Operation Balak

Curtiss C-46 Commando , one of the types of aircraft used in Operation Balak

Under the operation Balak refers to a 1948 built airlift from Czechoslovakia , with the help of the Haganah in the Israeli War of Independence was supplied with weapons.

description

Until the end of 1947, the commanders of the Hagana did not think of a concerted Arab attack and the necessary air support for ground troops or transport. The former TWA - Navigator and founder of front company Service Airlines , Al Schwimmer , had the idea in the United States to buy aircraft to fly and to Palestine. Because of the American arms embargo that was illegal and float was charged with conspiracy severely punished and he was deprived of all civil rights - until President Bill Clinton pardoned him in 2001. Financial support was provided by the collection campaign United Jewish Appeal (UJA), which materially from Golda Meir's charismatic Speeches benefited. The action was carried out by Machal volunteers , including Gordon Levett, a British Royal Air Force pilot , and later Israeli President Ezer Weizman . The arms smuggling began in 1947 with negotiations in what was then the British Mandate in Palestine , without any objections from the Soviet Union ; she hoped that Britain's position in the Middle East would be weakened . At the same time arms deliveries to Egypt were stopped at the complaint of the later Israeli foreign minister Moshe Sharet . It was about carbines, machine guns and fighter planes, some of which had been produced on behalf of Messerschmitt during the Second World War . The 25 dismantled Avia S-199 , the Czechoslovak post-war version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 , the price of which was fitted out to 190,000 US dollars, were used in the transport aircraft Curtiss C-46A "Commando" , Douglas C-54 "Skymaster" and Lockheed L-049 " Constellation "promoted. According to official sources, the victory over the armies of the Arab League was owed to the airlift between the military airfield near Žatec (code name Etzion ) and Lod , via which weapons for the Israeli army came during the War of Independence - 60 percent of the armaments imported from Europe at that time . Conversely, in mid-1948 Czechoslovakia covered a quarter of its foreign exchange income. Under American pressure, the flights from Etzion were suspended on August 12, 1948. The sale of Czechoslovak weapons, including Operation Balak , was discussed in the 1952 show trial of Rudolf Slánský and some of the accused were charged.

Web links

Zdeněk Klima: Saaz Airlift - Ekron Summer 1948 - Operation “Balak” from mid-May to mid-August 1948

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton University Press, Princeton et al. a. 2013, ISBN 978-0-691-13887-9 , p. 229 f.
↑ Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton et al. a. 2013, p. 242 f.
↑ Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton et al. a. 2013, p. 245 f.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Jan Gerber : Slánsky process . In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture , Volume 5, Stuttgart 2014, p. 511.
↑ Amitzur Ilan: The Origin of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race. Arms, Embargo, Military Power and Decision in the 1948 Palestine War. University Press, New York 1996, p. 169.

[penslar_229-1] Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton University Press, Princeton et al. a. 2013, ISBN 978-0-691-13887-9 , p. 229 f.

[2] Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton et al. a. 2013, p. 242 f.

[3] Derek J. Penslar: Jews and the Military. A History , Princeton et al. a. 2013, p. 245 f.

[gerber_2014-4] Jan Gerber : Slánsky process . In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture , Volume 5, Stuttgart 2014, p. 511.

[5] Amitzur Ilan: The Origin of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race. Arms, Embargo, Military Power and Decision in the 1948 Palestine War. University Press, New York 1996, p. 169.