8th Armored Brigade

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The 8th Armored Brigade (aka. Shmone Brigade and 8th Brigade in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war) was an Israeli mechanized brigade headquartered near Jerusalem. It was the Israel Defense Forces' first brigade which possessed tanks, jeeps and armoured personnel carriers (APCs), whereas all other IDF units at the time were entirely infantry-based.

The brigade was called armored for moral reasons, although in reality it only had a single tank company (later in the war, two companies), and a single APC company (these companies became the brigade's armoured battalion), and an assault battalion composed of jeeps.

Following the 1948 war, the brigade served as the backbone of the IDF's armoured forces.