This article will examine what is known about a prototype revolver developed by pre-state defense organizations and the industrial group Ta’as in collaboration. This project started in the 1940s as an effort to design and produce a sidearm using the ubiquitous 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. The proliferation of Sten guns throughout the region meant a sidearm of the same caliber would simplify logistics significantly for the Jewish underground. 9mm Parabellum was also readily produced in pre-state Israel (prior to 1948 in a covert operation that included the Ayalon Institute) so it was a logical choice in caliber.
1948
Operation Balak: The IDF’s Star of David on Nazi Rifles
“All is fair in love and war” is an idiom in English that refers to the practice of otherwise questionable actions being considered acceptable under exceptional circumstances. When talking about weaponry in general, one example to illustrate the aforementioned saying would be the direct use of an enemy’s arms of war to forward one’s own agenda. Anti-Communist Afghan Mujahideen fighting their Soviet enemies with Soviet-made weaponry, Islamic State attacking regional adversaries with US M4’s and M16’s or the post-war US government employing former German and Japanese scientists and technologies for their fight against the Red Menace are all examples of this common practice. The Israeli Defense Forces‘ hexagram emblem on Nazi Mauser-manufactured Kar98k carbines is another interesting manifestation of this idiom.