Nora (ship)

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The Nora was an Italian cargo ship . She was the first ship to break the British blockade and to reach Palestine on April 1, 1948 with a load of weapons, ammunition and other military equipment . Operation Nachshon could be armed with their cargo, which gave a decisive turn to the course of the Palestine War.

Hagana weapons ship

On December 2, 1947, Ehud Avriel of David Ben Gurion with an order for Europe sent on the black market weapons and military equipment worth 300,000 dollars to raise and no later than February 10, 1948 by ship to Tel Aviv to bring. Against the background of the strict British arms embargo and the sea blockade, as well as the uncertain conditions in post-war Europe and the beginning of the Cold War , the success of this company was very uncertain.

Through his contact Adam-Robert Avramowitsch, Avriel entered into direct negotiations with the Czech arms factory Zboroyovka , from which, with the approval of the USSR, he obtained a total of 4,500 rifles , 200 machine guns and ammunition valued at 750,000 dollars. The international ban on such arms sales was circumvented by declaring the arms as being shipped to Ethiopia . The material was transported by cargo ship across the Danube to Yugoslavia and then by freight train to the port of Šibenik , where it did not arrive until the beginning of March.

Other Mossad members were hired to procure a transport ship, but poor communication and internal hostilities between key personnel meant that no ship was available in early March 1948. Avriel then organized the Nora on his own initiative , which was bought for Avriel by private Jewish ship dealers in Venice in early March . Before the crossing to Šibenik, the Nora was loaded with 300 tons of onion and potato sacks as well as wooden panels that would later serve as camouflage for the actual cargo. The Italian crew was left unaware of the Nora's actual cargo and destination .

On March 19, the Nora entered the port of Šibenik and was loaded with the weapons. The Italian team, from which the purpose of the trip could no longer be concealed, was prevented from leaving the Nora with increased wages and hidden threats .

During the crossing to Tel Aviv, the Nora got caught in a severe storm east of Crete and had to seek refuge in Larnaka Bay . There she was waiting for the storm to end in the direct vicinity of two British destroyers who were part of the sea blockade against illegal immigration off Palestine . Their mission and their secret cargo remained undiscovered. After four days the Nora was able to continue and reached Tel Aviv on April 1st. During the anchorage, one of the two British destroyers that had anchored near Larnaka next to the Nora approached and circled the Nora . Afraid of being discovered and arrested, the Italian captain suffered a nervous breakdown . Spontaneously a Mossad agent put on his captain's jacket and greeted the destroyer in the maritime tradition, whereupon the destroyer said hello and turned away. The Nora's military cargo could be unmolested and was used directly in Operation Nachshon.

The long delay in the delivery of arms by a total of seven weeks turned out to be a weak point in Jewish arms procurement. As equipment was withdrawn from other arenas in the country for the upcoming Operation Nachshon, the defense of the yishuv was severely weakened. As a consequence, the Air Transport Commando was set up on March 28th, which transported a total of 3,000 tons of material to Israel with Commando and Constellation transport aircraft. On the other hand, the Palyamnik Schaul Avigur was used as a coordinator for the Hagana arms transport ships.

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