Haim Shahal

Haim Shahal was born in 1922 in Tel Aviv

Shahal was born Haim Liebel in Tel Aviv in 1922. His father Shlomo had come to the Land of Israel in 1920 and later worked as a storekeeper for the British army. Most of his family in Poland was killed in the Holocaust.

He studied at the Geula school and the Max Fein vocational school in Tel Aviv, finishing in 1940. He then worked in electrical repair shops, including at the Reading power station. He earned an electrical engineering degree from the Technion in 1954.

He joined the Palmach in 1941 and rose to company commander. During the War of Independence he joined a naval unit in Jaffa and was badly hurt when an underwater craft exploded. He later served as an engineering officer in Shayetet 13 and the Navy.

In the 1960s he helped choose and supervise the building of Sa'ar boats in Cherbourg. In 1970 he left the IDF and became chief engineer of Israel Shipyards, where he continued the missile boat project. He died on 21 January 2022.