SAVIOURS IN THE SKY - AIRMEN I

 

The war came to Israel at 05:25 in the morning after the State of Israel was declared.

Arab spitfires almost destroyed Israel’s little fleet of utility airplanes at the Tel-Aviv airport. Israeli gunners managed to hit one plane and capture the Egyptian pilot who had bailed out. They learned from the talkative young pilot, that the Egyptian air-force had an entire squadron of Spitfires, as well as Dakota bombers, at El Arish air base beneath the Sinai border.

Less than a hundred miles from Tel-Aviv.

During a reconnaissance flight, the Israelis knew that, massed along the borders, were thousands of Arab troops, armoured vehicles, and troop carriers. Many of the Arab units were already inside the proposed new border, even though the British occupying force hadn’t pulled out yet.

[On the 28^th May, 1948, the Haganah and the other splinter fighting groups were unified by Ben-Gurion into the Israeli Defense Forces. At the same time, the Haganah’s air service - consisting of one secret little five-plane five-pilot unit that had not yet flown a single mission – became officially, the Israeli Air Force.]

The two-week-old war was going very badly. In the north, armoured columns of the Syrian Army were driving southward from the Golan Heights, overrunning settlements in the Jordan valley. Iraq brigades were invading from the West Bank approaching the Mediterranean coast. Jerusalem was under siege by two brigades of the Arab Legion. Even worse, the Egyptian army had launched a two-way invasion. One brigade was heading to the Judean Hills to link up with the Arab Legion forces. The second, fast moving Egyptian armoured brigade, was driving up the coast aiming for Tel-Aviv.

If the Israeli tiny air force didn’t stop the Egyptian brigade, they could be in Tel-Aviv in the morning. None of the pilots had flown the Messerschmitt in combat. They had not been test flown; the guns had never been fired; none of the bomb racks had been tried; the radios didn’t work.

With no other alternative, four Messerschmitts attacked the Egyptian brigade. Each pilot was on his own, diving and firing without any coordination with the others.

After witnessing the shot and burning plane of one of their comrades, Eddie Cohen, the three demoralized remaining pilots were sure the raid had been a complete fiasco. To their utter surprise, Israeli monitors had intercepted a radio message to Cairo from the Egyptian commander: “We have come under attack by enemy aircraft, we are dispersing”. He had been stunned and disoriented by the appearance of fighters with the Star of David emblazoned on their sides. Egyptian intelligence had had no idea that Israel possessed any warplanes.

For the next several days and nights, the vastly outnumbered Israeli ground forces  carried out commando raids on the camped Egyptians. For the moment, Israel was saved.