In the years between the end of WWII in 1945 and the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the men and women who would become the citizens of the first Jewish state in almost 2,000 years had already formed a small army equipped with an assortment of old British, American, and other assorted weapons, including a small number of tanks, trucks and armored personnel carriers. The Israelis had also formed the core of an air force that would eventually become one of the most effective forces on Earth.