"Wingate Night" – Operation "Nachshon"

The night of the 25th to the 26th of March was the planned disembarkation date of 248 immigrants from the "Orde Wingate" Haapala ship. In the early months of 1946, three Haapala ships were caught consecutively. Since the disembarkation shores of Nahariya, Caesarea and Shefayim were under British surveillance, the Hagana HQ decided to disembark the immigrants on the Tel-Aviv shore, hoping that the city streets and residents would help prevent the immigrants – and maybe even the ship – from being captured by the British. Enlisting the masses in the Haapala struggle was a tactic used by the Hagana in some of its operations. The operation was intended to emphasize that the struggle for Haapala and settlement was continuing despite the suspension of military attacks, due to the arrival of the Anglo-American committee in Israel. The code name for the operation was: Operation "Nachshon." According to Yigal Alon, this was the only 'Resistance Movement' operation that was not initiated by the Palmach but by the Hagana HQ.
Thousands participated in this operation, among them Palmach and Hagana members from the Field Corps of Tel-Aviv. The special HQ founded for this operation was headed by Yitzhak Sadeh. His deputies were Palmach Commander, Yigal Alon and Hagana Commander in Tel-Aviv, Nachum Ziv-Av. The Operations officer was Yigal Yadin, who served at that time as the Hagana deputy Regional Commander in Tel-Aviv. In terms of gathered forces and operational scope, this was the largest planned operation of the 'Resistance Movement.'