Nahum Shadmi (1898-1985) was a Haganah officer and later general in the Israel Defense Force.
He describes joining Jewish defence groups in Haifa after arriving in Palestine in 1921. There were differences between Jewish settlers over self-defence. Ze'ev Jabotinsky's received a prison term for possessing weapons during the 1920 riots, bu this did not discourage activists.
The Jews were surprised by the 1929 riots and lacked arms. Avraham Ikar's organisation was set up in Jerusalem and Haganah organization in Haifa was very good, who defeated Arabs at Hadar Hacarmel. Arab attack on Mishmar Ha'amek failed, where helped by British police and defeat at Chulda, where they lacked arms.
Hebron massacre resulted from a lack of military organisation and fact that Jews had previously had good relations with the Arabs, and were unsuspecting. During the 1930s, there was a greater emphasis on organising defence of Jewish settlements. Small mobile units would move between settlements and this was beginning of Haganah as a real military unit. Wingate found that trained soldiers existed when he began the SNS.
Shadmi says he was initially cautious about Wingate, but was impressed by his tactical understanding. Shadmi participated in the Hanita operations, where he learnt a great deal from Wingate's methods; he also praises Wingate's lectures on guerilla warfare "...I realized that Wingate was not only one of our men but ranked high above all of us." Wingate was a strict disciplinarian, but also a "a great idealist, who understood our spirit."
The Tiberias massacre (1938) took place when he was part of the SNS group as Mizpah, which was out of the town at the time, they ambushed some of the Arab gang as they left the town. Also discusses his time as an army officer in Russia. Some British officials were sympathetic to them and one "Andrews" proposed a Jewish defence organization under British supervision, but Haganah would not accept this.