SAVIOURS IN THE SKY - AIRMEN II

 


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 of: “gefillte fish! gefillte fish! Shabbes! After examining his identity folder they were excited to see, written in Hebrew, that he was a pilot in the Israeli Air Force – which they didn’t know they had.

                                                                        


After returning to base, Weizman heard, not only that Rubenfeld was alive but that the little two-plane attack on the Arab columns produced the same effect as the previous evening’s raid.The actual damage to the Arab columns was minimal,  but the appearance of Israeli fighters had intimidated the Arab commanders.

After Weizman broke his wrist on a motorcycle accident the evening he returned from the raid, the Squadron was down to two pilots! It was obvious that the two missions – supporting ground troops and patrolling the skies – was not feasible. The single fighter would be used only for air defense.

Modi Alon - the second Israeli WWII British trained fighter pilot - was flying the single operational fighter in a high orbit around the capital, when he spotted four shadows flying up the coast. Two transpired as large multi-engined Dakota bombers, accompanied by two Spitfires. He was obviously totally outmatched in numbers and firepower, but decided to gamble on the element of surprise.

                                                                        


With upturned faces, thousands of astonished Tel-Avivians watched the show. Two very big Egyptian bombers pursued by a tiny fighter, bursts of gunfire and -the bombers going down in flames! Finished with the bombers, Alon looked around for the Spitfires. With nothing left to escort, the Egyptian fighters had disappeared in the south.

After all the bombings, the killing of civilians by the Egyptian warplanes, the grim news from the battlefields, an unidentified Israeli pilot had just blown two Egyptian warplanes out of the sky. The handsome Modi Alon had just become Israel’s new national hero.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GRANDMA'S ARMY AT WAR

  Six-and-a-haIf years ago I began to write a blog “Grandma’s Army”, as I had seven grandchildren serving in the army at the same time.   Little did I dream that today, that number would jump to seven + ten, Apart from two in the regular army, all the rest are in the Reserves. Both of my sons, who are over 60 years-old, are in army uniform again. They have volunteered to drive army trucks for transport purposes all over the country, after taking a special driving course. Since I began this blog, Azriel and his wife have returned to live in their home on the moshav. They had been evacuated since the beginning of the war, since their home is in the “Gaza envelope”. Azriel has four children and one son-in-law in the army since the beginning. His officer daughter, Adi was called up to the War room of the Gaza Brigade on the second day of the war: “When the first Givati ground forces of the regular army entered Gaza, I knew that my fiancé, Hillel, was amongst them serving a...
Read more

A DIABOLICAL STRATEGY

It’s a verified fact that Hamas has been planning the ongoing war with Israel for decades. Hamas knew that they could not beat Israel militarily.  They also knew that  Israel would retaliate very strongly after the massacre on October 7 th - and the kidnapping and abuse of 252 men, women, children and babies. Hamas spent almost twenty years preparing the Gaza Strip as a killing ground for Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians. The  massive network of tunnels spanned more kilometers than the London Underground and  New York metro combined!  By integrating their military operations throughout civilian infrastructure - these tunnels served as missile launchers and storehouses of lethal weapons underneath kindergartens, schools, hospitals, even mosques, etc. The IDF had no choice but to fight the terrorists from, or close to, residential and commercial areas. In all those years, Hamas deliberately prepared nothing to protect it’s own civilians. On the co...
Read more

GRANDMA'S ARMY AT WAR - I

  My oldest daughter, Simcha, has four sons in the Reserves, plus her son-in-law: Her oldest son, Nir, is a Major in the Givati commandos. He was on his way to volunteer at 11:00 a.m. on October 7 th , before his call-up papers arrived. His present service is connected to Intelligence activities and is not for   the public ear. Omer, from the Givati Battalion, also went straight to his army base on the 7 th of October, before his call-up papers arrived two days later. Givati forces are in charge of combatting terrorism in the Gaza Strip area His first assignment was as Deputy Commander of the Forward Command Squad. Because of chronic back problems, he was transferred to the Battalion’s War Room where he is part of a small team. He monitors orders between the Battalions and Brigades, deals with problems of the ground forces in his command, and records the day’s military activities. Assaf wrote: “At 6 a.m. on Tuesday, October 7 th , my wife Deni left for her work as a nur...
Read more