Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Altalena אלטלנה was former United States Navy tank landing vessel, USS LST-138.
Built: 1933

USS LST-138 Altalena אלטלנה was acquired by ITzL אצ''ל through the National Hebrew Freedom Committee 'הועד העברי לשחרור האומה
She was transferred to the Brooklyn dockyards for overhaul.

USS LST-138 Altalena אלטלנה sailed from Brooklyn to Marseille.

Dan Nimrod helped to equip Altalena אלטלנה with war materiel, and was responsible for recruiting and training of many of Altalena אלטלנה's 940 volunteers.

In May, 1948, USS LST-138 Altalena אלטלנה sailed from Marseille to Port de Bouc.
Amuta Yam.org.il cites USS LST-138 Altalena אלטלנה sailed from Marseille to Port de Bouc. on May 24, 1948, to pick up Maapilim.

On May 26, 1948, USS LST-138 Altalena אלטלנה sailed from Port de Bouc, carrying 862 passengers.
Jerold S. Auerbach cites: "Altalena was a ship bringing nine hundred young fighters (most of them survivors of Nazi camps) and a large arsenal of weapons (most of them supplied by France) to newly-established Israel."

On June 11, 1948, ten days after an agreement had been signed for the absorption of ITzL אצ"ל into TZaHaL IDF, and stating that ITzL אצ"ל would cease all independent arms acquisition activities, Altalena אלטלנה, originally intended to reach Israel on May 15, 1948, sailed from Port de Bouc for Israel carrying weapons and 940 fighters.
Palmach Information Center cites: Altalena אלטלנה, commanded by Eliyahu Lankin, sailed from Marseille.
United States Holocaus Memorial Museum cites: Altalena אלטלנה "set sail from Marseilles with a cargo of guns, ammunition and heavy arms bound for the fledgling State of Israel. The ship also carried 800 men and 130 women and children, Jewish displaced persons intending to immigrate to the new Jewish state. Most of the immigrants planned to join Irgun units upon their arrival and underwent military training both before and during the voyage."
No cable was sent to ITzL אצ"ל command, for fear that it would fall into the wrong hands.
Menahem Begin had decided to postpone the arrival of Altalena, and ITzL אצ"ל staff secretary, Tzipora Levi-Kessel, sent a wireless message to Altalena advising her to stay put and await orders.
A second cable had been sent to Shmuel Katz, member of the General Headquarters, in Paris, but contact with the ship was poor, and the message was not understood.

Lieutenant Monroe Fein served as Captain aboard Altalena אלטלנה.

On Sunday afternoon, June 20, 1948, Altalena אלטלנה reached Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין.
Amuta Yam.org.il cites: Altalena אלטלנה reached Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין in late evening, June 20.
After the passengers had disembarked, members of Michmoret מכמורת‎‎ helped unload the cargo of military equipment.
Fighting ensued between the Haganah הגנה and ITzL אצ"ל, resulting in a number of casualties.
In order to prevent morer bloodshed, members of Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין initiated negotiations between Yaakov Meridor, Menachem Begin's deputy, and Dan Even, which ended in a general ceasefire, and the transfer of the weapons on shore to the TzaHaL DF.
Menachem Begin boarded Altalena אלטלנה, and headed to the Tel Aviv תל אביב beach escorted by two Israeli Corvairs.
Before making Tel Aviv תל אביב, one Corvair transmitted instructions for Altalena to follow her out to sea, but Menachem Begin, consulted with other ITzL אצ"ל leaders and Captain Fein, chose to ignore the order, and continued towards the Frishman Street Beach landing spot.
Captain Fein was unfamiliar with the submerged coast, and accidently ran Altalena אלטלנה aground.
Mark Hasten cites unloading the weapons on Altalena אלטלנה at Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין would have taken a week, therefore Menachem "Begin foolishly hoped that in Tel Aviv it would be possible to enter into a dialogue with the Ben-Gurion-led provisional government and to unload the remaining weapons there peacefully using manpower from the IDF. But this was not to be the case."
David Ben-Gurion ordered acting Chief of Staff, Yigael Yadin, to send forces to the Tel Aviv תל אביב beach, and to take Altalena אלטלנה by force.
Altalena אלטלנה ran aground on a sandbar, and was unable to continue towards shore, or go out to sea.
The evacuees from Altalena אלטלנה were forced to make their way to shore aboard rowboats and dinghies, exposed to gunfire from the Haganah הגנה battalions on the beach.
Mark Hasten cites the former Haganah הגנה troops taking positions along the shore and, under the direction of Yitzhak Rabin, firing automatic weapons at the unarmed survivors struggling in the water.
Menachem Begin was seen emerging from the rowboat, safely on shore, at which time, the order was given to stop firing.
The uninjured survivors from the ship were not detained once they came ashore, but they were taken off to ITzL אצ"ל headquarters.

Yosef Nachmias, a company commander on board Altalena אלטלנה, cites: Menachem Begin, on the shore, said:
“Don’t fire back!” There will be no war between brothers! The first and second House of David was destroyed by brother hate ... There won’t be a destruction of the third House of Israel!”
Menachem Begin went out to Altalena אלטלנה, and from the command position of the bridge, and using loudspeaker saying - "Don’t fire back!” “Let them kill us all!” “We will never lift a hand on a Jew!”
He then sent Yoske Nachmias to negotiate, saying:
“Yoske - go ashore and with negotiation try to stop the fighting! You are going down without any arms ... You are going only with the ‘wireless’.”
Machal.org.il cites: "After the Altalena had run aground on the beach at Tel Aviv, the IAF was put on standby to attack the ship if necessary. Machal aircrews informed Aluf Aharon Remez, Chief of Air Force, that they would refuse to carry out such an order as they had not volunteered from abroad to fight against fellow-Jews, and that the Chief of Air Force had two options – either to court martial those who refused his order, or to discharge them from the service, and happily the standby order was promptly rescinded."
Yosef Nachmias cites: the refusal of his own brother, a Palmach fighter, to shoot at the ship because he knew that his sibling was on board, meant for him, that killing brothers was not merely a metaphor.
Jerold S. Auerbach cites: "Begin commanded his loyal fighters not to return fire. His insistence upon restraint demonstrated his unyielding determination to prevent civil war from once again dividing the Jewish people and shattering Jewish sovereignty, as it had done nineteen centuries earlier.”

The Battle of Altalena אלטלנה resulted in the loss of 19 lives, among them, Abraham Stavsky, who was struck by bullets while in the water, but did not die of his wounds, he died of a heart attack.
16 ITzL אצ"ל fighters were killed in the confrontation, and 3 IDF soldiers:
* 6 ITzL אצ"ל fighters were killed in the Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין area
* 10 ITzL אצ"ל fighters were killed on Tel Aviv תל-אביב beach.
* 2 IDF soldiers were killed:at Kfar Vitkin כפר ויתקין
* 1 IDF soldier was killed in Tel Aviv תל-אביב
Machal.org.il cites: three Machalniks who were killed by Haganah הגנה fire on the stricken Altalena אלטלנה.
After the shelling of Altalena אלטלנה, more than 200 members of ITzL אצ"ל were arrested on David Ben-Gurion's orders.
Most of them were released several weeks later, with the exception of five senior commanders, Moshe Hason, Eliyahu Lankin ,Yaakov Meridor, Bezalel Amitzur and Hillel Kook, who detained for more than two months, were released on August 27, 1948.
Jerold S. Auerbach cites: "Yitzhak Ben Ami was one of the so-called “Bergson Boys” who had come to the United States on the eve of World War II to raise funds for the rescue of European Jews and shatter the silence about the Nazi program of annihilation. Auerbach writes that while the Altalena was still offshore, Ben Ami, who had managed to disembark, was on the beach with other Irgun men when Israeli soldiers suddenly raked the area with bullets and mortar shells. As he and a friend took refuge in a sandy foxhole, Ben Ami asked him if he had read Josephus. “Do you remember the description of the final days in the defense of Jerusalem…[when] the Judeans continued to massacre each other…Doesn’t this look like the Third destruction of the Temple?"

The burned out hull and charred superstructure of Altalena אלטלנה remained on the sandbar in Tel Aviv תל אביב harbor for several years, as a reminder of the nternecine conflict.
David Ben-Gurion finally ordered Altalena אלטלנה’s carcass, by then an eyesore, towed out to sea and sunk.