All Topics  
Palyam

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Palyam
 
 
  Topics Palyam Topic Home

Palyam (an abbreviation of Plugat HaYam , lit. Sea Company) was the sea force of the Palmach
Palmach

The Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine....
.
am was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company (Pluga Yud) which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai. It belonged to the Fourth Battalion which was the Palmach's Staff Battalion., attached to the Palmach's Staff Battalion (the 4th Battalion).

The division was in charge of underwater demolition and maritime activity units.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Palyam'
Start a new discussion about 'Palyam'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Palyam (an abbreviation of Plugat HaYam , lit. Sea Company) was the sea force of the Palmach
Palmach

The Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine....
.

History

Palyam was set up in April 1945 as the Palmach's tenth company (Pluga Yud) which originated from the Palmach's Naval Platoon. The Company's first commander was Abraham Zakai. It belonged to the Fourth Battalion which was the Palmach's Staff Battalion., attached to the Palmach's Staff Battalion (the 4th Battalion).

The division was in charge of underwater demolition and maritime activity units. The majority of their activities were related to the escorting of ships of Aliyah Bet, immigration ships (66 of them in all) bringing Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish refugees from Europe by boat, despite the British White Paper of 1939
White Paper of 1939

The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for the Colonies who presided over it, was a White paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Palestine , as recommended in the Peel Commission of 19...
 limiting Jewish immigration
Aliyah

Aliyah refers to Jewish immigration to Greater Israel. The opposite action, Jewish emigration from Israel, is referred to as Yerida ....
 into Palestine
Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
.

On the eve of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known by the Israelis predominantly as War of Independence and War of Liberation , and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the Declaration of Independence State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict....
, approximately four hundred marines, eighty of them were graduates of the marine officers course which was held in the Marine School near the Technion, and seventy of them graduates of the ship commanders course at kibbutz Sdot Yam
Sdot Yam

Sdot Yam is a kibbutz in the Haifa District of Israel on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded in 1936 and moved to its present site at the southern border of the ancient city and archeological ruins of Caesarea, in 1940....
.

Headquarters of Palyam was located in kibbutz Sdot Yam, but the unit had installations in kibbutz Neve Yam
Neve Yam

Neve Yam is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located around 20 kilometres south of Haifa, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council....
, Ma'abarot
Ma'abarot

The Ma'abarot were refugee camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of new Aliyah arriving in the newly independent state of Israel....
, Giv'at HaShlosha, Shefayim
Shefayim

Shefayim is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located 17 km north of Tel Aviv along the Mediterranean Sea coast, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaSharon Regional Council....
 and Yagur
Yagur

Yagur is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located on the slopes of Mount Carmel about 9 km southeast of Haifa, it is one of the two largest kibbutzim in the country, with a population of 1,100....
.

From August 1945 to May 1948, approximately seventy Palyamniks escorted close to 70,000 immigrants in 66 sea voyages, from Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 in the north to Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
 in the south, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 in the west to Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
 in the east. They also escorted the arms ships that brought vital arms during the war.

On March 17 1948, the Naval Service (the precursor of the Israeli Sea Corps
Israeli Sea Corps

The Israeli Navy is the Israel_Defense_Forces#Arms of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea in the west and in the Gulf of Eilat, Red Sea, and Gulf of Suez in the south....
) was formed, and the Palyam were ordered to join. Many of the Palyam members formed the core personnel and command of the Naval Service, in fact, most ship commanders during the first years of the Navy, and up to 1975, most of the Navy's commander-in-chiefs, were Palyam veterans.

Palyam members who specialized in maritime sabotage formed Shayetet 13
Shayetet 13

Shayetet 13 is the Israel Defense Forces naval Special forces unit. The unit is considered one of the top-three SF units in Israel . S'13 is the unit that specializes in maritime hostage rescue and counter-terrorist missions....
, the IDF Naval Commando unit.

Notable Palyamniks

  • Yohai Ben-Nun
    Yohai Ben-Nun

    Yohai Ben-Nun was the sixth commander of the Israeli Sea Corps....
     - Commander of 'Plugot HaNamal'
  • Yehuda. L. Ben-Tzur - Palyam Commander
  • Arieh Kaplan - Palyam Commander. Arieh (Kipi) was chosen as the first commander of the immigrant camps on Cyprus
    Cyprus

    Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
    . He established a defense unit from among the immigrants, who intended to enlist in the Palmach
    Palmach

    The Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine....
    , designed to deal with internal security needs, and help Palmach
    Palmach

    The Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine....
     members to keep control over the camp.
  • Yossi Harel, commander of four expeditions between 1946 and 1948, including the boat, 'President Warfield', better known as 'Exodus 1947'
  • Dov Magen
  • Zalman Perach - Palyam Commander. Zalman commanded the Haapala ship "Enzo Sereny" that sailed from north of Savona, Italy
    Italy

    Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
    . on January 9th 1946, with 908 immigrants on board. British destroyers forced the ship to sail to Haifa port, where it arrived on January 17th. The immigrants were unloaded and taken to detention at Atlit camp.
  • Les Solomon - served with U.S. Army Rangers who landed at Normandy
    Normandy

    Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the coast of France south of the English Channel between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands....
     beaches, sailed on Altalena, and served on a Palyam ship. He worked with Bill Gates
    Bill Gates

    William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
     before Microsoft
    Microsoft

    Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
     was formed and was the technical editor of “Popular Electronics” magazine.
  • Shmuel Tankus
    Shmuel Tankus

    Aluf Shmuel "Shmulik" Tankus was the fifth commander of the Israeli Sea Corps, serving from 30 June 1954 until 1960.Tankus was born in 1914 in the Neve Shalom district of Jaffa....
     - became Head of the Navy
  • Emmanuel Weinstein (later called Lukas Vongard) - served in the Royal Canadian Navy, helped prepare the 'President Warfield' as the Haganah
    Haganah

    Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
     Ship Exodus 1947
    Exodus (ship)

    Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to Palestine, then British mandate of Palestine....
    , joined the crew of the Tradewinds (Hatikvah), served in Haganah
    Haganah

    Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
    's maritime sabotage unit and then to the "Haportzim” unit fighting for Jerusalem. In June, 1948, he was transferred to the nascent Israeli Navy.
  • Shmuel Yanai
    Shmuel Yanai

    Shmuel "Samek" Yanai is a former Israeli naval commander and today chair of the Atlit Museum of Illegal Immigration....
     - Palyam Commander
  • Yoska Yariv - Palyam Commander
  • Avraham Zakai - First Commander of Palyam


External links

  • Article written by Greer Fay Cashman, The Jerusalem Post,