8th Armored Brigade (Israel)

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A Marmon-Harrgington armoured car, captured from the Jordanian legion and operated by the 8th brigade's 89th regiment during Operation Danny

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.

'Since no one in the brigade spoke both Russian and English, someone translated from Russian into Yiddish and then the Yiddish was translated into English. Despite this Tower of Babel of tongues, the Brigade took part in Operation Danny (July 1948) on the central front, and in the decisive battles on the southern front (Operations Yoav, Horev, Ten Plagues, and Ayin). The 88th Mortar Battalion had some 30 volunteers from Switzerland, Holland, Britain, the U.S., South Africa, China, Brazil, France and the Belgian Congo, as well as a number of Machal mortar crews from North African countries.'