Yitzhak Sadeh

Yitzhak Sadeh was born Yitzhak Landoberg in Lublin in 1890. He served in the Russian army in the First World War and came to the Land of Israel in 1920, joining the Labor Battalion (Gdud HaAvoda). During the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 he broke with the Haganah's static defense of settlements: first with the mobile "Nodedet" patrol, then with the Field Companies (FOSH), he took the fight out to the attackers by night.

In May 1941, with the British fearing a German invasion, he founded the Palmach, the Haganah's elite strike force, and commanded it until 1945. Its fighters, among them Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan, became the core of the future army's command. In the War of Independence he led the 8th Brigade, Israel's first armored brigade. Known simply as "HaZaken" (the Old Man), he died in 1952.