In the pre-State era of Israel’s existence, it has been well covered both here at Silah Report and elsewhere, that various Jewish armed groups addressed their extreme lack of materiel through clandestine methods. This short article covers one of the interesting ways the pre-State forces supplied ammunition for the wide range of small arms in service.
The ‘Haganah’ (ההגנאה, “the defense” in Hebrew) manufactured a craft-produced Sten submachine gun copy. The Jewish groups needed ammunition to feed their clandestinely produced small arms. This led to the establishment of production facilities in various states of sophistication. The most famous of these was the underground ammunition factory is known as the Ayalon Institute. You can read more in-depth about this factory here on Silah Report in an excellent article by Miles. The Ayalon Institute produced 9×19mm ammunition, with the distinctive headstamp marking seen in the picture below in an image from the Ayalon Institute museum.
Fig.1.0. Image of a 1948 headstamp from the Ayalon Institute (Source: SilahReport.com)
The ‘AE’ stands for Ayalon Eretz (איילון ערצ), an allusion to “The Land of Israel,” while the 8 is for the year of production, 1948. The following pictures of two examples of Ayalon-produced 9×19mm ammunition, and another of unknown origin, yet they are oddly smashed around their rim.
Fig.1.1. A clearly marked A E 8 9×19mm round (Source: ARES CONMAT)
Fig.1.2. A less clearly marked 9×19mm round with the E still visible (Source: ARES CONMAT)
Fig.1.3. Another round marked A E with the date stamp unintelligible (Source: ARES CONMAT)
The individual who shared these photographs of alleges that this 9×19 ammo was crushed around the edge for use in a .38 special revolver in lieu of half-moon clips, or סהרונים (sehronim). The poster also says they were told a story about .45 ACP ammo being crimped down in the same fashion to facilitate loading into a Webley .455 revolver. This is a very crude attempt to get the wrong ammo working in a gun, and it is unclear if this method would even be safe or accurate in the slightest. Unfortunately, there is little more information about this available at present, but if you want to know more about Israel’s early fascination with 9mm revolvers, click here for my article on that topic.
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