About the Israeli Spitfires and Messers read above.
The four
Beaus were smuggled out of Britain on the pretence of filming a movie about the RNZAF in the pacific, in Scotland. Their performance though has been described as "grotty" and "farcical", so they only served for a few months in 1948. An interesting exception happened when a Beau managed to take the Egyptian Sea Fury prototype down on a dive with it, which caused the Fury to crash.
They also procured four
B-17s modified to cargo planes if Florida. Three of them flew to Czechoslovakia via the Azores, to be refitted back to bombers. The fourth one was impounded by the Portuguese in the azores, after some cinematic back and forth. Two months later, inJuly 1948, the three Flying Fortress raided Cairo. The final B-17 missions anywhere were flown during the 1956 Suez War.
Twenty
AT-6 Texans were employed by the Syrian Air Force in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, providing ground support. They also engaged in air-to-air combat shooting down an Israeli Avia S-199 fighter (no suprise there). Syria got 20 rebuilt T6D from the US after WWII and another 10 Harvard IIb from South Africa in the mid 1950s. They were passed on to Egypt after 1958.
Egypt also used a number of Harvard mkIIb as trainers and liaison aircraft in 1948-1949. They operated more than 59 different aircraft between 1943 and 1967 (15 from Canada in 1955), and they were the last customer for the type.
The Israeli Air Force bought 17 Harvards, and operated in the final stages of the 1948 war, the 1949 "Horev" operation vs Britain and the Sinai Campaign.
33
Avro Anson aircraft were supplied to the Iraqi Air Force, the source is unknown. These were delivered in March 1946. A squadron operated against Israel from Transjordan.
6 Anson aircraft of unknown mark acquired by the Syrian Air Force in 1948-9, probably from Iraq.
Israel also purchased 4 Anson aircraft.They were supposedly destined for Singapore. The planes were renovated but their state was poor and one of them was forced to land near Milan on the way from Paris to Palestine. Thus the British learned of the real purpose of the planes, and when the four planes arrived at a stopover in Rhodes they were confiscated there by the Greek authorities. In 1949 , Greece released the confiscated planes to Israel however. Two of them arrived in Israel in March and the rest in December 1949.In the early 1950s five additional planes were purchased in Britain. Their poor condition and a shortage of spare parts led to their coming out of service in 1956.
Two batches of three Ansons each were delivered to the REAF in 1936 and 1945. One was gifted to King Farouk for his birthday on April 1945.
The Egyptians also ordered 20 ex-RAF
Spitfire Mk.22. The order was placed on first of may 1950 and the last was delivered in late 1950. Ten refurbished aircraft were sold to Syria as well around 1950.
In April 1948 the first
Sea Fury prototype flew to Cairo for the Heliopolis Air Display. The demonstration of aerobatics and high-speed passes so impressed the Egyptians that an excited crowd swarmed over the aircraft. A few days later it was impounded and turned over to the REAF. The Hawker Fury prototype joined combat over Palestine, where it shot down at least one enemy aircraft, and itself eventually crashed in the Mediterranean Sea chasing the Beaufighter mentioned above. Egypt immediately placed an order for twelve aircraft. Delivery was delayed by the British arms embargo during the early Arab-Israeli war, and so the first two Sea Furies came from Iraq. They were joined by the twelve aircraft ordered from Hawker in 1950-51 (so 15 total).
The first modern fighter in service with the Iraqi Air Force was the denavalised
Hawker Fury. In May 1948 the first eight Fury F.Mk.1s, and a two-seater were delivered to the No.7 Sqn which was at the time flying Anson bombers, but most of these were sent to the Transjordan, from where they participated in the Arab-Israeli War. Therefore, a number of former Anson-pilots were swiftly converted to the Fury and initially, they suffered considerable attrition, as their pilots were trained in a rush. By the time No. 7 Sqn was moved to Amman on July 1948, only six out of some 14 aircraft delivered were still operational. Shortly after, operating out of Damascus AFB two pilots claimed the destruction of one of Israeli B-17. Due to the temporary armistice no more combat sorties were flown. Instead, the No.7 Sqn was advised to hand its remaining four operational Furies to Egypt (as mentioned), while the crews were returned to Iraq. Despite these early problems, the RIrAF was to continue purchasing Furies, and acquired a total of 38 more F.Mk.1s, and four two-seaters.
On July 28, 1948, the Egyptian A.F. received the first of their
Short Stirling Mk.V transports and 3 more followed shortly after.Four more Stirlings were aquired by Egypt at a later date, but another source states that totally only 6 Stirlings were obtained. These were modified to bombers and were quite active during the war. By 1950 they were unserviceable and were scrapped by 1951. Egypt also bought 9 transport
Handley Page Halifax and 9 demilitarised
Avro Lancaster in 1948 (delivered in between November 1949 and October 1950) and converted them to bombers. These had no effect on war and were destroyed on the ground during the 1956 Suez crisis.
Three ex-civil
DC-3 were obtained by Israel the summer of 1948. They were used by 103 sqn for bomber and freight transport role. A total of thirty-four plus of C-47, C-53 and DC-3 variants were obtained between 1948-60. Withdrawn from service in January 2001.
Egypt operated 20 between 1945 and 1972, Syria 9 from 1948 into the 70s and they also used them as light bombers.
Three
PBY-5 Catalinas were acquired for the IDF/AF and served from 1951 to 1956 in the maritime patrol role.
(wip)...
