יומנים > יומן - מלא 31/08/1948

Tuesday, August 31, 1948

In the morning I went to visit our young navy: 2 motorboats and four battleships. The manpower makes a good impression, but the equipment is lacking. There isn't a single naval cannon. The few land cannons are not all suitable, there's no anti-aircraft defense, no artillery officers, aside from one. In a discussion with the naval officers 3 problems arose:

       1) The "Mossad" [for clandestine immigration] has workers who are subject to conscription, receive P£ 31 per month, in addition to upkeep, travel to Europe. All this creates demoralization and leads to desertion. All the workers should be inducted and the "Mossad" should be turned into a branch of the Navy. I promise to discuss this with the "Mossad."

       2) Cannons. Each warship has 2 75 mm or 65 [mm] cannons; in total 3 75 mm cannons and 12 anti-aircraft [cannons] of 20 mm. Each ship has an expert artillery officer.

       3) Naval ranking. They propose the following ranks: malah [crewman], malah rishon [crewman first class], rav malah [chief crewman], samal [petty officer], rav samal [chief petty officer], sgan hovel [ensign], hovel [lieutenant], hovel rishon [lieutenant first class], rav hovel [lieutenant commander], kabarnit [captain], rav kabarnit [chief captain] - equivalent to a major-general in the army.

       Paul Shulman [Navy Chief of Staff] returned. He secured a number of experts - instructors and naval officers. They'll arrive over the course of two weeks.

       I got home at dusk.

       - In the evening N. [Nahum] Bernstein from New York came to see me; he served as an intelligence officer in America. He came to advise our intelligence. He's partnered with Feinberg in Friends of the Haganah. He'll be here about eight days.

       He proposes appointing a chief administrator for all the intelligence branches - on the condition that the administrator himself not belong to any branch. He would manage and coordinate all the branches.