Description
The Ayalon Institute presents the story of a secret factory that manufactured ammunition, built underneath a limestone hill. On the surface it was used for training groups of young people (garinim) for Kibbutz life. It was built and operated during the years 1946-1948. Established by the "Haganah", the largest Jewish underground movement during the British Mandate. This factory would develop into what is today called IMI (Israel Military Industries) or "TAAS". This special clandestine factory was prepared secretly in less than a month, 8 meters (25 feet) underground. Its openings were covered by a 10 ton oven and a large washing machine that camouflaged the noise of manufacturing bullets. The Ayalon institute was the largest IMI factory to operate underground and produced over 2,500,000 9mm bullets mostly for Sten guns during its three years of operation