Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Established during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, by Captain Orde Wingate, the Special Night Squads (SNS) פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות were a joint British-Jewish counter-insurgency unit.
The SNS comprised British infantry soldiers and Jewish Supernumerary Police, whose primary task was the defence of the Iraqi Petroleum Company pipeline, which was frequently attacked by Arab gangs.
The Special Night Squads פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות also raided known bases, such as the villages of Dabburiya and Hirbat-Lidd.
Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld cites the training of the Special Night Squads פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות included: "... how to kill without compunction, how to interrogate prisoners by shooting every tenth man to make the rest talk; and how to deter future terrorists by pushing the heads of captured ones into pools of oil and then freeing them to tell the story".
Until its disbandment, during September 1939, the Jewish troops of the SNS served mainly on prison guard and garrison duties.

Brigadier John Fullerton Evetts, who served as Commander of the British 16th Brigade, supplied three twelve men squads including officers, to the Special Night Squads פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות.
The men were taken from the Royal Ulster Rifles, commanded by Lieutenant H.E.N. Bredin, the Royal West Kent Regiment, Lieutenant Michael "Mike" Grove, and the Manchester Regiment, commanded by Lt. Robert King-Clark.

In March, 1938, following several weeks of experimental ambushes and patrols, British General Officer Commanding (GOC), Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell gave permission to Captain Orde Charles Wingate, to establish a joint British-Jewish unit for night operations against the Arab gangs.
Establishment of the Special Night Squads (SNS) פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות was postponed to early June, because the Jewish Agency opposed the venture.

Israel Carmi fought under Orde Wingate, and portrayed his contribution to the Zionist effort in glowing terms in a memoir, In the Path of Fighters,

Yigal Allon participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads (SNS), under the command of Orde Charles Wingate and H.E.N. Bredin.

Humphrey Edgar Nicholson Bredin took part in counter-insurgency operations with Major Orde Charles Wingate’s Special Night Squads.
He won his first Military Cross for participation in the ambush on the Tulkarm-Nablus road, in April, 1938, and he won a second Military Cross a month later, in a similar action.

Lieutenant Robert King-Clark served in Palestine, where he commanded one of Orde Charles Wingate’s three Special Night Squads

Avraham Akavia served in the Special Night Squads,and wrote about his commander, in Orde Wingate: His Life and Works.