasn't gonna be a survival that was gonna be handed to them on a silver platter.

It was gonna be a survival that they would have to fight for.

- [Narrator] By 1945, an expectation of the end of the British presence under the mandate, the Haganah is about to instigate one of the most secret projects in its portfolio, for while they have been successful in recruiting soldiers and in acquiring and assembling some guns, it sorely lacks the bullets to put into them.

It learns how to fashion mortars and shells.

And because it could be done in small spaces, is somewhat successful in assembling the Sten machine guns, which were a mainstay of the Jewish arsenal.

It is also heavily engaged in means to smuggle arms and into Palestine.

It was a difficult time for such a job.

Most nations were not in favor of taking sides in the Palestinian conflict.

Official American policy under Truman prohibited the sale of military items to either the Arabs or the Jews.

A highly sophisticated arms smuggling scheme was already in place, and was taking full advantage of the virtually unlimited amount of weapons available due to post-war demobilization.

Help came in all sorts of ways as sympathizers in the US looked to send guns to their brothers and sisters in Palestine.

- And this is what I heard that my father-in-law was part of, that they would take guns and break them down and store them at the farm, and then they could ship them as agricultural products.

- All I know, it went to a port in Hoboken or New York, and then off to Palestine it went.

- In order to get it out of Hoboken, you had to talk to Meyer Lansky who controlled the waterfront.

- I think there was a belief that as long as they were marked agricultural products, nobody was gonna look.

They came from, you know, Springtown, Pennsylvania.

Who lives in Springtown, Pennsylvania?

I think that there was the sense that they needed to stand up for the Jewish people.

- [Narrator] But in 1945, the Sten gun is the centerpiece of Jewish munitions.

However, it is making the bullets that presents the problem, since that requires much more of an assembly line and a much larger factory space.

- They decided to build a plant underground and to build a kibbutz on top of it.

- [Narrator] Avidar explained, "I looked for a group with developed security awareness, a group that would agree to adapt its way of life to the security needs of the institute."

After a consultation with Shai, the Haganah's Intelligence Agency, the lot falls to Hatzofim Alif.

- We were a group of Israelis who they could go back to see where every one of us came from.

We were a good group for the Haganah.

- [Narrator] The members of Hatzofim Alif were graduates of Herzliya High School in Tel Aviv, and Reali School in Haifa.

They are above average intelligence, have strong, traceable family roots, and had children young enough, so as not to present security risks.

Avidar summons two of the group's leaders, Shlomo Hillel and Don Amir, to his home in Tel Aviv.

And without providing any answers to their questions, ask that they decide on behalf of their members to accept his challenge.

- He said, "Look here, boys.

Now the war ended."

He said there is a slight possibility that they will decide to create a Jewish state in order to enable the remnants of the Jews in Europe, and the Jews from the Arab lands.

So he said, "If this is going to happen, the rules of the game are going to change entirely.

It's not anymore that we are going to fight some Arab terrorists here and there, but we are going to fight the armies of the Arab states that are existing with their tanks, with their airplanes, and with their full armies."

And so he said, "We want you to forget all your dreams and all your plans of having a new settlement of ours.

We want you to forget all this for the time being."

And he said, "I cannot tell you anything more unless you give me an answer that you accept it."

- [Narrator] Overwhelmed and conflicted, Hillel and Amir leave the home and consider their dilemma for nearly 30 minutes before returning with a response.

Avidar must present his proposal to all the other members of the kibbutz who would also be involved.

And so, Avidar finds himself making his pitch to the whole group.

There was confusion and many questions, most of which he was unwilling to answer.

Remember, he needed to get everyone's buy-in.

It had to be unanimous before he could disclose any details.

- He said, "Look, we want you, the kibbutz, to do something which would help to build a State of Israel.

It will be dangerous, it will be secret, you can't tell it to anybody, not your family, nobody, and it will postpone your settling."

And we wanted to settle down.

- [Narrator] Avidar has given this assembly much to consider.

- How shall we live in secret?

And it was a big responsibility, about children.

If it is dangerous, we endanger our children.

But on the other side was that we want to help build the state, we want the state of Israel, and we were young, we were idealistic.

And I think that, how do you say?

Tipped the scales.

(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Finally and not unexpectedly, at around two in the morning, all 38 hands are raised and this strange compact with the Haganah is sealed.

Avidar could reveal the mission he had in mind.

(keyboard keys clicking) - [Narrator] Much thought had gone into the decision to locate the factory here.

It was isolated but not too remote.

It was elevated on a hill to allow for ease of excavation for the underground factory.

And Kibbutz Hill was used to hosting groups of settlers in training.

- It was a place where other kibbutzim also went for getting land for settling permanently.

So another group of youngsters will wait there until their land is ready.

- [Narrator] So the kibbutz, Mahon Ayalon, sitting on a hill near Rehovot, didn't arouse any particular suspicion from the local residents.

- I was again with Don Amir, with my friend, went with Yosef Avidar, to visit the place for the first time, because till that time, we did not know where it's going to be.

When we arrived, I was stupefied because the main railway station that came from Egypt to Palestine, probably five meters beside the main gate of the kibbutz, and the British armies in North Africa and all that, were coming to Palestine.

So the whole area between the railway station and Rehovot, and our place, really probably a couple of meters, was full with the paratroopers, at that time we called them the (indistinct), hundreds, thousands of them all in the whole area.

And I remember I asked him, "Yosef, are you out of your mind?

You want us to build something in secret?

It's full."

And he told me, "Look here, young man, if you want to do something in secret, do it under the nose of the enemy."

- [Narrator] And that is the way it would be.

On Kibbutz Hill, building begins immediately, based on plans drawn up in 1938.

Workers manage to dig a hole in 21 days, erecting a structure to cover the area.

There was a fear that people would be curious and want to know what was going on.

Why, in the middle of nowhere, were people digging such a deep hole?

What if a British patrol had stumbled on the excavations?

The group has come up with an answer for that too, as they did for everything.

The group had predetermined responses, that they were making a refrigerator for potatoes.

Later, they said it was a pool to wash animal skins for a leather factory.

They had all types of stories that people would easily buy.

A room takes shape eight meters underground.

It is 33 meters long and 8 meters wide, about the dimensions of a tennis court.

It has a three meter ceiling with a very thick concrete roof and walls that are two feet thick.

In an incredible testimony to the energy of the workers, the building is completed in only three weeks time.

The factory, the engineers have determined, would require two entrances.

One entrance is hidden in a laundry room that is constructed above one end of the factory.

The other entrance was under a huge 10 ton oven, which was mounted on tracks in the bakery built on top of the opposite end of the factory.

This larger opening was needed for the loading end of the heavy bullet-making machinery, so this entrance was rarely used.

There was a need for electricity, so they would connect to the main power line to steal its electricity.

However, they needed a way to cover this up, so it was decided to create a bakery, as bakeries use a lot of electricity.

(suspenseful music) The Haganah had sent one of its members to learn bullet manufacturing in Germany.

Then in 1938, things heat up.

Legendary arms dealer, Yehuda Arazi, is sent to Europe to acquire weapons and to purchase bullet-making machinery.

In a suburb of Warsaw, Arazi locates what he's looking for, a shuttered Polish ammunition factory containing disassembled ammunition-making machines dating from 1905.

Arazi knows a bargain when he sees one, and buys the equipment as scrap metal.

The machines are moved to a deserted warehouse nearby, where former employees of the ammunition company reassemble them.

One day, acting on an informer's tip, police officers arrive with a search warrant.

Arazi pretends outrage, "Don't you know that this is the work of a secret unit of the Polish army?"

The nervous police captain is set back.

He postpones the search until the next morning, in order to consult with his superiors, posting guards at the front entrance, but allowing Arazi's people to spend all night sneaking the equipment through the warehouse's rear exit.

When the police return to the building, the machines are on their way to the Baltic Seaport of Danzig, where they are put on a ship bound for the Port of Haifa.

(suspenseful music) Unfortunately, word of this shipment makes its way to the British Secret Service.

A telegram from London to its headquarters in Jerusalem alerts the British police that the bullet-making machines are packed in crates, en route to Palestine.

It further indicates that the Haganah engineer named Walter, is on his way to Palestine to supervise the reassembling of the machinery.

London puts out an APB and instructs that Walter be arrested immediately upon arrival.

Fortunately, or perhaps by plan, a Jewish woman who is working for British intelligence obtains a copy of the telegram, and the Haganah intelligence service has a copy 30 minutes after it was delivered to the British offices in Jerusalem.

Haganah officials radio the ship and have it change course in order to avoid a greeting by armed British forces now waiting in Haifa.

(suspenseful music) The ship is diverted to Lebanon.

The crates of bullet-making machines are offloaded and transferred to a warehouse in Beirut, where they remain safe.

The British police force is waiting in Haifa, wait three days for the ship to finally arrive without a single crate of machinery.

The saga of the machines ends when a British officer acting on behalf of the Jewish cause, makes a trip to Beirut and is able to get the machines released.

They're sent to Damascus, and finally, by truck, to Haifa, where the cargo is collected by the Haganah four years after Arazi had first put them on a ship in Poland.

With the machines now in Eretz Israel, there is still no end to the problems.

Making bullets is a complex and multi-staged project.

There is no copper and no brass, and some very old machines.

There is much work to do.

The task of developing a system for the manufacture and assembly of bullets is an extraordinary team effort with all the Haganah's underground plants contributing in one way or another.

Countless hours of brainstorming and design address the issues one at a time.

One issue, the need to get a key component of nine millimeter bullets, copper strips.

Initially, these were obtained using artillery shells stolen by Jewish soldiers serving with the British army in Egypt.

These cases were cut open, rolled to the desired thickness, and cut into strips.

Eventually, the Haganah finds a better way.

It is able to obtain an import license by claiming that the material was necessary for the production of kosher lipsticks.

This, of course, is but another scheme.

However, enough of these lipsticks are actually produced that British officers, pleased to offer these gifts to their thankful wives, are content to allow this supply line to continue.

Installation of the machines takes a month.

Finally, Avidar's plan is in place well before Israel's declaration of statehood.

And gradually, life for the factory workers of Mahon Ayalon evolves into a daily routine.

- And then started our...

I call it our double life.

Life above, of a normal kibbutz with children, with cows, with poultry, with workshops, and below, the factory.

Eight meters underground, the factory.

- [Narrator] Work on a kibbutz is a democratic process and jobs and responsibilities were organized and assigned by means of work rosters.

Ari will be in the vegetable garden, Rachel will be in the kitchen, and so on.

And so, at 7:00 AM, begins the stream of factory workers toward the laundry, from all corners of the kibbutz, attracting as little notice as possible, since most of the others on the kibbutz have no idea of the mission underground.

To further the deception, some carry hoes as if they are headed for the fields.

Work on the farm fields was a good cover for the factory workers.

And if questions were asked as to where they had been, the reply is they were working out in the citrus grove.

A rail line ran along the edge of the land occupied by the kibbutz.

Early on in the life of Mason Ayalon, a train was spotted carrying animals from Northern Africa, destined to appear in a circus in Europe.

Within the train, a boxcar was specially adapted to carry the giraffes, whose long necks could be seen popping up through square holes cut in the roof.

This amused the kibbutzniks, and shortly after work began in the factory, it gave rise to a term that identified those who were not aware of the operation going on at the bullet factory.

They were called giraffes, for much as the giraffes on the circus train, these giraffes could see all around, but could not see down below.

(Michael Ayalon speaking in a foreign language) - Remember, of the 120 or so young people working on the kibbutz, less than half, including some of the spouses, have been cleared by the Haganah to know of the secret work being done underground.

- We see also new members after a week or so, they were called by the security council and they were asked, "Have you noticed that there is something queer on this kibbutz?"

Nobody did.

Only once, when we got three girls from Poland from the Holocaust, only one of them who was a long time with the partisans, she said, "I feel something in the atmosphere, something of secrecy, but I don't know what it was."

They said, "Okay, now tell us, where do you think it is?"

They didn't find it.

- [Narrator] The workers gathered in the laundry.

A laundry room machine operator would shut the faucets, and two minutes later, the opening mechanism could be operated.

About 45 people disappear, as if the earth has swallowed them.

Repetition makes them good at this and the entrance opening is exposed for only a couple of minutes.

This parade of subterranean creatures happens four times a day, morning and night, and twice for lunch.

One has to believe they were thinking, "Will someone get careless today and blow us all up?

Is this the day the British haul us away?

Will I ever climb these stairs again?"

But they were never deterred and the work went on.

It is hot down in the factory, the noise is ear shattering with hammers pounding and lathes turning.

It is impossible to hear one another.

To keep up morale and to break up the monotony, they often sing while they work, but as they could not hear each other, they have to guess which song their neighboring worker is singing in order to join in.

(workers singing together) (Shlomo Amir speaking in a foreign language) (workers singing together) - Because they were working down here for so many hours every day, they were not getting exposed to enough sunlight.

These are kibbutz members, they should be working in the field all day long and be very, very tan, and not pale and sickly.

That raises questions.

So after consulting a doctor, they brought a special light down here.

- [Yhudit Ayalon] It was got from America.

It was the first tanning lamp in Palestine.

And we took five minutes because in the beginning when we started, so we overdid it, and then suddenly in winter, we'll walk around with a face, you know, like coming from the Alps, from ski.

- [Shlomo Hillel] In those days, the girls were very delighted to do it and the boys were very delighted that the girls were doing that.

There were so many jokes about it.

- [Narrator] The machine that turned out the shell casings made them slightly too long.

So one job in the bullet-making process had to be done by a man who came to be known as the Mohelim.

We know a Mohelim as the person who performs circumcision on Jewish male infants.

(Shlomo Amir speaking in a foreign language) - [Narrator] On one occasion, the man performing this function accidentally got his hand caught in the machinery.

He was successfully treated by medical personnel, but did lose the tip of a finger, and from that point on, was kidded for taking the role of Mohelim much too seriously.

Dr. Kott also requires that their diets be supplemented with necessary nutrients and a better diet.

This solution, once again, has a double edge.

Eating fresh meats and vegetables is good for the factory workers' health, but it creates questions and envy among fellow kibbutz members, over what is seen to be preferential treatment.

- We ate breakfast in two shifts.

One shift was of the people who worked underground and the other shift was of the others.

So somebody who worked, who came in while the first shift was in the dining room, he said, "What is this thing of, we speak about equality, why do they get milk and we don't get milk?

And I don't get milk?"

- [Narrator] The laundry works nonstop.

The noise of the washing machine and the laundry's antiquated hot water boilers do a good job of muffling the sound of the machines operating below.

Further cover is provided by a carpentry shop and a metal shop that makes springless metal bed frames.

In addition to the den, the metal shop provides an excuse for the piles of oil-soaked metallic smelling work clothes.

(melodious music) At some point, the need to keep the washer working begins to wear out the fabric of the kibbutzniks, who are washing their own garments over and over.

- And what they did was quite simple, it actually earned the kibbutz some more money.

They opened a laundry service, not in the kibbutz itself, in Rehovot, the near city, they had a store there, they kept the washing machine here.

Took clothes from the citizens, took clothes from the nearby hospital Rehovot had, brought everything here, washed the clothes, cleaned them, ironed them, folded them, and shipped them back to the store to be collected.

Making sure to give, not an average, okay, type of laundry service.

Oh no, they didn't want anyone coming here to complain about anything, so they give an excellent laundry service.

And because they gave such a great service, after a few weeks of running that store, they started getting customers they didn't expect.

The British soldiers themselves.

Once the British heard, there's such a great laundry service and so close to their facilities, some actually began sending their uniforms right here to be washed.

- [Narrator] Generally speaking, life on the kibbutz remains calmer than that.

Its existence relies on not attracting attention and avoiding risks.

Still, they maintain a high level of surveillance.

They had been told at the outset, that the best way of keeping the factory's secret was to build it right under the noses of the British.

And that has worked well so far, but they all realized that their lives depend on hiding what it is they are doing eight meters underground.

- The danger was to all of us, not only those who worked there.

Even who worked in the kitchen.

So if the British came and found us, they would be executed exactly like those who worked there.

There was no difference.

- [Narrator] At the gate, there was a security guard and he would guard for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 52 weeks a year.

And he had a button that when he pressed, would set off an alarm.

Those in the factory would turn everything off and everyone stayed quiet until the all clear.

But heading off unexpected visits would be a better solution.

That's where another little lie, a little cunning could come in handy.

- In a certain way, our life was difficult because we had to improvise and we had to tell all kinds of lies.

That's also one of the things that in the initial debate, some people said they don't want to live a life of lies.

But we were lying, you cannot imagine what.

- [Narrator] From time to time, British officers would visit.

Some had fought side-by-side with members of the Jewish brigade of the British army, and would stop by to renew their friendship.

- They would drink beer and, you know, fought Hitler together, right?

Once, he served them warm beer, so they said, "Zoho, don't you know that beer has to be cooled?"

So he said, "Yes, I know, but you never tell me when you are coming.

If you will tell me when you are coming, I'll put the beer on ice."

That means that when he knew that they were coming, we could shut everything off and shut the ventilation and we could live our secrets, so that's the thing of the beer.

- [Narrator] To discourage others, a sign at the gate warns visitors they must dip their shoes in disinfectant.

Security officers at the kibbutz are quick to spread rumors that the settlement suffers from chronic and repeated bouts of hoof and mouth disease.

The kibbutz was rumored as a place with many sick people.

Doctors there claimed to have treated those suffering from plague, dysentery, diarrhea, and hoof and mouth.

This was to keep away guests and also to prevent the curious from coming in.

And this way, there were as few visitors as possible.

- Because the people from the Haganah told them this is a top secret place, they couldn't bring visitors here.

If they brought visitor here, they have to get the permission to bring somebody.

And if they got the permission, they had to walk with him all around all the time.

They couldn't leave them alone for one second.

So they prefer not to bring parents here, and friends, and so they used to meet them outside in a cafe in the town nearby, or to go home.

(Edna Oren speaking in a foreign language) - There was a story about somebody that lived here, one of the workers from Rehovot, and her parents lived in Rehovot, and her father worked in Rehovot, and he used to come with a bicycle, and he came to the gate, and he came once and so she went out to the gate.

(father and daughter speaking in a foreign language) (Bat Sheva Koks speaking in a foreign language) - The second time, he came again.

And then the third time she told him, "Well, dad, don't come here again."

(Bat Sheva speaking in a foreign language) - And only after the independence of this country, she took him here and she told him, "Here, now you can see why."

- [Narrator] Generally, morale is high and everyone who goes down below, views the work as sacred.

There is a continual push to produce more than they did the day before.

At the height of productivity, the factory is churning out 14,000 bullets a day, and by the time it is disbanded, has sent over two and a quarter million bullets to the fighters engaged in actual combat.

While making the bullets is a big part of the job, smuggling them around the country, pass the many British checkpoints, is equally daunting.

- For years, we developed systems of moving complete equipment, both weapon and ammunition, from the various plants to the customers, to the Palmach, to the Haganah, whatever.

It was quite sophisticated and a lot of ingenuity in it.

- [Narrator] Each night, the boxes of nine millimeter bullets are loaded into secret compartments in The Dwarf, a large mobile tanker that smuggles the ammo to the fighters along the battle lines.

- Three quarters of fuel tank had real fuel, and the taps outside with pipes, when you open them, had fuel in.

And one-third of it was empty, where you could put in heavy equipment, a lot of ammunition.

And the opening system was very, very smart, so they couldn't find it.

- [Narrator] Compressed gas tanks and milk containers are configured with false bottoms, so that bullets can be hidden in concealed compartments.

- Take a bus, the roof of the bus had double layers.

You couldn't find them with mine detectors, because all was metal.

I must say that in 99% or 95% of the cases, we did succeed in moving equipment, machinery, raw material to the various places.

This was an organization that was developed over 25, 30 years.

(keyboard keys tapping) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] After nearly a quarter of a century trying to keep the peace in Palestine, the British finally say, "Enough."

May 14th, 1948, marks the end of the mandate and the British presence disappears in an orderly, if somewhat humbling departure, and leaves the Jews and the Arabs to settle their differences.

The next day, the newly established government makes its fateful announcement to the world.

- [Interpreter] Today, the British mandate over the land of Israel ends.

We declare a Jewish state in the ancient land of Israel.

It will be called the State of Israel.

(audience applauding) - The United States recognizes the provisional government as the defacto authority of the new State of Israel.

(melodious music) (crowds rejoicing) - [Narrator] And finally, there is dancing in Israeli streets.

(melodious music) But the sounds of celebration soon give way to the drumbeat of war.

As predicted, at 5:00 AM the next morning, Tel Aviv is bombed by Egyptian planes and Israel is attacked from every side.

(explosions and gunshots echoing) As the rest of the world looks on, it is with great skepticism.

- [Reporter] Prominent military strategists, including Field Marshal Montgomery, Secretary of State of George Marshall, and Secretary of Defense Forrestal, were saying that the Jews would not be able to survive the imminent assault by the Arab regular armies.

- I remember one time, talking to James Forrestal who was the Secretary of Defense, and he said, "Clark, you just don't understand this.

It's a question of arithmetic."

And I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, there are 45 million Arabs and 350,000 Jews, and the 45 million Arabs are going to push the 350,000 Jews right into the ocean."

So he said, "That's all there is to it."

- [Narrator] History tells a different tale.

With five Arab states arrayed against them and with their backs to the wall, Israeli forces accomplish what David had done to Goliath.

They somehow come up with enough gumption, and guns, and bullets, and heroes, to prevail.

- We were a population of 600,000 people.

We lost 6,000, killed, and probably three times more, wanted.

A whole young generation of people who could have been the professors, and the scientists, and the managers, and the workers, of the new Israel.

(keyboard keys tapping) - Those teenagers did an amazing thing and they made it possible for the fight to be fought.

- Yosef Vidal, in his memories, says that these two million... Two and a quarter million of bullets made possible the State of Israel.

- [Deborah Lipstadt] This is part of the bigger story and a very, very moving and powerful part of the bigger story.

It's a reminder of what a small group of people who are really committed to a cause can accomplish.

- I would say that by the second half of 1948, early 1949, the factory was entirely closed because it was not needed anymore.

- [Narrator] The young people of Ayalon are finally able to rejoin the roadmap of their lives.

They had come together as a community, grown together as a team.

They had met the challenge and made a difference, an heroic difference on battlefields they never saw, where their ammunition was employed, where their contributions remained anonymous.

Although if anyone looked at the nine millimeter rounds they were loading into their guns, they would see on each one, an E for "Eretz Israel", and an A for "Ayalon".

Most fighters never knew where their ammunition came from, and no one in Israel had ever heard of the bullet-making factory beneath Kibbutz Hill.

- Look, we were so anxious to come here to build this kibbutz, and we wanted to leave the past behind.

How heroic it was, we wanted to leave it behind.

And as I said, we were used to secrets, so even when it was not necessary to keep the secret, we were not used to talk about it.

That's the reason.

(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] And so, it is 30 years till this washer moves again and this group revives a time and a place that had long been forgotten.

(suspenseful music) Now, for the first time, there is interest in hearing the story about 45 people who had decided their story didn't merit telling.

And over the years, pieced together from those who were there at the time, this account emerged.

- They're just ordinary people doing whatever they needed to do back then.

And even nowadays, when they tell the story, they know it's important, but they don't consider themselves to be heroes or anything like that.

They did what had to be done.

- [Narrator] Many years later, upon her passing, Yhudit Ayalon's family spent time examining the thousands of pages of her diaries.

Will these pages reveal how a group of youngsters took down a foe 10 times their size?

- [Shlomit Dagan] More think about this secret, and I didn't, she didn't mention anything about what they did underground, but she did write a lot about the group and the atmosphere of doing something very important.

- Why it means something today?

Because we are still struggling in a different way, of course, we have a country, but I think everybody has to learn from their spirit, how working together to achieve something worked wonderfully here, and how we have to do it today as the Israeli citizens, the people who live here.

(soldiers speaking faintly) - [Narrator] Yes, the people who live here and those who visit.

Those who listen to the story, and learn from it.

- [Yarden Levi] Very simple, actually.

- It's a story about Jews, but it's not just a story for Jews.

These were people who were fighting for a bit of land, and I think it has a message, it has a message for the world, you can be knocked down, but you can stand up again and take control.

You can be knocked down, but you can stand up and say, "I will survive.

I would like to survive without fighting, but if I have to fight, I will fight."

(melodious music) (singer vocalizing melodiously) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program has been provided by... - [Announcer] Jewish National Fund, USA, strives to build a strong, vibrant future for the land and people of Israel through strategic initiatives and Zionist education.

(melodious music) - [Announcer] Additional support provided by these individuals and institutions.