SAVIOURS IN THE SKY - AIRMEN

 

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, transport crews, etc. – scattered in small hotels around the city. They had no idea where they were going or what they’d be flying.

Israel’s War of Independence was about to begin and the Haganah’s Rome operation was under heavy scrutiny from the FBI. By now, the pilots in Rome knew that the rumours about the Haganah buying Messerschmitts in Czechoslovakia were true. They didn’t know that some of their fellow volunteers were already there.

Amongst the seven sabra (Israeli born) volunteers, only Ezer Weizman (a future President), and Modi Alon, had military flying experience. When they heard that Tel-Aviv had been bombed the day after the war broke out, they were furious. The war had begun – without them!  Each of the volunteers had flown the Messerschmitts – ex-Nazi fighters! - no more than a few hours. Enough to realise that the Czech versions were a disaster, safety-wise. The fact that they also had no training in air-to-air combat, or any other offensive tactics, did not deter them.

The next day they phoned Israel’s new ambassador to Czechoslovakia, who didn’t try to dissuade them from leaving. However, he informed them that the only possibility to get the short-ranged planes to Israel was by air. They used the fly-for-hire Constellation crew that had smuggled the first load of Czech guns to Israel, together with Schwimmer’s Commandos-  from Italy to Czechoslovakia to Israel. Each plane could haul half of a disassembled Messerschmitts fighter. Crammed in with the Messerschmitt fuselage were the fighter’s wings, propeller, crates of munitions, several Czech mechanics – and fighter pilots.

These volunteer fighter pilots were on their way to war, ready or not.