Yigal Allon - Military Career

Military Career

Allon commanded a field unit of the Haganah and then a mobile patrol in northern Palestine during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. During this period he participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads (SNS), under the command of Orde Charles Wingate and H. E. N. Bredin. In 1941 he became one of the founding members of the Palmach. That same year he took part in the British invasion of Lebanon and Syria. In 1943 he became the Deputy Commander of the organization, and served in this post until 1945, when he became Commander in Chief.

As a Palmach commander, Yigal Allon approved the 18 December 1947 attack on the village of al Khisas near the Lebanese border, in which houses were blown up and a dozen civilians were killed.

On 11 June 1948, at the climax of David Ben-Gurion's confrontation with the Irgun over the distribution of weapons from the Altalena, Allon commanded the troops ordered to shell the vessel.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Allon led several of the major operations on all three fronts, including Yiftach in the Galilee, Danny in the Centre, Yoav, and Horev in the Negev. His last major military roles as commander were in October and December 1948: Operation Operation Yoav towards the Hebron Hills and Operation Horev along the Southern Egyptian Front.

As Operational Commander of the Southern Command he was responsible for security along the borders with Egypt and parts of Jordan. On 4 June 1949 he ordered that an 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide zone along the border would be military area in which "all strangers found in will be shot without interrogation".

On 25 October 1949, while he was out of the country, Allon was replaced as OC Southern Command by Moshe Dayan. Most of his Staff Officers resigned in protest. He retired from active service in 1950.