1 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:03,580 I visualized two little beaten up airplanes on an abandoned runway in 2 00:01:03,580 --> 00:01:05,760 Brindisi, Italy. 3 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,880 We had to travel a thousand miles to Israel. 4 00:01:12,180 --> 00:01:17,160 We were reading every day about the convoys in Israel being trapped in the 5 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:18,160 hills. 6 00:01:21,380 --> 00:01:25,800 In one case, it was a convoy of 40 doctors that were killed. 7 00:01:35,500 --> 00:01:38,420 It was desperation time in Palestine. 8 00:01:39,020 --> 00:01:43,860 There was food to be dropped, ammunition to be dropped, and they only had a few 9 00:01:43,860 --> 00:01:48,240 Piper Cubs. So these airplanes were critical to get over there. 10 00:01:50,460 --> 00:01:56,860 We took out the seats in the back and put in a big rubber tank full of fuel 11 00:01:56,860 --> 00:01:58,540 a pipe going to the wing tank. 12 00:02:00,100 --> 00:02:02,040 We were flying mile -top cocktail. 13 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,580 We didn't have life raft, no operational radio. 14 00:02:08,460 --> 00:02:09,500 We were in a hurry. 15 00:02:11,860 --> 00:02:15,600 I saw some beautiful wildflowers right by the runaway. 16 00:02:17,140 --> 00:02:20,420 I saw Lou jump out of his airplane and pick flowers. 17 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,120 I wanted to kill him, but I was able to control myself. 18 00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:35,980 Just off the edge of the airstrip was a cliff. 19 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,160 And the airplane just sunk like this. 20 00:02:56,660 --> 00:02:58,340 Eleven and a half. 21 00:02:58,730 --> 00:03:04,090 Hours of watching that single propeller go round and round and round. 22 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:12,090 Never saw land, never saw a ship, never saw an airplane, nothing but just water. 23 00:03:15,090 --> 00:03:17,130 It was the dumbest thing we ever did. 24 00:03:17,710 --> 00:03:21,830 Flying 11 hours over water with a single -engine aircraft. 25 00:03:22,650 --> 00:03:25,890 The only person I know that ever did that was Lindbergh. 26 00:03:36,750 --> 00:03:40,730 Finally, we made a landfall at Matanya, turned south. 27 00:03:44,310 --> 00:03:46,250 We circled the Tel Aviv airport. 28 00:03:46,470 --> 00:03:48,030 It was nothing but a dirt strip. 29 00:03:49,770 --> 00:03:53,350 It had no lighting except what they call goosenecks. 30 00:03:58,070 --> 00:04:01,630 And after about 45 minutes, we were able to come in the land. 31 00:04:08,140 --> 00:04:12,420 These two little airplanes were the biggest thing that they had in Israel. 32 00:04:14,580 --> 00:04:18,540 The very next morning, they were already dropping supplies to the kibbutzim. 33 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,960 I handed the flowers to the first woman I saw. 34 00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:31,220 Well, it flew. 35 00:04:33,260 --> 00:04:36,500 I learned afterwards that we were the first ones to arrive. 36 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:39,500 This is the beginning of the Israeli Air Force. 37 00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:58,400 It's a day they've been waiting for. It's a day of days for these sailors and 38 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:02,260 for the best reason in the world. They're the first group to be released 39 00:05:02,260 --> 00:05:05,060 Navy. Thanks, mates, for a job well done. 40 00:05:08,750 --> 00:05:15,090 After I returned from three years of war, I was in Minot, North Dakota, 41 00:05:15,090 --> 00:05:21,270 in a used car and truck business, money, girlfriends, cars, the whole 42 00:05:21,270 --> 00:05:22,270 enchilada. 43 00:05:24,830 --> 00:05:27,630 I really wasn't very concerned about Palestine. 44 00:05:27,930 --> 00:05:29,670 I never went to Hebrew school. 45 00:05:29,890 --> 00:05:33,650 My mother had to drag me kicking and screaming to get me bar mitzvahed. 46 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:40,920 very virulent anti -Semitism. 47 00:05:41,620 --> 00:05:43,460 People like Father Copeland. 48 00:05:43,820 --> 00:05:50,760 We believe in Christ's principle of love your neighbor as yourself. And with 49 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:57,660 that principle, I challenge every Jew in this nation to tell me that he does not 50 00:05:57,660 --> 00:05:58,660 believe in it. 51 00:06:01,580 --> 00:06:06,280 It was tough. When I was walking home from school, we used to get it up, down, 52 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:07,360 and sideways. 53 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:12,880 Christ Killer, Sheeny, and Dirty Jew, and the whole bit. 54 00:06:14,420 --> 00:06:18,680 We tried to ignore it, but you just couldn't. It was part of your psyche. 55 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:27,300 They'd surround me, and the guy would hit me from the back, and I'd turn 56 00:06:27,420 --> 00:06:28,420 and then he'd hit me. 57 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:35,320 I realized by the time I was about 13 years old that in order for me to 58 00:06:35,460 --> 00:06:36,640 I got to get very strong. 59 00:06:37,290 --> 00:06:41,490 So I wrote a way to a guy called Charles Atlas, a dollar bill. 60 00:06:45,130 --> 00:06:49,150 By the time I was 15 years old, nobody was beating me up. 61 00:06:58,430 --> 00:07:00,830 I graduated high school April. 62 00:07:02,010 --> 00:07:04,410 End of April, I went to the recruiting office. 63 00:07:04,710 --> 00:07:06,490 And there were guys lined up. 64 00:07:06,780 --> 00:07:08,360 And there was a guy sitting at a desk. 65 00:07:08,780 --> 00:07:10,140 I filled out the form. 66 00:07:10,620 --> 00:07:13,520 Of course, it said their religion, Jewish. 67 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:19,060 He looked up at me and he said, Marine Corps is a tough outfit. Do you think 68 00:07:19,060 --> 00:07:20,060 could make it? 69 00:07:21,100 --> 00:07:25,040 I looked down at him and I says, if you made it, I can make it. 70 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,600 I grew up in Newark, New Jersey. 71 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:38,120 I used to come back from a battle with black eyes, and I'd walk into the house, 72 00:07:38,140 --> 00:07:41,500 and my father said, what did you do to the other guy? 73 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:43,840 My old man was a tiger. 74 00:07:45,540 --> 00:07:46,960 We didn't have cars. 75 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:52,320 I had friends who had bicycles, and we'd go across highways and everything in 76 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:53,320 our bikes. 77 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:57,900 I lived near Newark Airport. 78 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:00,900 We would watch airplanes land. 79 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:06,060 watched the pilots and admired them. So I was always interested in aviation. 80 00:08:11,220 --> 00:08:14,820 When we were kids, I used to go to Coney Island with my friends. 81 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:19,420 I would go on the Cyclone or the Thunderbolt when I could afford it. It 82 00:08:19,420 --> 00:08:21,320 probably 10 or 15 cents a ride. 83 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:27,320 That rush of being frightened and loving it at the same time. 84 00:08:28,010 --> 00:08:32,549 That was my introduction to taking risks and wanting to be a pilot. 85 00:08:35,669 --> 00:08:40,630 We kept the culture home out of respect for my grandparents, but I didn't like 86 00:08:40,630 --> 00:08:41,630 being a Jew. 87 00:08:42,770 --> 00:08:45,970 I don't think you can get a job in the fire department or the police department 88 00:08:45,970 --> 00:08:47,190 in New York if you're Jewish. 89 00:08:48,930 --> 00:08:53,250 I didn't deny my Judaism, but I wasn't happy about being Jewish. 90 00:08:57,610 --> 00:09:02,170 What changed me simply was knowing what Hitler did to the Jews. 91 00:09:05,330 --> 00:09:07,990 To be murdered, six million. 92 00:09:12,410 --> 00:09:17,810 I didn't understand Zionism, but I knew what had happened in Europe in the 93 00:09:17,810 --> 00:09:18,870 concentration camps. 94 00:09:21,530 --> 00:09:25,370 And the refugees who were trying to find some place to live. 95 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:36,200 and also the British intercepting them on the high seas and putting them behind 96 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:37,560 barbed wire in Germany. 97 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:43,020 I thought there should be something done about this. 98 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,900 Europe's displaced persons are on the last lap of a journey toward freedom. 99 00:09:50,140 --> 00:09:54,460 Their eyes turn toward the horizon, seeking the shoreline of the promised 100 00:09:57,310 --> 00:10:00,150 Off in the distance, the British destroyer fires away. 101 00:10:01,470 --> 00:10:03,070 Too near and yet so far. 102 00:10:05,330 --> 00:10:06,770 Palestine is still a promise. 103 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:28,460 At the end of the war, there was massive pressure on the British who control 104 00:10:28,460 --> 00:10:32,160 Palestine to allow Jews to immigrate in large numbers to Palestine. 105 00:10:36,180 --> 00:10:38,760 Which is something the British government refused to do. 106 00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:48,740 Because they know they're going to have a future in the region, they have to 107 00:10:48,740 --> 00:10:51,080 have the goodwill of the entire Arab world. 108 00:10:54,030 --> 00:10:57,510 And they will not have that if they allow massive immigration of Jews to 109 00:10:57,510 --> 00:10:58,510 Palestine. 110 00:10:59,850 --> 00:11:04,430 The British realized that they could not achieve a compromise between the 111 00:11:04,430 --> 00:11:07,230 warring clans in Palestine, the Jews and Arabs. 112 00:11:13,870 --> 00:11:16,570 And they understood they couldn't remain here indefinitely. 113 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:22,780 So the British in February 1947 said, we'll hand Palestine and the whole 114 00:11:22,780 --> 00:11:24,640 back to the world community. 115 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:31,480 And the United Nations came up with a partition proposal, and the idea being 116 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:36,120 partition the country into two halves, two states, one for the Jews of 117 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:37,960 and one for the Arabs of Palestine. 118 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:45,780 The Jews accepted the partition resolution of 29 November 1947. 119 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,140 The Arabs rejected. They want all of Palestine for themselves. 120 00:11:53,100 --> 00:11:59,200 United Kingdom of Spain, United States, yes. 121 00:12:00,220 --> 00:12:02,200 Uruguay, yes. 122 00:12:03,660 --> 00:12:07,580 While the vote is being tallied, people are counting in their head. 123 00:12:08,820 --> 00:12:13,260 And when they realize the two -thirds majority has been reached, there is such 124 00:12:13,260 --> 00:12:14,460 cry of joy. 125 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,120 Their dreams of data have finally been granted. 126 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:25,300 The resolution was adopted by 33 votes, 13 against, 10 127 00:12:25,300 --> 00:12:26,300 abstentions. 128 00:12:33,140 --> 00:12:35,460 The people here were overwhelmed. 129 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,940 Everybody was dancing and singing in the street. 130 00:12:44,750 --> 00:12:46,470 There was just one said man. 131 00:12:48,870 --> 00:12:51,190 His name was David Ben -Gurion. 132 00:12:52,950 --> 00:12:56,210 I stand on his side when he looked at the dancing people. 133 00:12:57,530 --> 00:13:01,630 And he says, well, today they dance. 134 00:13:02,770 --> 00:13:05,610 Tomorrow their blood will be spilled. 135 00:13:07,430 --> 00:13:08,550 And so it happened. 136 00:13:19,310 --> 00:13:21,170 There was violence. 137 00:13:23,030 --> 00:13:28,450 From the time of the partition through the spring of 1948, a kind of civil war 138 00:13:28,450 --> 00:13:30,910 between Jews and Palestinian Arabs. 139 00:13:37,590 --> 00:13:40,050 This is when Jerusalem was besieged. 140 00:13:41,590 --> 00:13:44,370 It's when the state of Israel looks like it might never emerge. 141 00:13:52,170 --> 00:13:57,310 Large numbers of Palestinians turned into refugees or were displaced from 142 00:13:57,310 --> 00:13:59,070 homes as a result of the fighting. 143 00:14:02,210 --> 00:14:04,610 In a few cases, there were expulsions. 144 00:14:05,950 --> 00:14:09,110 And in others, their leaders told them to leave. 145 00:14:10,030 --> 00:14:12,930 But basically they fled in face of the flail of war. 146 00:14:15,370 --> 00:14:18,790 After the partition vote, The British announced that they were going to leave 147 00:14:18,790 --> 00:14:22,910 Palestine on May 15, 1948, and that started a ticking clock. 148 00:14:25,950 --> 00:14:28,850 Everybody knew that come May 15, there would be a vacuum. 149 00:14:32,370 --> 00:14:36,770 And so for the Jews, they knew they had to be organized and ready to fight a war 150 00:14:36,770 --> 00:14:41,810 with the neighboring Arab armies, who were preparing to invade as soon as the 151 00:14:41,810 --> 00:14:42,810 British left. 152 00:14:49,870 --> 00:14:54,530 The Egyptians have an air force with several dozen Spitfires and a few other 153 00:14:54,530 --> 00:14:55,530 military aircraft. 154 00:14:58,210 --> 00:15:03,790 The Jews in Palestine had a very small air arm called the Haganah Air Service. 155 00:15:04,450 --> 00:15:09,310 The air service was insignificant and didn't have military aircraft. 156 00:15:11,050 --> 00:15:17,090 A girl called me and she says, look, we have a little bit of rifles, a little 157 00:15:17,090 --> 00:15:18,410 bit of machine guns. 158 00:15:19,100 --> 00:15:21,200 We don't have planes. We don't have tanks. 159 00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:27,580 And unless we shall get some arms, we are lost. 160 00:15:29,100 --> 00:15:33,380 And he says, I'm going to the United States to mobilize the money. 161 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:40,680 The Hungarian view was that the U .S. really would be the place to go for 162 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:41,680 everything. 163 00:15:42,220 --> 00:15:43,360 American money, 164 00:15:44,220 --> 00:15:47,740 World War II surplus equipment either rotting in fields or... 165 00:15:48,030 --> 00:15:54,930 being sold at scrap prices, Jewish veterans who had current military 166 00:15:54,930 --> 00:15:55,930 skills. 167 00:16:00,330 --> 00:16:07,230 I got a letter from a friend of mine at TWA, and the letter just simply said, if 168 00:16:07,230 --> 00:16:12,630 you're interested in flying munitions to Palestine, call this number in New York 169 00:16:12,630 --> 00:16:14,090 and ask for Swifty. 170 00:16:14,570 --> 00:16:15,610 Just like that. 171 00:16:16,030 --> 00:16:17,570 So what the hell? I called the number. 172 00:16:18,310 --> 00:16:21,170 Livingston, where the hell are you? We've been waiting a week for you. 173 00:16:23,210 --> 00:16:24,370 I said, waiting for me? 174 00:16:24,630 --> 00:16:26,230 Yeah, we need you right away. 175 00:16:27,450 --> 00:16:31,470 The minute I got this, I knew my whole life would be different. I just knew it. 176 00:16:34,470 --> 00:16:35,470 I'm in Hollywood. 177 00:16:36,990 --> 00:16:41,730 There was a Palestinian general who was going to speak at the temple that night. 178 00:16:42,690 --> 00:16:44,310 I went up to him and I said, look. 179 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:48,120 I know there's going to be a war there, and I'm a fighter pilot, and I want to 180 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:49,120 go there. 181 00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:51,720 He said, well, I don't know anything about it. 182 00:16:52,180 --> 00:16:56,520 Because, you know, it wasn't like a newspaper ad joined the Haganah. It was 183 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:57,560 illegal, of course. 184 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:03,180 Although Truman had been a strong supporter of a Jewish state, the State 185 00:17:03,180 --> 00:17:05,720 Department had become very ambivalent about partition. 186 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,560 They thought that a Jewish state could not successfully be established, that 187 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:12,140 Jews would be overrun by the Arabs. 188 00:17:13,740 --> 00:17:18,880 And so the U .S. took a number of steps to make it clear that anybody who tried 189 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,220 to go to Palestine to fight would lose their citizenship. 190 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,839 And that there would be no exportation of American war material to Palestine. 191 00:17:30,260 --> 00:17:33,980 The Americans took the lead in establishing an embargo of arms to the 192 00:17:33,980 --> 00:17:34,980 Middle East. 193 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:40,320 Our problem was how to break the embargo. 194 00:17:41,610 --> 00:17:43,510 They used every possible way. 195 00:17:45,050 --> 00:17:48,790 Ingenuity, connections, smuggling, everything. 196 00:17:51,330 --> 00:17:54,770 Because it was a matter of life and death. 197 00:17:56,770 --> 00:18:00,450 This is when a pivotal figure named Al Schwimmer stepped in. 198 00:18:01,230 --> 00:18:04,170 Al Schwimmer was in many ways the founder of the Israel Air Force. 199 00:18:05,690 --> 00:18:07,910 He began his career as a flight engineer. 200 00:18:08,290 --> 00:18:12,700 It was Al Schwimmer, the American, who, when he got involved in this enterprise, 201 00:18:12,900 --> 00:18:16,540 suggested you're not going to win a war against the Arab states if you don't 202 00:18:16,540 --> 00:18:17,419 have an air force. 203 00:18:17,420 --> 00:18:19,780 Ben -Gurion, he thought very similarly. 204 00:18:23,500 --> 00:18:26,940 I get a phone call on a Sunday morning from Al Schwimmer. 205 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:34,500 He gave me an envelope with $5 ,000, sent me down to the War Surplus 206 00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:35,500 Administration. 207 00:18:36,900 --> 00:18:39,760 At that time, the desert was filled with airplanes. 208 00:18:40,380 --> 00:18:42,420 And if you're a veteran, you can buy one. 209 00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:46,620 So the airplane cost to build about $175 ,000. 210 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:50,120 For $5 ,000, I became owner of a C -46. 211 00:18:52,180 --> 00:18:55,960 Schwimmer purchased a dozen or so of these C -46s, two or three of the 212 00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,540 Constellations, and got an operation established in California. 213 00:19:02,060 --> 00:19:06,780 Essentially, from scratch, he created an airline and ultimately the nucleus of 214 00:19:06,780 --> 00:19:08,380 Israel's transport squadron. 215 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:19,200 The important point at the time was to recruit crews. 216 00:19:20,060 --> 00:19:24,900 We had these airplanes, but no one to fly them. 217 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:29,920 My first job was not flying. 218 00:19:30,180 --> 00:19:36,040 It was scouring the stolen records of New York Air National Guard rosters, 219 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:40,680 looking for Jewish sounding names with pilot status. 220 00:19:43,630 --> 00:19:48,570 I got the phone call from New York, pricing me that Israel was going to 221 00:19:48,570 --> 00:19:53,710 itself a state, that they had purchased some airplanes, but they had no one to 222 00:19:53,710 --> 00:19:54,710 fly them. 223 00:19:56,590 --> 00:20:02,870 My father was a stunt pilot, daredevil flyer. He was very swaggery and macho. 224 00:20:03,290 --> 00:20:10,230 He was like Indiana Jones, kind of, you know? I mean, he had that kind 225 00:20:10,230 --> 00:20:11,230 of personality. 226 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:19,820 After the war, the airlines were not hiring Jewish pilots, so an opportunity 227 00:20:19,820 --> 00:20:22,120 fly for a good cause was just grand. 228 00:20:23,220 --> 00:20:28,500 I believe that the reason he went was purely because he was so passionate 229 00:20:28,500 --> 00:20:31,720 it. He felt like it was destiny. 230 00:20:33,420 --> 00:20:38,760 He said yes almost immediately and called four friends who all said yes. 231 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:42,660 I was working as a flying instructor. 232 00:20:43,350 --> 00:20:45,010 in Philadelphia on the Delaware River. 233 00:20:46,150 --> 00:20:50,430 I was going to make inquiries to see whether I could go to Israel. 234 00:20:51,530 --> 00:20:54,710 I was invited to New York, met with Al Schwimmer. 235 00:20:55,730 --> 00:20:57,590 It was supposed to be hush -hush. 236 00:20:59,550 --> 00:21:05,150 I got a form, were you in World War II, in what capacity? So I filled it out. I 237 00:21:05,150 --> 00:21:06,150 was a fighter pilot. 238 00:21:06,550 --> 00:21:11,870 Boom! A couple of days later, I started getting phone calls and telegrams. 239 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:18,240 Meet a guy with a flower in his lapel on West 57th Street. 240 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:34,720 These clandestine operations to recruit pilots and procure arms were centered in 241 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:36,960 a hotel in which the Copa Cabana was located. 242 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:44,680 And Frank Sinatra used to perform there. 243 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,780 In fact, he once volunteered to pass money to buy illegal weapons. 244 00:21:54,860 --> 00:21:58,640 They asked me how much I wanted to get paid. I said, I don't need any pay. I 245 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:00,000 thought I'd be home in a month or two. 246 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,460 I really thought we would lose. 247 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,900 You know, you're talking about 600 ,000 Jews. 248 00:22:09,260 --> 00:22:12,840 50 million Arabs surrounding them. I didn't see how they could possibly 249 00:22:16,460 --> 00:22:20,020 I said, Mom, I'm going to Palestine. 250 00:22:21,140 --> 00:22:24,140 She said, You're not going. 251 00:22:24,380 --> 00:22:27,140 Under no circumstances are you going. 252 00:22:28,420 --> 00:22:30,120 And I said, I'm going. 253 00:22:31,300 --> 00:22:32,900 My father said nothing. 254 00:22:35,740 --> 00:22:37,380 I know he would have gone. 255 00:22:39,530 --> 00:22:43,890 I was risking my citizenship and also jail time. 256 00:22:45,530 --> 00:22:47,070 I didn't give a shit. 257 00:22:49,170 --> 00:22:51,130 I was going to help the Jews out. 258 00:22:52,410 --> 00:22:54,410 I was going to help my people out. 259 00:22:57,390 --> 00:23:00,670 Jewishness to me didn't mean anything. I was an American. 260 00:23:01,610 --> 00:23:07,670 But the idea that Jews were going to fight, I found exciting. 261 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:09,960 It's about time. 262 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,860 My father, I had an argument with him about it. 263 00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:16,660 I was always arguing with him. 264 00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:20,820 He was always telling me I wasn't a good Jew. 265 00:23:21,380 --> 00:23:25,700 And I said, I'm going to go and risk my life to be a good Jew. You don't have to 266 00:23:25,700 --> 00:23:27,020 kill yourself to be a good Jew. 267 00:23:29,300 --> 00:23:32,740 I told my mother I was going to work for a cargo airline. 268 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,600 In World War II, she received... 269 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,940 telegram from the War Department that I had domestic inaction. 270 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:42,460 I didn't want to put her through that again. 271 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:50,120 My mother threw herself on the floor, started crying hysterically, and I 272 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:51,260 didn't make it out the door. 273 00:23:51,940 --> 00:23:55,480 I had just made up my mind that nothing was going to stop me. 274 00:23:55,820 --> 00:23:58,880 I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do this. 275 00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:04,700 Part of my family wound up at Auschwitz, my grandmother and my cousins. 276 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:10,580 I felt that the remnants had a right to life and some chance of happiness. 277 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,640 The alternative is too hard for me to envision. 278 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,940 The possibility of what the Arabs could have done. And they talked about the 279 00:24:21,940 --> 00:24:26,340 fact that what Hitler did will be nothing compared to what we're going to 280 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,740 Schirmer had to figure out a way to get the planes out of the U .S. 281 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:39,680 You couldn't take them to Palestine because the British were still there and 282 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:40,880 high alert for arms smugglers. 283 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:44,320 But you couldn't leave them in the U .S. because of the arms embargo. 284 00:24:44,860 --> 00:24:48,740 So they would have to hopscotch around the globe to get as close to Palestine 285 00:24:48,740 --> 00:24:49,740 possible. 286 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:58,020 This idea was hatched to turn these Jewish planes into the nucleus of a fake 287 00:24:58,020 --> 00:24:59,020 airline. 288 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,700 There was a former Air Force major who was friends with the nephew of the 289 00:25:03,700 --> 00:25:04,700 Panamanian president. 290 00:25:07,199 --> 00:25:10,920 So we were linear city at DePenema, which was a pony. 291 00:25:14,340 --> 00:25:18,120 You have these planes lining up on the taxiway to take off, and they're very 292 00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:20,460 well aware that the embargo is taking effect. 293 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,060 And you have these Treasury agents, or T -men, as they were called in the day, 294 00:25:24,140 --> 00:25:27,760 show up, and there's a confrontation with some of the pilots who are getting 295 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:28,760 ready to take off. 296 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,420 Swiftie said, these are foreign -registered aircraft. 297 00:25:33,860 --> 00:25:34,860 No, they're not. 298 00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:36,340 They're U .S. 299 00:25:36,460 --> 00:25:39,760 Swifty says, wait a minute. Goes in the hangar, comes out with a mechanic with a 300 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:40,880 can of blue paint. 301 00:25:41,360 --> 00:25:46,740 The mechanic gets up on one of the sides of the C -46s and he prints LAPSA, L -A 302 00:25:46,740 --> 00:25:48,300 -P -S -A, Linear City of Panama. 303 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:50,580 Sloppy letters all bleeding down. 304 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,700 Swifty says to the guy, okay, now they're foreign registered. 305 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:58,560 The guy says, well, I still want to let you go. And he said to the T -man, you 306 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:00,260 want to stop us? Shoot us down. 307 00:26:10,220 --> 00:26:12,380 In Panama, we had the run of the town. 308 00:26:13,060 --> 00:26:18,260 We settled on a favorite place, which I remember was called Tierra Feliz, Happy 309 00:26:18,260 --> 00:26:19,260 Land. 310 00:26:23,940 --> 00:26:26,140 We bought a Buick sedan. 311 00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:31,580 My friend Norman Munson and I bought white suits. 312 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,660 We would ride around and pick up girls. 313 00:26:36,620 --> 00:26:37,680 We were young. 314 00:26:38,220 --> 00:26:39,400 Good looking, had hair. 315 00:26:40,820 --> 00:26:42,340 We had a lot of testosterone. 316 00:26:43,260 --> 00:26:44,800 And we didn't want to waste it. 317 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:47,920 What can I say? 318 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:51,800 We got out of Panama. 319 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:53,760 We had to go through the South Atlantic. 320 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:55,740 So we landed at Natal, Brazil. 321 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:58,220 Then we took off. 322 00:26:58,440 --> 00:26:59,800 Got to Casablanca. 323 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:02,580 Payoffs all over the place. 324 00:27:04,540 --> 00:27:06,200 And then we headed out. 325 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:07,640 Landed at Rome. 326 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:17,340 Rome was headquarters of the Haganah, and they were gathering pilots there. 327 00:27:19,780 --> 00:27:21,680 We were all young guys, 328 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:23,740 white jackets. 329 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,800 And Rome was a wild place at that time. 330 00:27:34,220 --> 00:27:37,720 Beautiful women with beautiful boobs. 331 00:27:38,340 --> 00:27:40,860 And I'm having a hell of a time there. 332 00:27:41,740 --> 00:27:43,620 And I meet Buzz Burling. 333 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:46,220 They introduced me to him. 334 00:27:47,940 --> 00:27:53,340 Buzz Burling was Canada's leading World War II ace, the Falcon of Malta. He was 335 00:27:53,340 --> 00:27:56,700 the kind of person who single -handedly had the potential to alter the course of 336 00:27:56,700 --> 00:27:57,700 the war. 337 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:03,180 The Arabs wanted him. He wasn't Jewish, but he made it known that he wanted to 338 00:28:03,180 --> 00:28:04,180 fight for the Jews. 339 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,360 For him, going to Palestine was going to get him back to his glory days. 340 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:13,840 And in Rome, while other pilots like Giddy Lichtman were out running around 341 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,740 picking up women, he was in his hotel room practicing with his model plane. 342 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:23,580 One day, Buzz Burling says, I'm going to fly a Norseman tomorrow. 343 00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:25,900 He says, you want to go up? I say, sure. 344 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:31,600 Just prior to that, I had met this lovely young Italian girl. 345 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:38,200 I spent the night with her, and she wanted me to, and I wanted to stay 346 00:28:38,670 --> 00:28:40,090 I called up Buzz Burling. 347 00:28:40,450 --> 00:28:43,250 I said, Buzz, I can't make it today. 348 00:28:43,530 --> 00:28:45,190 I have a young lady here. 349 00:28:45,690 --> 00:28:47,090 So he says, I understand. 350 00:28:48,010 --> 00:28:50,830 So he got another guy. I think his name was Cone. 351 00:28:54,010 --> 00:28:56,970 Unfortunately, that particular plane had caught on fire and crashed. 352 00:28:57,770 --> 00:28:59,850 He and his co -pilot were killed instantly. 353 00:29:02,150 --> 00:29:05,390 There was some thought that his plane had been sabotaged to prevent him from 354 00:29:05,390 --> 00:29:06,530 ever making it to Palestine. 355 00:29:07,740 --> 00:29:11,240 Perhaps some of the women that the soldiers were carousing with were spies. 356 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:13,620 No one will ever really know. 357 00:29:17,820 --> 00:29:21,700 There was only one country in the world willing to break the embargo and sell 358 00:29:21,700 --> 00:29:23,520 arms and aircraft to Israel. 359 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,640 Czechoslovakia needed Yankee dollars. The Zionist movement had millions of 360 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:35,000 American dollars because of American Jewish contributions to the cause. 361 00:29:36,870 --> 00:29:41,170 The Czechoslovakians made available an airfield. The Israelis could base all of 362 00:29:41,170 --> 00:29:44,110 these transport planes that they had smuggled out of the U .S. and down to 363 00:29:44,110 --> 00:29:45,110 Panama. 364 00:29:46,690 --> 00:29:50,250 The Israelis were able to set this up as essentially a remote Israeli base. 365 00:29:52,470 --> 00:29:56,010 When I met these people in New York, they asked me what I flew, and I told 366 00:29:56,010 --> 00:30:01,070 in combat I flew the Thunderbolts P -47 and the Mustang, the P -30. Oh, he says, 367 00:30:01,090 --> 00:30:02,530 we've got them, we've got them. 368 00:30:02,790 --> 00:30:03,790 I said, great. 369 00:30:03,950 --> 00:30:05,190 I thought. 370 00:30:06,140 --> 00:30:08,660 Anyhow, that was not correct. 371 00:30:09,420 --> 00:30:12,360 They were training us in an Me 109. 372 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:19,260 The Messerschmitt was a famous German fighter in World War II. 373 00:30:25,940 --> 00:30:32,400 The Germans during the war had built a Messerschmitt factory in Czechoslovakia. 374 00:30:33,150 --> 00:30:36,710 The Czechs took it over after the war and continued to churn out planes. 375 00:30:38,910 --> 00:30:44,090 The factory that made the engines apparently had burned down, so they had 376 00:30:44,090 --> 00:30:45,730 take an engine out of a bomber. 377 00:30:46,170 --> 00:30:50,770 Mickey Mouse had to fit into this little 4 ,000 -pound fighter. 378 00:30:52,550 --> 00:30:54,550 This thing was put together from junk. 379 00:30:55,450 --> 00:30:58,110 Different propellers, different engines, and so on. 380 00:31:00,710 --> 00:31:02,350 Messer shit, I called it. 381 00:31:03,500 --> 00:31:10,100 I was amazed that it could get off the ground, and most of the time it 382 00:31:10,100 --> 00:31:11,100 couldn't. 383 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:16,340 We lost a lot of planes on takeoffs and landings, a lot. 384 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:25,080 They gave us flight clothing, blue suede with an 385 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:30,600 Etsy wings, Luftwaffe wings on it, which I immediately took off. 386 00:31:36,620 --> 00:31:43,520 I remember sitting in the cockpit of my Me 109, wearing a German 387 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:47,360 uniform, German helmet, a German parachute. 388 00:31:49,780 --> 00:31:53,580 What's a nice Jewish boy from St. Paul doing in a place like this? 389 00:31:55,020 --> 00:31:58,280 The irony of it did not escape any of us. 390 00:32:05,070 --> 00:32:06,690 destiny approaches in Palestine. 391 00:32:07,210 --> 00:32:11,250 Last pictures from Jerusalem before the end of the British mandate show a city 392 00:32:11,250 --> 00:32:14,130 tensely quiet, barricaded and armed to the teeth. 393 00:32:16,830 --> 00:32:20,390 Eastward, the Arab legion poised for invasion on the Transjordan border. 394 00:32:20,650 --> 00:32:24,490 The rarely photographed King Abdullah reviewed a brigade of reinforcements 395 00:32:24,490 --> 00:32:29,330 Iraq. How far would the Arabs go to prevent the partitioning of the Holy 396 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:39,960 On the 12th of May, 1948, Ben -Gurion summons his chief commanders to a 397 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,800 and asks them, what's going to happen if we declare a state? On the 12th of May, 398 00:32:43,820 --> 00:32:49,820 he asks them. And Igael Yadin, the head of Haganah operations, tells them the 399 00:32:49,820 --> 00:32:53,540 chances are 50 -50. That is, we don't know whether we're going to win against 400 00:32:53,540 --> 00:32:55,000 the Arab states if they invade. 401 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:04,500 The Arab media did talk about killing the Jews, destroying the Jews, throwing 402 00:33:04,500 --> 00:33:05,520 Jews into the sea. 403 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,780 And the Jews absorbed this. 404 00:33:10,980 --> 00:33:15,120 And that motivated them in the sense of fearing that if they lost the war, there 405 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:16,120 would be a second Holocaust. 406 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,320 And that the world would not intervene on their behalf. 407 00:33:43,470 --> 00:33:50,330 Ben -Gurion declared the State of Israel on the Friday afternoon, the 14th of 408 00:33:50,330 --> 00:33:51,470 May, 1948. 409 00:33:52,070 --> 00:33:54,210 I was a volunteer. 410 00:33:55,770 --> 00:34:02,230 And our mission was to fly over Jordan and to give the army high command 411 00:34:02,230 --> 00:34:09,090 an estimate of the strength of the Jordanian army that was invading Israel. 412 00:34:13,100 --> 00:34:15,120 It really was a very grim situation. 413 00:34:16,739 --> 00:34:22,639 The armored cars and the troops and the trucks were nose to tail for miles 414 00:34:22,639 --> 00:34:24,320 coming in from Jordan. 415 00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:32,060 This evening, the invasion. Arab armies are pouring in. Their tanks have already 416 00:34:32,060 --> 00:34:35,540 crossed the borders and the 20th settlement has helped the first 417 00:34:35,540 --> 00:34:37,520 the fighting forces of the organized Arab armies. 418 00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:56,639 Saturday morning Tel Aviv was bombed. The Jews are holding their ground in the 419 00:34:56,639 --> 00:35:02,620 country in spite of the fact that they have been outnumbered by the Arabs and 420 00:35:02,620 --> 00:35:07,560 the Arabs have come much better equipped with heavy arms than the Jews have in 421 00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:08,560 their possession. 422 00:35:10,820 --> 00:35:16,200 Jews who are fighting in Palestine, the state of Israel, are fighting for the 423 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,120 only thing that they have in their possession. 424 00:35:20,300 --> 00:35:22,160 It means life or death to them. 425 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,620 The Egyptians bomb sites inside Israel. 426 00:35:29,220 --> 00:35:33,420 They attack the central bus station in Tel Aviv, killing several dozen people. 427 00:35:43,310 --> 00:35:48,890 Jews actually have nothing with which to respond to these Arab air attacks. They 428 00:35:48,890 --> 00:35:54,510 have no proper air force, and psychologically, they feel very 429 00:35:58,370 --> 00:36:02,030 In Czechoslovakia, three of us were in the commandant's office. 430 00:36:02,870 --> 00:36:07,250 The Czech commander was there, and I told him, I said, look, we have to go 431 00:36:07,250 --> 00:36:11,510 right now. But he said, you haven't finished your flying course yet. Can't 432 00:36:12,300 --> 00:36:13,300 We're going. 433 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,220 They say, you're on your way to go to Israel. I say, how the hell am I going 434 00:36:18,220 --> 00:36:19,220 get to Israel? 435 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:20,620 In an airplane. 436 00:36:22,740 --> 00:36:27,160 We set up what was known as the Air Transport Command, ATC. 437 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:33,580 These aircraft, which Swimmer had smuggled out of America, started flying 438 00:36:33,580 --> 00:36:35,780 equipment to Israel. 439 00:36:37,940 --> 00:36:40,100 They would bring Messerschmitts. 440 00:36:41,260 --> 00:36:43,160 We would dismantle these airplanes. 441 00:36:43,540 --> 00:36:47,480 One fuselage would fit into the C -46, plus a wing. 442 00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:53,660 The rest was filled with boxes which contained machine guns and ammunition. 443 00:36:56,460 --> 00:36:59,940 Over this fuselage, they take the wings. 444 00:37:02,380 --> 00:37:07,400 And over the wings, they stick me, Kitty Lichtman. 445 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:23,060 As I flew into Israel, I had the greatest feeling I've ever had in my 446 00:37:23,060 --> 00:37:24,060 never forget it. 447 00:37:24,860 --> 00:37:28,400 And that was to land in my country. 448 00:37:30,340 --> 00:37:33,020 You're going to think this is corny, but I had been there before. 449 00:37:34,500 --> 00:37:36,400 I had this deja vu. 450 00:37:38,740 --> 00:37:43,120 Maybe I was with Joshua at Jericho or someplace because everything started to 451 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:44,120 look familiar. 452 00:37:48,110 --> 00:37:50,750 I remember the smell of the citrus grove. 453 00:37:52,170 --> 00:37:55,930 Then coming into the hangar and seeing all these people in uniform. 454 00:37:59,050 --> 00:38:00,050 These are Jews? 455 00:38:04,670 --> 00:38:08,010 My cynicism vanished very rapidly, I'll tell you that. 456 00:38:11,250 --> 00:38:15,750 The first four Messerschmitts arrived a week or so after the war started. They 457 00:38:15,750 --> 00:38:16,750 had to be assembled. 458 00:38:21,230 --> 00:38:23,170 And at that point, they were truly a secret weapon. 459 00:38:25,330 --> 00:38:29,610 They were being assembled in one hangar, and the Egyptians came over and bombed 460 00:38:29,610 --> 00:38:30,610 the other hangar. 461 00:38:31,590 --> 00:38:32,970 Got a little bit lucky there. 462 00:38:38,570 --> 00:38:41,870 They'd been put together, but it wasn't clear how successfully they had been put 463 00:38:41,870 --> 00:38:43,530 together, and they couldn't be tried out. 464 00:38:46,710 --> 00:38:48,910 Their first flight was going to be a combat mission. 465 00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:57,320 At first, there was the thought of using them against the Jordanians, but then a 466 00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,440 frantic call came in for assistance in the south. 467 00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:08,520 About 5 o 'clock, Shimon Avidan rushed up in the jeep. He said, look, six miles 468 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,780 from where we're standing now at the airbase is the whole Egyptian army of 469 00:39:12,780 --> 00:39:15,840 10 ,000 men, and we have nothing to stop them. 470 00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:19,680 He said, if you don't go now... 471 00:39:20,730 --> 00:39:23,390 They'll be in Tel Aviv in the morning and there's no Israel. 472 00:39:35,030 --> 00:39:36,810 The pilots were actually two Palestinians. 473 00:39:37,050 --> 00:39:38,050 These are white men. 474 00:39:39,070 --> 00:39:40,070 Modi alone. 475 00:39:41,770 --> 00:39:43,610 A South African named Eddie Cohen. 476 00:39:44,950 --> 00:39:45,970 And Lou Lenart. 477 00:39:46,490 --> 00:39:47,770 And Lenart led the mission. 478 00:39:53,670 --> 00:39:55,590 This was the Air Force of Israel. 479 00:39:56,590 --> 00:40:00,610 These four people and four junk airplanes. 480 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:30,460 Climbing at 6 ,000 feet in a climbing turn, Wadi Alam realized that I wasn't 481 00:40:30,460 --> 00:40:32,480 sure where it is, and he went like this. 482 00:40:35,300 --> 00:40:39,520 I looked down, and as far as I could see, the Egyptian army was there on the 483 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:40,520 road. 484 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:42,760 Tanks, trucks, artillery, everything. 485 00:40:44,900 --> 00:40:45,920 I looked there. 486 00:40:46,220 --> 00:40:48,860 I saw the enemy that came to destroy us. 487 00:40:51,050 --> 00:40:54,150 I looked back and saw the people of Israel were behind me. 488 00:40:56,850 --> 00:41:00,470 I just did a quick schmice foil, even though I'm not religious, turned the 489 00:41:00,470 --> 00:41:05,470 airplane upside down because the dive bomb, the steeper the dive, the more 490 00:41:05,470 --> 00:41:06,630 accurate is the hit. 491 00:41:11,810 --> 00:41:17,090 I dropped my bomb, and then I stayed down, strafing what they call a clover 492 00:41:17,090 --> 00:41:18,090 leaf, like this. 493 00:41:21,130 --> 00:41:25,130 They had machine guns firing through the propellers like in World War I. 494 00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:31,330 Timing mechanisms didn't always function properly and that some of the pilots 495 00:41:31,330 --> 00:41:32,750 were shooting off the propellers. 496 00:41:39,430 --> 00:41:41,730 This is what we expect to happen with Eddie Cohen. 497 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:50,720 We were like a band of brothers. It's like a piece of your heart breaks off. 498 00:42:01,540 --> 00:42:06,940 That evening, our intelligence intercepted a radio message from the 499 00:42:06,940 --> 00:42:07,940 the Egyptian army. 500 00:42:08,620 --> 00:42:09,620 And I quote, 501 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:13,920 we are heavily attacked by enemy aircraft and we are scattering. 502 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,240 The commander of that column decided to dig in and not to advance further, 503 00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:24,820 thinking that this was the vanguard of a much larger Jewish Air Force and that 504 00:42:24,820 --> 00:42:28,400 there was going to be much stiffer opposition if he continued to just sort 505 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:29,940 rumble through the desert in broad daylight. 506 00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:38,500 It was probably the single most important flight in the whole Israeli 507 00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:42,060 They stopped the Egyptians cold. 508 00:42:46,350 --> 00:42:50,470 There was a second airstrike which followed immediately after on the 30th 509 00:42:50,470 --> 00:42:54,610 by an American pilot against the Iraqis. 510 00:42:56,330 --> 00:43:00,730 The Iraqi army in the 48th war was the largest of the Arab armies involved. 511 00:43:02,410 --> 00:43:08,610 They struck westward into Israeli territory and controlled and occupied 512 00:43:08,610 --> 00:43:09,670 northern west bank. 513 00:43:10,570 --> 00:43:13,550 And this is where the Israeli Messerschmitts attacked them. 514 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:23,600 Two pilots were on patrol, Asa Weizmann and Milton Rubenfeld. 515 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:29,960 This is from my father's debrief. 516 00:43:30,540 --> 00:43:36,960 Open fire with MG and cannons on Tolcombe Police Station and drop the 517 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:38,280 bomb on Police Street. 518 00:43:38,660 --> 00:43:44,260 Made a 90 -degree turn to north, attacked four tanks, registered hit, 519 00:43:44,810 --> 00:43:46,730 And all four were zero distance. 520 00:43:50,370 --> 00:43:55,590 This helped persuade the Iraqis to hunker down and not attack Israeli 521 00:43:55,590 --> 00:43:56,590 thereafter. 522 00:43:57,750 --> 00:44:02,770 No flak until hit right over tanks by two cannon shells, one in left wing and 523 00:44:02,770 --> 00:44:03,770 one in belly. 524 00:44:03,970 --> 00:44:08,110 Left wing crumbled up, climbed above clouds, all instruments gone. 525 00:44:08,490 --> 00:44:12,690 He realized that he wouldn't be able to get back to his base. 526 00:44:14,770 --> 00:44:17,170 He bailed out on the beach. 527 00:44:18,830 --> 00:44:22,650 He saw a number of kibbutzniks come in with rifles. 528 00:44:23,890 --> 00:44:28,150 Now, bear in mind that nobody in Israel knew that we had acquired combat 529 00:44:28,150 --> 00:44:29,150 aircraft. 530 00:44:29,310 --> 00:44:32,870 All they knew was that they were being attacked with Egyptian aircraft. 531 00:44:35,130 --> 00:44:38,430 They thought he was an Arab, and so they were shooting at him. 532 00:44:39,350 --> 00:44:40,770 He didn't speak Hebrew. 533 00:44:41,770 --> 00:44:43,290 He had his arms up. 534 00:44:44,170 --> 00:44:49,190 He started yelling Yiddish words and the names of Jewish food. 535 00:44:49,930 --> 00:44:51,370 Shabbos gefilte fish. 536 00:44:51,810 --> 00:44:53,630 Gefilte fish, gefilte fish. 537 00:44:53,850 --> 00:44:54,850 Matzah. 538 00:44:55,410 --> 00:44:57,950 Pesach. Gefilte fish. Gefilte fish. 539 00:44:58,170 --> 00:45:01,550 So they stopped with the pitchforks. 540 00:45:06,310 --> 00:45:10,450 Fighter Squadron was at that time made up entirely of foreign volunteers. 541 00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:19,320 with two notable exceptions, 542 00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:21,920 Modi Alon and Azar Weizman. 543 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,640 Modi Alon was a very cool customer. 544 00:45:27,980 --> 00:45:31,620 Modi Alon was a good pilot, totally fearless. 545 00:46:07,490 --> 00:46:13,730 One day, Modi calls us all in and said, we want to have an 546 00:46:13,730 --> 00:46:18,020 insignia. and we want to have a number for our squadron. 547 00:46:18,460 --> 00:46:20,780 I said, what's the number? He said, 101. 548 00:46:21,500 --> 00:46:24,100 We want them to think we have 100 squadrons. 549 00:46:28,180 --> 00:46:31,360 They were sitting in a bar in Tel Aviv, and someone said, you know, we need a 550 00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:33,200 logo for the fighter squadron. 551 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:38,560 I said, let's call ourselves the Macha Movet, Angels of Death. 552 00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:44,100 There were two veterans from California who volunteered together. 553 00:46:45,070 --> 00:46:47,470 Their names were Bob Vickman and Stan Andrews. 554 00:46:48,570 --> 00:46:54,270 They met on the campus of UCLA, and they were both incredibly talented artists. 555 00:46:56,330 --> 00:47:01,050 Stan and Bob literally got out a cocktail napkin, and they drew this logo 556 00:47:01,050 --> 00:47:02,910 angel of death with flight goggles. 557 00:47:05,290 --> 00:47:08,010 And that emblem's on Israeli F -16s today. 558 00:47:10,370 --> 00:47:12,950 Eight o 'clock in the morning, I'm not sure the time. 559 00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:16,680 I feel somebody tap me on the shoulder. 560 00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:18,700 Get ready. You're going to fly. 561 00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:22,040 I'm going to fly what? You're going to fly the ME. 562 00:47:22,420 --> 00:47:23,960 I said, OK, fine. 563 00:47:25,700 --> 00:47:30,040 I get into the cockpit and I'm looking around. Where the fuck is this? Where is 564 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,460 this? I don't know where this is. 565 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:38,100 Before I flew a fighter aircraft in the American Air Force, I got at least 100 566 00:47:38,100 --> 00:47:40,180 hours of intensive instruction. 567 00:47:41,340 --> 00:47:45,240 Here, I got 35 minutes, and I'm taxiing out the airplane. 568 00:47:49,460 --> 00:47:53,320 Marty says, let's take off. So I give it the throttle. I take off. 569 00:47:55,480 --> 00:48:02,480 And I'm trying to follow him through this mist, 570 00:48:02,620 --> 00:48:04,760 and I can barely see him. 571 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,040 We see below us four. 572 00:48:10,590 --> 00:48:12,030 Egyptian spitfires. 573 00:48:14,090 --> 00:48:17,070 I'm looking for the gun sight switch. I'm looking for everything. 574 00:48:17,670 --> 00:48:19,150 I can find nothing. 575 00:48:20,190 --> 00:48:26,790 Marty rolls over, and I roll over with my thumb up my tuchus because I can't 576 00:48:26,790 --> 00:48:27,790 shoot the guns. 577 00:48:28,330 --> 00:48:34,010 He makes a pass, shoots at him, and they break off, and they go into the mist. 578 00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:40,880 We got 35 minutes fuel in these verstunken airplanes. 579 00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:46,500 Finally, I find the gun switch. I find all the switches. 580 00:48:47,240 --> 00:48:54,020 I see one of them break out. He sees me now, so he makes a half -assed turn. I 581 00:48:54,020 --> 00:48:58,900 drove up as toughest and pull the trigger, and I see pieces fall out into 582 00:48:58,900 --> 00:48:59,900 mist. 583 00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:01,880 And I come back to the base. 584 00:49:02,700 --> 00:49:04,980 They say there's an airplane that crashed. 585 00:49:08,170 --> 00:49:09,510 That was the first kill. 586 00:49:17,990 --> 00:49:22,650 A promise of peace for at least four weeks comes to the Holy Land. 587 00:49:23,410 --> 00:49:28,030 But almost until the very hour set for the truce to begin, grim real war still 588 00:49:28,030 --> 00:49:28,888 in progress. 589 00:49:28,890 --> 00:49:33,510 Jews held in fortified parts of New Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, while Arabs 590 00:49:33,510 --> 00:49:34,810 through other parts of Palestine. 591 00:49:42,990 --> 00:49:46,330 That first phase ended successfully in the sense that the Egyptians had been 592 00:49:46,330 --> 00:49:49,190 stopped in the south and there still was a Jewish state. 593 00:49:53,690 --> 00:49:56,710 And Israel geared up knowing that there would be a round two. 594 00:50:00,330 --> 00:50:05,330 Israel was far better organized than the Arab states and knew how to use and did 595 00:50:05,330 --> 00:50:09,290 use the truces which the United Nations had forced on the sides. 596 00:50:10,410 --> 00:50:15,710 To rearm, resupply, reorganize its troops far better than the Arab states. 597 00:50:20,750 --> 00:50:22,830 Volunteers continued to make their way to the country. 598 00:50:25,790 --> 00:50:28,930 These volunteers from outside the land are called Mahal. 599 00:50:30,950 --> 00:50:32,930 Mahal is the Hebrew acronym. 600 00:50:37,470 --> 00:50:38,470 Volunteers from abroad. 601 00:50:40,780 --> 00:50:43,020 The Machal was a truly global enterprise. 602 00:50:43,240 --> 00:50:46,220 There were about 3 ,500 of them from throughout the world. 603 00:50:48,460 --> 00:50:55,040 Many were not Jewish, and about 190 of the Machal were volunteers for the Air 604 00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:56,040 Force. 605 00:50:57,280 --> 00:51:04,180 They came from Canada, from England, from South 606 00:51:04,180 --> 00:51:05,180 Africa. 607 00:51:06,660 --> 00:51:08,580 Everyone came for a different reason. 608 00:51:11,530 --> 00:51:18,190 The arrival in Israel of large groups of volunteers, morale 609 00:51:18,190 --> 00:51:19,990 -wise, had a tremendous impact. 610 00:51:20,350 --> 00:51:24,570 The Israelis understood that they weren't alone, if you like, in contrast 611 00:51:24,570 --> 00:51:28,430 Jews in the Holocaust who did feel alone and were alone. 612 00:51:30,050 --> 00:51:33,210 They had expertise that very few people in Israel did. 613 00:51:33,590 --> 00:51:36,170 Ground crew, radio technicians. 614 00:51:37,610 --> 00:51:42,850 Each individual Makhal participant had the potential to contribute to the war 615 00:51:42,850 --> 00:51:46,390 effort far above and beyond even their experience in World War II. 616 00:51:51,010 --> 00:51:56,210 During truce periods, they took us into this little hotel called the Park Hotel. 617 00:51:56,970 --> 00:52:01,170 And they were partying. Beautiful girls, guys, soldiers. 618 00:52:03,110 --> 00:52:05,190 And I figured this was a great war. 619 00:52:13,740 --> 00:52:14,740 We were notorious. 620 00:52:15,100 --> 00:52:18,240 We weren't looking for trouble, but we were always looking for action. 621 00:52:20,900 --> 00:52:23,940 The fighter squadron had these red baseball caps. 622 00:52:26,460 --> 00:52:31,160 Any time a bar owner saw their caps coming, he'd call the police. 623 00:52:32,620 --> 00:52:35,660 We used to steal a jeep because we had no vehicles. 624 00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:39,740 We called that moonlight requisitioning. 625 00:52:40,259 --> 00:52:44,280 Somebody would come along with a tow chain and hook onto the Jeep and pull it 626 00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:46,780 out to the base, and that's how we got our vehicle. 627 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:53,420 Somehow or other, money alone was able to keep us together. 628 00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:56,960 You had to put up with a lot of nonsense. 629 00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:04,640 One night we got so bombed out that we took a big jar or something and threw it 630 00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:05,680 against the mirror. 631 00:53:07,470 --> 00:53:12,690 Somebody took out the back bar at the Park Hotel, which money made us pay for 632 00:53:12,690 --> 00:53:13,690 collectively. 633 00:53:15,510 --> 00:53:19,290 These are some of the shtick we used to pull. We used to pull all kinds of 634 00:53:19,290 --> 00:53:20,290 stuff. 635 00:53:21,550 --> 00:53:22,670 I love Giddy. 636 00:53:23,890 --> 00:53:25,250 He's special. 637 00:53:26,650 --> 00:53:29,010 Leon Franco was legitimate. 638 00:53:30,510 --> 00:53:32,510 Torpedo bomber pilot in the Navy. 639 00:53:32,730 --> 00:53:36,290 He won the highest medal, the Navy Cross. 640 00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:42,680 Handsome. We were all stupors, but he was the primo stupor. 641 00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:49,240 I had a couple of girlfriends there. I don't know if it was my looks or my 642 00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:54,700 status or what it was that attracted them, but we got along very well. 643 00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:59,060 And that's about all I can say about that. 644 00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:05,180 Many of the volunteers, most of them, did not speak Hebrew. 645 00:54:07,590 --> 00:54:10,990 Many of the Israelis did not speak very good English. 646 00:54:12,470 --> 00:54:14,970 Social relations between the two of them could be difficult. 647 00:54:16,490 --> 00:54:22,450 I don't think the Israelis were too pleased with us because we swaggered 648 00:54:24,630 --> 00:54:27,490 For them, it was a different experience. It was a hard life. 649 00:54:28,330 --> 00:54:30,650 The economy was not firmly established. 650 00:54:33,310 --> 00:54:36,470 There was great poverty there, and there were shortages. 651 00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:41,680 And the new state was still absorbing tens of thousands of survivors. 652 00:54:51,500 --> 00:54:54,260 I met this girl at the Park Hotel. 653 00:54:55,080 --> 00:55:00,300 The conflict arose when it came whether I would settle in Israel. 654 00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:03,480 I said, no, I'm a Yankee, an American. 655 00:55:04,180 --> 00:55:07,660 She said, well, you're a Jew. I said, I can be an American and a Jew, can't I? 656 00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:10,360 I said, I'm here to help you people. 657 00:55:11,100 --> 00:55:13,180 You can help us by helping us grow. 658 00:55:13,660 --> 00:55:17,440 I said, I'm helping you become an entity. Isn't that enough? 659 00:55:18,820 --> 00:55:24,640 I didn't know then that I was one of them, or I didn't admit it. 660 00:55:32,060 --> 00:55:36,740 On the 8th of July, the Egyptians broke the first truce. 661 00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:40,840 And then Israel went over to the offensive. 662 00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:01,440 The Air Force plan was to have this lightning raid right at the beginning of 663 00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:05,300 next round of fighting to go after the most forward Egyptian base at El Arish 664 00:56:05,300 --> 00:56:07,580 and to knock their planes out on the ground. 665 00:56:08,299 --> 00:56:10,340 Lou Lenard again headed that mission. 666 00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:12,820 Bob Vickman was one of the other pilots. 667 00:56:13,420 --> 00:56:16,020 Stan Andrews was to be part of that mission as well. He and Bob were going 668 00:56:16,020 --> 00:56:17,020 fly together. 669 00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:34,600 Andrews' plane, as these planes often did, ground looped on takeoff, and he 670 00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:35,600 ended up in a cloud of dust. 671 00:56:38,410 --> 00:56:42,270 The remaining three planes formed up and went south, but they'd used up valuable 672 00:56:42,270 --> 00:56:46,550 fuel while waiting for the Andrews situation to be sorted out and had to 673 00:56:46,550 --> 00:56:47,710 back before reaching the target. 674 00:56:49,790 --> 00:56:56,790 I'm flying low south, and I saw a troop ship unloading supplies and 675 00:56:56,790 --> 00:56:58,330 troops in the port of Gaza. 676 00:56:59,970 --> 00:57:05,730 I turned left and came over, and my other two planes followed me. 677 00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:09,520 And I dove down on the ship. 678 00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:20,500 My number two was hit. 679 00:57:21,580 --> 00:57:23,060 An American kid. 680 00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:27,700 Bob Dickman's plane plunged into the sea. 681 00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:36,760 Dan was devastated by his best friend having gone missing on this mission and 682 00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:41,460 committed himself to doing everything in his power to locating Bob, dead or 683 00:57:41,460 --> 00:57:42,460 alive. 684 00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:46,020 He said, I came here with Bob and I'm not leaving without him. 685 00:57:47,820 --> 00:57:51,860 Tragically, he ended up keeping that promise because his plane also crashed 686 00:57:51,860 --> 00:57:53,040 his body was never found. 687 00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:12,660 One of Al Schwimmer's great coups was to purchase three B -17 bombers, and he 688 00:58:12,660 --> 00:58:17,140 smuggled them out of the country to Florida and managed to get them over to 689 00:58:17,140 --> 00:58:18,140 Czechoslovakia. 690 00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:23,400 So then there became this great debate. What do we do with these B -17s? Do we 691 00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:27,360 just fly them to Israel, and do we actually use them to strike at the Arabs 692 00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:29,720 before they've made their way into the country? 693 00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:35,080 Egypt had been bombing Israel for all this time. 694 00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:37,880 Cairo had never been bombed before. 695 00:58:39,680 --> 00:58:43,440 Schwimmer himself had been a TWA pilot and some of the others had been 696 00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:44,460 commercial pilots as well. 697 00:58:48,080 --> 00:58:54,920 So when they flew into Cairo, the radio went off from the traffic control 698 00:58:54,920 --> 00:58:58,540 tower at the Cairo airport asking the plane to identify itself. 699 00:59:00,940 --> 00:59:04,980 One of the pilots said, oh, this is TWA Flight 38. We're coming in, and they 700 00:59:04,980 --> 00:59:09,860 turned on the runway lights at the airport for this P -17, which, of 701 00:59:09,900 --> 00:59:12,340 strafed and bombed the Cairo area as a result. 702 00:59:20,800 --> 00:59:25,300 One bomb fell near King Farouk's palace, and psychologically it made a very, 703 00:59:25,340 --> 00:59:27,080 very profound impression on the Egyptians. 704 00:59:30,380 --> 00:59:33,640 The next day, thousands left Cairo. 705 00:59:33,900 --> 00:59:36,140 They felt it was too dangerous. 706 00:59:39,620 --> 00:59:44,260 And Israel at that point had a real credible bomber force, which nobody else 707 00:59:44,260 --> 00:59:45,260 really had. 708 00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:54,260 For the third round of fighting, the goal was to displace the Egyptians once 709 00:59:54,260 --> 00:59:55,260 for all from the Negev. 710 01:00:03,690 --> 01:00:09,010 We had a contingent of soldiers down there, totally cut off, totally 711 01:00:11,470 --> 01:00:12,670 They had no weapons. 712 01:00:13,830 --> 01:00:15,490 You couldn't get in by sea. 713 01:00:16,430 --> 01:00:18,070 You couldn't truck them in. 714 01:00:20,970 --> 01:00:22,630 They had to be flown in. 715 01:00:24,290 --> 01:00:25,710 That was Schwimmer's mission. 716 01:00:27,210 --> 01:00:29,930 And he put airstrips in, on the sand. 717 01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:38,040 We brought them in. We brought every screwdriver in. 718 01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:45,320 They would have literally starved to death had it not been for the supplies 719 01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:46,320 were brought in. 720 01:00:47,860 --> 01:00:51,680 Really, the whole survival of the Negev communities was because of the Air 721 01:00:51,680 --> 01:00:52,680 Force. 722 01:00:53,980 --> 01:00:55,860 We would take off from Tel Aviv. 723 01:00:56,140 --> 01:00:58,560 We'd bring palm optics in. 724 01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:01,380 Take out wounded. 725 01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:02,800 Fly them back. 726 01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:08,520 These guys were real soldiers who had taken one for the country. 727 01:01:08,960 --> 01:01:13,420 Tough guys. A lot of them were refugees, too, by the way, from Europe. 728 01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:19,240 They were pleased to have given what they gave for this. 729 01:01:21,160 --> 01:01:23,080 I went down there and saw all these kids. 730 01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:26,080 Couldn't believe it. 731 01:01:28,380 --> 01:01:30,960 They could only be equipped with what we could equip them with. 732 01:01:35,020 --> 01:01:39,060 I did have a conversation with a girl, got in a holster. 733 01:01:39,820 --> 01:01:44,460 I thought about my own sister, my little sister, who was about the same age at 734 01:01:44,460 --> 01:01:46,740 the time, packing a gun. 735 01:01:48,460 --> 01:01:55,220 The Arabs, if they were in trouble, they could go home and 736 01:01:55,220 --> 01:01:56,980 live to fight another day. 737 01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:01,980 The Israelis couldn't afford to lose, and they knew it. 738 01:02:03,340 --> 01:02:05,220 They were willing to give their lives. 739 01:02:13,860 --> 01:02:17,220 October 16th, I remember the day very well. 740 01:02:18,440 --> 01:02:25,060 I was heading out over the mega by myself, and I came upon this engagement. 741 01:02:27,140 --> 01:02:30,260 I saw an ME -109. 742 01:02:30,750 --> 01:02:35,930 right behind a spitfire, knocking chunks off of it. And I looked to the left and 743 01:02:35,930 --> 01:02:38,370 saw another Egyptian spitfire. 744 01:02:42,410 --> 01:02:48,350 By the time I pulled around, he was a little speck in the sky, halfway to 745 01:02:49,950 --> 01:02:52,990 And all of a sudden, the engine started running rough. 746 01:02:53,490 --> 01:02:57,450 So I looked at the oil gauge, and it read zero. 747 01:02:58,220 --> 01:03:02,580 Now, in all my years of flying, I had never seen an oil gauge read zero. 748 01:03:03,880 --> 01:03:05,740 And then I started smelling smoke. 749 01:03:06,980 --> 01:03:12,620 I said, Leon, you better look for a place to come down because you're not 750 01:03:12,620 --> 01:03:13,620 to make it. 751 01:03:22,700 --> 01:03:25,120 I just cleared the orange rose. 752 01:03:25,580 --> 01:03:30,600 slid forward and went up on its nose and back down on the ground. I got a face 753 01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:31,600 full of dirt. 754 01:03:34,180 --> 01:03:40,040 I knew I had to go west and north to get away from the Jordanian lines. 755 01:03:44,220 --> 01:03:48,320 Off in the distance, coming down the road, I saw a truck with soldiers in it. 756 01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:54,480 I knew what had happened to other downed pilots. 757 01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:58,780 a couple of them, and I wasn't going to be taken prisoner. 758 01:04:00,580 --> 01:04:02,500 I pulled out my revolver. 759 01:04:03,560 --> 01:04:07,420 Well, if it's Jordanians, I'm going to take five of them and save the last 760 01:04:07,420 --> 01:04:08,420 bullet for myself. 761 01:04:11,520 --> 01:04:15,480 About 50 yards away, I heard Hebrew being spoken. 762 01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:18,520 So I jumped out and started waving my arms. 763 01:04:22,670 --> 01:04:28,050 By the time I got to the air base, I could see there was an airplane burning. 764 01:04:30,750 --> 01:04:34,970 I asked somebody what it was. He said it was one of the pilots who was either 765 01:04:34,970 --> 01:04:36,830 Muddy Alon or Acer Weichman. 766 01:04:40,310 --> 01:04:46,270 Acer's parents, they came into my room hysterical, both of them. Is my son 767 01:04:46,390 --> 01:04:47,390 Is my son dead? 768 01:04:47,890 --> 01:04:50,530 I said, no, he's alive. He's alive. He's alive. 769 01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:54,800 It turned out to be Marialon. 770 01:05:41,670 --> 01:05:43,390 It was a horror. 771 01:05:46,310 --> 01:05:50,590 Devastating. Devastating. We felt that we had really lost our leader. 772 01:05:56,360 --> 01:05:58,020 It was like losing our heart. 773 01:06:02,820 --> 01:06:06,240 As we were leaving the funeral, I was in the back of a Jeep. 774 01:06:06,540 --> 01:06:08,520 I started going into shock. 775 01:06:09,280 --> 01:06:11,460 And my limbs wouldn't move. 776 01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:15,020 I felt totally paralyzed. 777 01:06:16,520 --> 01:06:19,740 So they took me to a hospital in Jaffa. 778 01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:25,020 Then I decided I'd had enough. 779 01:06:27,680 --> 01:06:32,220 We'd gotten some replacement pilots, so I didn't feel like I was leaving the 780 01:06:32,220 --> 01:06:34,080 squadron in any kind of jeopardy. 781 01:06:40,240 --> 01:06:41,580 Policies were always free to leave. 782 01:06:42,060 --> 01:06:45,500 The Israelis realized they were going to need as quickly as possible to train 783 01:06:45,500 --> 01:06:48,040 the local population to be able to take on this burden themselves. 784 01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:52,760 Danny Shapiro was a particularly fascinating young Israeli pilot. 785 01:06:54,020 --> 01:06:56,520 Some of us were sent to Czechoslovakia. 786 01:06:56,840 --> 01:07:01,080 to train as soon as possible to fly back to Israel. 787 01:07:01,780 --> 01:07:08,140 We heard that some of the volunteers, they left the country, their families, 788 01:07:08,140 --> 01:07:09,340 know, they went back. 789 01:07:13,940 --> 01:07:17,600 I said to the guys, we will never surrender. 790 01:07:18,460 --> 01:07:25,180 We have to study as fast as possible so there will not be another Holocaust. 791 01:07:27,500 --> 01:07:33,120 In November, they asked me to go back to Czechoslovakia and train some of the 792 01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:36,260 Israeli pilots that were being trained in Czechoslovakia. 793 01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:42,320 George Lichter was fearless. He was not afraid to go up time and time again in a 794 01:07:42,320 --> 01:07:44,480 plane that everybody else was quite fearful of. 795 01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:49,220 One day arriving, a guy looks, you know, tough. 796 01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:51,900 He said, I'm George Lichter. 797 01:07:52,780 --> 01:07:58,360 I came to see who is capable to fly a fighter airplane and who is not. 798 01:08:00,020 --> 01:08:03,740 In fact, we didn't sleep that night, you know, I was so scared. 799 01:08:06,980 --> 01:08:09,440 He flew with me, one flight. 800 01:08:18,319 --> 01:08:22,380 He said, do this, turn left, turn right, tall, spin. 801 01:08:27,819 --> 01:08:28,819 I got back. 802 01:08:29,779 --> 01:08:31,279 And I made a nice landing. 803 01:08:32,040 --> 01:08:38,960 George Yusuf said, now you brief those guys what to do, what to avoid. 804 01:08:41,600 --> 01:08:45,960 The Czechoslovakians agreed to sell a bunch of World War II Spitfires to 805 01:08:48,270 --> 01:08:52,350 The Spitfire could climb like an angel. It was really a great plane. 806 01:08:52,850 --> 01:08:58,970 And they asked me to fly with the Spitfires to Israel so they could enter 807 01:08:58,970 --> 01:08:59,970 war right away. 808 01:09:00,490 --> 01:09:06,550 We were short two pilots, and I recommended that we take these students. 809 01:09:06,550 --> 01:09:08,750 were basically novices. They were beginners. 810 01:09:11,250 --> 01:09:17,189 The more experienced pilots, they spoke to us like if we were going to get 811 01:09:17,189 --> 01:09:18,189 killed. 812 01:09:18,640 --> 01:09:20,359 They said, it's very dangerous. 813 01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:24,520 You don't have any experience flying in bad weather. 814 01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:30,040 I said to Monty, let's keep the mouth shut. 815 01:09:30,300 --> 01:09:35,460 They won't put us on the formation if we say that we are afraid to fly. So I 816 01:09:35,460 --> 01:09:36,460 didn't say anything. 817 01:09:53,319 --> 01:09:57,000 It was so cold, you know, I was freezing. My hands were freezing. 818 01:10:01,020 --> 01:10:02,580 They flew on my wing. 819 01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:05,320 Mati on one wing and Danny Shapiro on the other. 820 01:10:08,680 --> 01:10:13,100 Once we got into the clouds, it all messed up. 821 01:10:13,560 --> 01:10:19,580 I was close to George and all of a sudden I lost sight of him because of 822 01:10:19,580 --> 01:10:20,580 clouds. 823 01:10:21,610 --> 01:10:27,590 To avoid a collision, I turned slightly to the right to open up the space. 824 01:10:28,650 --> 01:10:30,530 All of a sudden, I was alone. 825 01:10:31,650 --> 01:10:38,250 I saw my artificial horizon moving, and I'm losing altitude. 826 01:10:42,450 --> 01:10:45,450 Somehow he got lost from the group. 827 01:10:47,930 --> 01:10:49,750 I went down looking for him. 828 01:10:51,730 --> 01:10:53,970 My airspeed was building up. 829 01:10:54,350 --> 01:10:55,950 I didn't know how to recover. 830 01:10:56,530 --> 01:10:59,870 And I knew, Danny, that's it. 831 01:11:00,090 --> 01:11:01,170 You're going to die. 832 01:11:02,850 --> 01:11:06,070 I was very concerned. How am I going to find that little speck? 833 01:11:08,130 --> 01:11:12,770 And all of a sudden, he saw me much lower, you know, spiraling. 834 01:11:14,470 --> 01:11:17,350 I saw George saying, come over, come over. 835 01:11:17,570 --> 01:11:19,430 I could see his mouth. Come over. 836 01:11:20,270 --> 01:11:23,250 He picked me up and he brought me back. 837 01:11:30,730 --> 01:11:32,150 He saved my life. 838 01:11:44,170 --> 01:11:48,670 He was sure that we will make it. 839 01:11:49,420 --> 01:11:50,500 And we made it. 840 01:11:52,740 --> 01:11:53,900 We made it. 841 01:11:59,600 --> 01:12:05,240 Next day, the Israel army pushed the Egyptian army back. 842 01:12:06,680 --> 01:12:09,440 And those Spitfires took a big part. 843 01:12:17,360 --> 01:12:18,360 Really. 844 01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:20,860 fighting and winning by this time. 845 01:12:26,360 --> 01:12:30,340 As a Jew, I now felt proud of being Jewish. 846 01:12:36,420 --> 01:12:40,320 The final phase of the war was from the 22nd of December. 847 01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:47,480 It was a great battle, and the Air Force threw in everything it had. 848 01:12:47,850 --> 01:12:54,450 Again, for Egyptians, with the B -17s and the Spitfires and the C -46s. 849 01:13:00,790 --> 01:13:05,430 It really was a hell out effort, you might say. 850 01:13:23,240 --> 01:13:28,000 The 48th war ended when the Israelis surrounded the Egyptian army, which was 851 01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:33,100 concentrated in the Gaza Strip, forcing the Egyptians to call it quits and to 852 01:13:33,100 --> 01:13:34,240 call for an armistice. 853 01:13:38,800 --> 01:13:44,780 The United Nations Security Council decreed that the final ceasefire 854 01:13:44,780 --> 01:13:49,300 would be on the 7th of January, 1949. 855 01:13:57,070 --> 01:14:02,130 The 1948 war was the most historically significant of the Israeli -Arab wars. 856 01:14:04,610 --> 01:14:08,950 This was a tremendous blow to the Arab world and is remembered as such to this 857 01:14:08,950 --> 01:14:09,950 day. 858 01:14:13,670 --> 01:14:18,570 It's also significant because during that war, Palestinian society was 859 01:14:18,570 --> 01:14:19,710 essentially crushed. 860 01:14:20,220 --> 01:14:24,580 And 700 ,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes and became refugees. 861 01:14:24,920 --> 01:14:27,480 And this is a second consequence of the war. 862 01:14:31,600 --> 01:14:37,800 The Palestinian people, to this day, see it as a catastrophe, or in Arabic, a 863 01:14:37,800 --> 01:14:38,800 Nakba. 864 01:14:43,020 --> 01:14:44,960 It was a very difficult war. 865 01:14:47,210 --> 01:14:52,010 Close to 1 % of the population were killed, so it was a very, very difficult 866 01:14:52,010 --> 01:14:53,010 extended war. 867 01:14:59,950 --> 01:15:05,210 The people who fought in 1948 and brought about the creation of the State 868 01:15:05,210 --> 01:15:06,210 Israel. 869 01:15:07,310 --> 01:15:10,650 For most of them, this was the golden moment of their lives. 870 01:15:22,700 --> 01:15:24,800 On March 14, 1949, 871 01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:27,500 there was a big parade. 872 01:15:37,860 --> 01:15:39,680 I received my wings. 873 01:15:42,980 --> 01:15:44,600 I had tears in my eyes. 874 01:15:45,780 --> 01:15:49,340 This was my wish. Long time when I was a kid. 875 01:15:49,920 --> 01:15:51,560 Now I became a pilot. 876 01:15:52,360 --> 01:15:56,020 In the Israeli Air Force, in my Air Force, in my country. 877 01:16:07,100 --> 01:16:09,500 To train a pilot takes years. 878 01:16:10,400 --> 01:16:17,160 And there came a group, experienced, volunteers, who 879 01:16:17,160 --> 01:16:20,960 risked their lives, who risked their passports. 880 01:16:22,090 --> 01:16:26,010 They fought, they trained, they built. 881 01:16:27,270 --> 01:16:28,870 It was a godsend. 882 01:16:32,910 --> 01:16:39,210 When I came back, my father would boast to his patients 883 01:16:39,210 --> 01:16:44,670 and his colleagues about my son who saved Israel. 884 01:16:52,650 --> 01:16:54,130 It changed my whole life. 885 01:16:57,790 --> 01:16:59,730 It made me a mensch. 886 01:17:02,090 --> 01:17:04,970 I had done something good for once. 887 01:17:13,050 --> 01:17:18,090 There was a picture of me standing next to Ben -Gurion, my father. 888 01:17:18,310 --> 01:17:20,690 He used to cavil. He loved it. 889 01:17:26,540 --> 01:17:31,380 My father used to look at me kind of out of the side of, you know, like this. 890 01:17:32,180 --> 01:17:34,000 What is he going to do next? 891 01:17:35,580 --> 01:17:39,520 When I went to school, I got terrible grades because I never cracked a book. 892 01:17:44,460 --> 01:17:46,720 I know they were both very, very proud. 893 01:17:51,380 --> 01:17:52,720 Those were the best days. 894 01:17:54,040 --> 01:17:55,840 We built an Air Force. 895 01:18:10,720 --> 01:18:13,480 During difficult times, did you feel that Israel would survive? 896 01:18:16,040 --> 01:18:17,580 Somehow, yes, and I'll tell you why. 897 01:18:18,620 --> 01:18:20,220 Israel is an article of faith. 898 01:18:26,190 --> 01:18:30,970 I felt more at home in Israel than I did in the United States. I felt this was 899 01:18:30,970 --> 01:18:31,970 my home. 900 01:18:39,230 --> 01:18:43,730 When I came back with my wife to Israel, we were four couples in one little 901 01:18:43,730 --> 01:18:46,170 apartment. We shared everything. 902 01:18:47,230 --> 01:18:48,230 Doors were open. 903 01:18:48,450 --> 01:18:51,050 I don't remember a locked door in those days. 904 01:18:53,630 --> 01:18:55,490 The happiest days of my life. 905 01:18:59,600 --> 01:19:05,960 I was born to be here on that moment of history to 906 01:19:05,960 --> 01:19:07,820 contribute to Israel's survival. 907 01:19:15,040 --> 01:19:17,720 And that's the most important thing I did in my life. 908 01:19:21,820 --> 01:19:24,740 We have a great word in Yiddish, it's bashert. 909 01:19:24,980 --> 01:19:27,380 It's fated. It's meant to be. 910 01:19:29,640 --> 01:19:34,700 Maybe God spared us in World War II so that we could come to Israel and help 911 01:19:34,700 --> 01:19:36,460 remnants of our people survive. 912 01:20:13,320 --> 01:20:20,080 Shortly before I left Israel, they happened to be in Tel Aviv when they 913 01:20:20,080 --> 01:20:23,440 bringing in refugees from the death camps in Europe. 914 01:20:26,900 --> 01:20:31,180 I remember them getting down on their hands and knees and kissing the ground. 915 01:20:35,720 --> 01:20:40,760 I knew then and there that was the reason that I came.