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

Boeing Stearman Model 75, part two. The Boeing-Stearman in Israel.

 

The Boeing Stearman Model 75, AKA PT-17, AKA Stearman Kaydet, is an American trainer biplane that served with many countries all around the world, among them, Israel.

At the end of the War of Independence, the Israel Air Force (IAF) received one hundred and twenty-one aircraft out of one hundred and forty-seven purchased. Of those one hundred and twenty-one, thirty-three were lost to combat or accidentes and forty-three others were grounded for various reasons. 

A total of twenty Stearman Kaydets arrived in Israel at the end of 1948, but their assembly process was very slow and it wasn't until December 1949 when the  PT-17 were ready. The Kaydets were initially painted in camofulage green/brown with underwing red bands for quick identification as a trainer aircraft. 

To replace the volunteers in the IAF, a training school was established at Kfar Sirkin on 1st January 1950. This school was equipped with North American Harvards and Boeing Stearman Kaydets for pilot training and with Airspeed Consuls and Avro Ansons for multi-engine and navigator training. 

The Stearman became the favourite trainer aircraft for pilot training, even over the more modern Fokker S-11 monoplane, which was assigned to other roles in 1953. By this time the Kaydets were painted in silver with red bands under the wings and fuselage. 

More Stearmans were acquired over the next years and by the time of Suez Crisis (1956), there were a total of sixty-three Kaydets serving with the IAF, twenty-five of them assigned to 147 Squadron, which was created expressly to flight the Boeing Stearman in the reserve liaison and surveillance unit. These Kaydets were detached from the Flying School which kept the remaining Stearmans.

The 147 Squadron was formed in January 1953 as a reserve unit to be activated in times of emergency. Operating from Ramleh, this unit was subordinated to 100 Squadron and was initially designated as 1000 Squadron, but their number was changed to 147 on 1st January 1955. 
It was activated on 27th October 1956 for the Suez Crisis under the command of Cpt. Meir Shefer, with 25 Stearmans but only 12 pilots, consisting on both reserves and qualified students, among them Rina Levinson, one of the few female pilots of the IAF.
During this short-lived conflict, the 147 flew 401 sorties, adding up to 233 flying hours. Operating from Ramleh, close to IAF's headquarters, the squadron flew in the communications, liaison, transport, patrol and reconnaissance missions both day and night. 
Once the conflict was over, on 7th November 1956, the Stearmans were sent back to the Flying School where they were employed in their original trainer role and the squadron was deactivated. 

The Stearman was IAF's primary trainer until 1960 when they were replaced by the French Fouga Magister jet trainer.

Sources:

1st Scale Aircraft Modelling - Camouflage & Markings - 03 - The Israeli Air Force (1) 1948-67

2nd Hellion & Company -  Middle East at War 28 75 Years of the Israeli Air Force Volume 1 The First Quarter Century 1948-1973 (e)

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing-Stearman_Model_75

4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/147_Squadron_(Israel)

Supermarine Spitfire. Asian Users, part four. Israel.

 

The Supermarine Spitfire served also with the Israeli Air Force (IAF). The first of which were built from RAF wrecks left-overs and parts of downed Egyptian Spitfires in June 1948. At least three more Mk.IXs were recovered and put to fly. 

This, was not enough and the IAF bought 60 Spitfire Mk.IX directly from Czechoslovakia in August 1948.
However, as both Britain and the USSR vetoed this sale, the whole operation was carried out in secrecy and plans were made to fly them to Israel via Yugoslavia, as Josif Broz Tito agreed to use the former Luftwaffe airfield of Niksic, in the Socialist Republic of Montenegro (that was the name of Montenegro back then). This whole operation was codenamed 'Velvetta' and on its first run, only 5 Spitfires were delivered.
All of them, joined the 101 Tajeset (Squadron) which also flew the Avia S-199. In October 1948 only four Spitfires and two P-51 were operational and they took part in the Operation Yoav, an offensive against Beersheba, escorting various B-17s and Beaufighters of the IAF and also attacking the El-Arish Air Base destroying various Egyptian Spitfires Fiat G.55 and Macchi C.205 fighters. They also took part in Operation Hiram, aimed to take control of Galilee region.
In November, 101 Tajeset was rebased to Hatzor Air Base to be closer to the frontline. 
After this, Operation Velvetta II was launched which delivered a total of 27 additional Spitfires in mid-December 1948 this time with some more losses due to bad weather. However, this consolidated aerial superiority of the IAF in the area. In total ,during both Velvetta I & II thirty-nine Spitfires were delivered between September and December 1948 with the remaining machines being delivered disassembled by sea in February and November 1949.
On 7th January 1949 at 4 p.m. , a cease fire was agreed. On the morning of that day the Royal Air Force (RAF) sent out four Spitfires, from their bases at the Suez Canal, on patrol over the frontlines. The Israelis mistook them for Egyptians and one was shot down by ground fire while the remaining three were intercepted by Spitfires of the 101 Tajeset. Later, that same morning, four Spitfires engaged a formation of 19 RAF aircraft composed by four Spitfires and fifteen Hawker Tempests, which were sent to search for the four downed pilots. IAF's Spitfires of the 101 Tajeset engaged the formation shooting down one Tempest and damaging other one, but they decided to disengage, making it the last intervention of the Spitfire with the IAF during the 1948-1949 Israeli Independence War.  

Later, in 1951 thirty (although, according to some sources it was thirty-five) additional Mk.IXe were bought from Italy  and delivered during that same and the following year., making it a total of 90 Spitfires serving with the IAF. During this period the Spitfire was known in the IAF as 'Yorek' (Merlin) and served with 101, 105 and 107 Tajesets for interceptor, fighter-bomber and advanced training duties. In mid-1954 thirty were sold to Burma (of which we dedicated whole post about them -here- ) and some were kept flying with the 107 Tajeset as advanced trainers until February 1956, when they were withdrawn from active service.

Sources:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Supermarine_Spitfire_operators#Israel

2nd https://www.machal.org.il/1947-49/the-israel-air-force-spitfires-over-israel/

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Velvetta

4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Squadron_(Israel)

5th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/105_Squadron_(Israel)

6th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/107_Squadron_(Israel)

7th https://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/aa-mideast/israel/af/types/spit.htm

8th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Israeli_Air_Force

Airspeed AS.65 Consul, part four, Middle-East Users

The Airspeed AS.65 Consul was a British twin-engined light airliner of the immediate post-war era. It was an airliner conversion of the previous AS.10 Oxford. With 162 machines converted, it saw use all around the world. In this post, we're taking a look at two middle-east countries that employed it:

• Israel: Back in October 1949, the Israel Air Force (IAF) founded the 141 Squadron, which served as the multi-engined flying school. This squadron was based at Tel-Nof air base, close to the city of Ekron. As its purpose was to train air crews in flying, navigation, radio operation, instrument flying and aerial gunnery, they were equipped with both Avro Ansons and Airspeed Consuls which were acquired from their former British operators, which supplied transport aircraft for the United Nations commission back in early 1949. The primary goal of the Consuls was to train pilots for manning both transports and fighter-bombers like the Douglas Dakota or De Havilland Mosquito. One year later, in 1950 the flying moved to Sirkin air base and the Consuls continued to operate from there. As they had seats for six passengers, they also took the role of VIP transports. In fact, it was the aircraft that took David Ben Gurion on a tour through Southern Israel in June 1949.
  The aircraft's poor mechanical status, the poor quality of of IAF's maintenance and the hard handling characteristics of the aircraft, caused the aircraft to be progressively taken out of service. In fact, of the initial eleven of them (some sources claim it was 14), by April 1957 only three of them remained serviceable.
  Israel's national airway, El-Al, operated one Consul as ground crew and pilot instructor. This machine was based in Lydda, and operated from July 1953 until 1957.
• Jordan: Two Jordan airlines, Air Jordan and Arab Airways Association, operated a total of eight aircraft. Air Jordan operated seven of them from Amman in small domestic flights from 1950 to 1951, and Arab Airways Association operated just one in 1951. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Consul

2. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/airspeed-a-s-65-consul

3. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/aa-mideast/israel/af/types/train1.htm

4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/9679871@N04/1392750765

5. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_oxford_&_consul.pdf