Filton Airfield Enthusiasts Website - Bristol Beaufighter in Israeli Service

A film shoot that changed history

The story of the Beaufighter's arrival in Israel is one of the more original and entertaining ones in the early history of Israeli military purchases.

Imanuel Tzur, who was in charge of IAF aircraft acquisition in Britain, located a workshop near London whose owner was willing to sell six Beaufighters he had purchased as war surplus. He wanted £1,500 for the aircraft, including the cost of repair work.
In order to disguise the deal, the aircraft were bought under the name of one Dixon - a pilot who had served in the RAF. A strenuous repair effort resulted in four of the planes being brought to flight readiness (the fifth crashed and the sixth was confiscated). But there remained the challenge of smuggling them from Britain to Israel.

Credit for the idea belongs to the New Zealand-born girlfriend of one of the pilots scheduled to fly the airplanes. She reported that British filmmakers had approached her with an offer to help produce a film about New Zealand's war effort during WW2.
Thus an original plan was devised: a film would be made about the daring exploits of New Zealand's fighter pilots, which would include a scene in which the Beaufighters took off. When the scene was shot, the Beaufighters would disappear over the horizon - but instead of returning to base, they would continue onwards, to Israel.

In order to realize the scheme, a fictitious film studio was established, again under Mr. Dixon's name, which served as a front for hiring the British pilots. A script was drawn up, and a scene included in which the lead actress parts tearfully from her beau. He is a pilot, and must leave in order to fly his Beaufighter on a combat mission against Japanese planes. The bogus production plan called for the planes to continue towards Scotland after takeoff, since the landscape there resembles New Zealand's.

All went according to plan. At the appointed hour, in early August 1948, the airplanes and the pilots were ready for their mission. The film shoot was carried out in front of a large crowd of spectators. Just as the script called for, the technicians ran towards the planes; the pilots, who were already seated, started the engines; but instead of flying to Scotland, the four Beaufighters made their way to Iaccio in Italy.

The aircraft's owner made sure that air control in Scotland was only notified of the takeoff several hours after it had taken place, to avoid arousing suspicion when the aircraft were late to land. 4½ hours later, the Beaufighters were in Iaccio. The authorities in Britain were still unaware that they had disappeared.

The next stop on the route was in Yugoslavia. The airmen spent the night in a small town near the airfield, and took off for Israel the next day. 5 hours' flight later, they landed in Ramat David Airbase.

The aircraft in the War of Independence

Of the four Beaufighters that had reached Israel, one was eventually disassembled to provide spare parts for the other three. Those three were readied for operational duty and integrated into the Transport Squadron at the Ramat David Airbase, alongside 5 Dakotas. One of the four was taken apart for spare parts, after undergoing an accident.
The aircraft arrived during the second lull in the fighting, and were ready for operations as the fighting started up again. The Beaufighter group was organized by 'Mahal' overseas volunteer Leonard Pitchett from Canada, who was killed when his Beaufighter crashed, while attacking the Iraq-Sueidan Police base.

On October 15th 1948 Operation 'Yoav' began. Its aim was to break through the Egyptian salient across southern Israel which cut off the Negev from the rest of the country. The IAF, with 75 battle-worthy aircraft at its disposal, played an important role in this operation. Its assignments were to destroy enemy air assets, to attack enemy strategic and tactical targets, and to directly assist the fighting units.
The plans called for the bombers and transports - the B-17's, Dakotas and Commandos - to carry out high-altitude bombing, while the Spitfires and Beaufighters executed low-altitude bombing raids. The Beaufighters took part in bombing Egyptian targets in this operation, including el-Arish and Faluja.

On October 20th 1948, two Beaufighters went up to bomb the Iraq-Sueidan Police building from low altitude. The Beaufighters were flown by Leonard Pitchett, Dov Shugerman and Stanley Andrews in the lead plane, and Sid Kenridge and Danny Rosen in the no. 2 position. The planes flew at treetop altitude in order to avoid AAA, but met heavy AAA when they reached their target.

The lead plane fired its cannon, then dropped its bombs. The no. 2 plane initially had trouble operating its weapons, but participated in the second bombing run. The lead plane was hit in the engine and disappeared. Its remains were only found 46 years later, near the Arab village of Ishdud.
In 1949, when the War of Independence was over, the Beaufighter was retired from service.

Israeli Beaufighters - Individual Aircraft

Beaufighters earmarked for Israeli service. (IAF serial allocation requires confirmation):

G-AJMB Beaufighter TF Mk.X, ex RD135