Israel: 1948 War of Independence badge for armored convoy armed guard/escort "Ot Melave Shayarot" (??? ????? ??????); not maker-marked; size: c.54 x 18.5mm, weight: 3.6g. The badge relates to the early pre-State period of the War, December 1947 - April/May 1948, when the armed struggle focused on control of the transportation routes - specificially to locales under siege or threat of siege, most notably Jerusalem. These convoy journeys were akin to suicide missions, endangering their passengers but more directly their drivers and guards, and this pin is generally considered the rarest or at least one of the most rare of the Israeli military's awards. The badge is 2-piece featuring a winged armoured vehicle (the "armour" usually being a piece of wood sandwiched between 2 sheets of metal) and the emblem of the pre-State Hagana militia (here 1.4mm high) - later adopted also as the emblem of the IDF - whose affiliated special 'Palmach' forces provided the convoy guards, surmounted on top. Very little documented information exists on these badges but it has been said that they were issued to the convoy guards by David Ben-Gurion, the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Defence Minister, at a special ceremony in 1949. One indication that the pin is from the period after the establishment of the IDF is that its emblem of a sword intertwined with an olive branch has more widely spaced leaves as here, whereas the Hagana original has more closely positioned leaves on the sword and around it are more closely pressed to the sword.