Page 10 - TORCH Magazine #23 - July 2023

Codenamed Operation Velvetta, the
first six Spitfires left Czechoslovakia on
24 September 1948 led by Pomerance, followed by five more. The formation was accompanied from Yugoslavia by a larger C-54 aircraft, which they called “the mother ship”, that contained the surplus Spitfire parts, and dinghies in case a Spitfire crashed in the sea. Meanwhile in Israel, fighter planes waited on standby to protect the unarmed planes as they evaded Egyptian warplanes.
After two hours in flight, two of the planes had to make an emergency landing on the Greek island of Rhodes. Both pilots were arrested as suspected Communist sympathizers and the Spitfires were impounded. The other planes arrived safely in Israel with only a few drops of fuel left in their tanks after an intense 5 hour and 20 minute flight. Eventually the two pilots in Greece were released following intervention from Israeli officials.
The newly arrived planes were integrated immediately into Israel’s 101 Squadron and by mid-December 1948, more Spitfires were ready to be flown to Israel in Operation Velvetta II. Even though the operation saw Israel equipped with several more Spitfires, it did come at a human cost. Sadly, Sam
Egyptian Air Force dominated the skies and pounded Israeli targets on the ground, but with the arrival of the Spitfires from Czechoslovakia, control of the skies shifted from the Egyptian Air Force to the Israel Air Force. On 15 October 1948, the first
day of “Operation Yoav,” Israeli pilots Rudy Augarten, Syd Cohen, and Jack Cohen, each one flying a Spitfire, made an extremely successful attack on the El-Arish air base
in Egypt, destroying several Egyptian aircraft on the ground and in their hangars, and putting the airfield temporarily out of action. This was an example of an excellent low-flying attack that the Spitfire had become renowned for. The Spitfires also participated in “Operation Hiram” which liberated the Galilee.
According to the 101 Squadron’s records, 24 enemy aircraft were shot down from
the air during the War of Independence. Israel rapidly established air superiority and there is no doubt that Spitfires played a crucial part in Israel’s victory in the War of Independence.
Although Spitfires were used by Israel’s enemies, Britain’s battle in the air in World War 2 reminds us that the Spitfire was originally built to defend freedom and fight
Promerance was killed when he crashed into a mountain during a snowstorm and a second pilot, Bill Pomerantz, also crashed but survived.
Before Israel received its Spitfires through the Velvetta Operations, the
against evil. They were not designed to be used by our enemies. They were built for good. In 1948, Israel reclaimed the Spitfire from the debris of its enemies and united British engineering with Israeli ingenuity. Evil was defeated. Good triumphed.
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Supermarine Spitfire LF.MK.IXe TE578 at the Israeli Air Force Museum. Photo by Oren Rozen