Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Shmuel 'Samek' Yanai cites: "In a letter written in February of 1948, the Minister for Defense stated: Naval defense is an essential part of the national defense and we must establish in our headquarters a naval department and organize our naval force."
"In March of 1948 an order was given to the the command headquarters and some of its directions are as follows: The High Command has decided to establish a naval force whose task will be to protect the coast of Israel…In order to establish a naval force, all units of the Palyam are to be transferred from the Palmach to the Army Headquarters. These units will be the core of the Naval Command."
"The Naval Service, as the unit was called at first, was still in a state of flux and in the beginning it was modeled after the British Royal Navy, in which the assistant Minister of Defense was called First Lord of the Admiralty. The Palyam, which now consisted of about 300 men, was now called upon to fulfill its last task in the line of duty, it was to be the Naval arm of the Israeli Army."