Grandma's army

  Just before the ceasefire, the Israeli armoured column was caught by surprise when they heard a wave of enemy warplanes suddenly appearing - killing several soldiers. When another wave came along, the gunners were ready, and hit at least one of the fighters. McElroy, one of the two veteran WWII pilots who were sent to engage in an air battle with the enemy, succeeded in gunning down two of their   Spitfires. His fellow pilot, Goodlin, was caught up in a dangerous duel with another enemy plane, in which he was successful. Neither of the pilots was Jewish. Happening to glance at the Spitfire’s fuselage, Goodlin couldn’t credit what he was seeing!    It was a distinctive large blue, white and red round emblem. The emblem of the British Royal Airforce. It transpired that the   British had been sending armed scouting flights over the battle area since the day before. Two Mosquito aircraft with four Spitfire escorts had flown over the battle zone, without be...

  Only three out of the six Spitfires, which were the first batch to be flown out of Czechoslovakia, made it to Israel. By the time Israeli ground forces had captured Beersheba from the Egyptians, strengthening the Negev, only four Spitfires and two other fighters   were operational.  They were engaged in multiple operations – escorting bombers, supporting ground forces, flying air patrols and air reconnaissance.  In October 1948, a tremendously successful attack on the Negev El-Arish air base was carried out, destroying several Egyptian aircraft on the ground and in their hangars. The air base was in a shambles,   putting the airfield temporarily out of action.  Because it was a surprise attack, Israeli bombers had not been threatened by a single Egyptian warplane. The report informing Modi Alon that the Egyptians were pulling out of Ishdud, sounded too good to be true. Ishdud was where they had flown the squadron’s first combat mission, and s...

  Only twelve hours after the strike on the Egyptian brigades in the south, another threat was advancing in the north. A massive Trans-Jordanian – Iraqi armoured column was approaching Tel-Aviv. Opposing them was a single, depleted and exhausted Israeli unit. Only two Messerschmitts remained that were fit for combat. Together with Ezer Weizman, Milt Rubenfeld from the U.S. was chosen as the second pilot. Having volunteered   to fight with the R.A.F. in the Battle of   Britain, he was considered a classic fighter.   A few minutes after they took to the air, they were bombarded with thick swirls of flak. Weizman looked around for his wingman and was horrified to spot a long black smoke trail, headed by the unmistakable shape of a Messerschmitt. By a miracle Rubenfeld managed to bail out - smack into a group of farmers from a nearby kibbutz, who took the dark-skinned Rubenfeld for an Arab. Not knowing any Hebrew he yelled out the only Yiddish words he could think ...

  Schwimmer had already put down the money for five Commandos at $5,000 each and placed an order for five more. All were parked at a war-surplus boneyard in California. Schwimmer’s fleet of transport aircraft was coming together. But who was going to fly them? Lewis had been one of the few Jewish airmen at TWA to become a captain and, together with Gardner, a Jewish flight instructor, had been kicking around the idea of starting an airline to fly refugees and cargo from Europe to Palestine. By agreeing to realise their individual dreams of helping build a new airline, they would also be serving a higher purpose – saving their fellow Jews. They would spread the word through aviation circles that an outfit called Schwimmer Aviation was hiring. Within a couple of weeks, the roster of employees swelled. More airmen were joining the group already in Panama. From there they were eventually able to make their way to Rome. Nearly fifty volunteer airmen had arrived – fighter pilots, t...