Bristol Beaufighter, part five. The Beaufighter in Israel.

 

During the late 1940s the Chel Ha'Avir (Israeli Air Force - IAF) was under build-up, so four Beaufighter TF.Xs were acquired as part of a batch of six that were overhauled by Fairey Aviation at Ringway (Cheshire) and purchased by R. Dickson and partners for a war movie that never came out. Those initial Beaufighters had civilian registrations from G-AJMB to G-AJMG).
One Beaufighter crashed in the United Kingdom during the ferry flight to Israel and one other Beaufighter was, apparently, left behind back in the UK. The other four remaining machines were flown and arrived in Israel in July 1948. They were assigned to 103 Tajeset (103 Squadron) and, supposedly, they saw some action against Egyptian and Syrian forces during the first Arab-Israeli War (AKA Israel's War of Independence). 

In October 1948 a Beaufighter was damaged when strafing Egyptian aircraft parked on the ground at an airfield in El Arish (northern Sinai) and 103 Tajeset lost another Beaufighter to Egyptian anti-air fire over Iraq-Suweidan (Gaza). Although effective, the Beaufighter proved to be very difficult to maintain in flyable conditions under the climatological middle-east weather and, in spite of the efforts of the IAF's mechanics, the type was written off from IAF's inventory in November 1948, shortly after the 31st October truce.

However by January 1950 one machine was still listed as flying with 22 Wing, based at  Tel-Nof air base. 

Sources

1st Scale Aircraft Magazine  - Modellers Datafile 6 - The Bristol Beaufighter - A comprehensive guide for the modeller

2nd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 153 - Bristol Beaufighter in Action