In the early morning of June 5, 1967, Israel's "air blitzkrieg" kicked off the third Middle East war, and in 60 hours, Arab countries lost 451 aircraft, most of which were destroyed on the ground. In the ensuing air battle, the Arab Air Force also suffered heavy losses, with an Arab-Israeli loss ratio of 60:3, and a large number of Soviet-made MiG fighters were shot down. The reason why Israeli fighter jets can have such a big advantage in air combat is that the biggest hero behind the scenes is the outstanding Israeli spy agency - the Mossad.
In 1965, a Syrian pilot flew a MiG-17 fighter jet to Israel. A few months later, Israeli interceptors forced seven MiG-17 fighter jets that had invaded Israeli airspace to land at a military airfield in northern Israel. In exchange for israelis held in Syrian prisons, the pilots and 5 MiGs were returned to Syria. The three that remained in Israel, after careful camouflage and marking stripes, formed a special training squadron. The newly formed Special Training Squadron provided a tangible training target for Israeli pilots, and simulated air combat gave Israeli pilots great confidence. However, the Israeli Air Force was not reassured.
Even more valuable to the Israeli Air Force is the Arab Air Force's latest MiG-21 fighter jet. Both the MiG-21 and the Mirage aircraft equipped by the Israeli Air Force are Mach-2 class aircraft. But Israel knows little about the detailed performance of this mysterious opponent, which is a huge heart problem for the numerically inferior Israeli Air Force.
Mel Amit
On March 25, 1963, Mel Amit was appointed chief of the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad. On his first day in office, he lobbied in government ministries to listen to what was expected of the Mossad. At the Air Command, Air Force Commander Weizmann bluntly told him: "If you can get a Soviet MiG-21 fighter, you will show the value of the Mossad's existence." For now, the MiG-21 is the most advanced fighter in the world, and it poses a huge threat to our air superiority. Therefore, understanding the structure and performance of the MiG-21 has become a top priority for us. I hope you can help in this regard. ”
The Mossad is always confident in his mobility: "Your Excellency, I am ready to get you a MiG-21. What do you think? ”
"It wasn't easy, the Soviets took a close eye on their most advanced MiG-21 fighters, they didn't allow outsiders to come near them, and the Arab pilots who flew them were carefully selected, and it was difficult to get close to them, let alone get a plane." Well, as long as you can get me accurate technical performance data, we will be very satisfied. ”
The MiG-21 was the first production model in the Soviet Union
Good business from the sky
Coincidentally, not long after, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity appeared. On this day, a stranger stepped into the Israeli Embassy in France. The stranger went straight to the point: "I have a close friend in Iraq who asked me to tell you that if the Israelis want to get a MiG-21 fighter, then you should go to Baghdad and contact Jozef. The stranger finished speaking and walked away.
When Amit received this information, he attached great importance to it. For several days he had been thinking about the candidates to be sent to Baghdad, and in the end, he had selected Josif Mysore, a young officer in the Israeli Military Intelligence Service.
On 8 September 1965, Mysore flew to Baghdad Airport. He is a British X-ray specialist and hired by Israel's advanced electrotherapy equipment company to travel to Baghdad to market products. Within a week, Mysore visited Iraqi health ministers and hospitals to market electrotherapy equipment. Still, he was thinking about that phone number. Finally, he believed that there could be no further delay. For safety reasons, he invited two officials from the Ministry of Health to lunch at a high-end restaurant in Baghdad. During the meal, he slowly entered the green telephone room.
During the Six-Day War, Israel achieved great results with its Mirage III fighter jets and laid the foundation for victory
The phone was connected, and it was None other than Jozefer.
The next night, by a bench in the park, Mysore listened to Jozefer. It turned out that Jozef was born in Iraq to a poor Jewish family. In the early 1950s, iraqi authorities expelled Jews en masse, and by the 1960s, the situation had become even worse, and Jozef was bent on trying to escape to Israel. By this time, his son, Munir Redfar, had become a flight captain in the Iraqi Air Force. He entered the Air Force after careful selection and rigorous inspection by the Soviet and Iraqi security services. Earlier, he had been sent to the United States for training. Later, he was sent to the Soviet Union to learn flying techniques, and finally was entrusted with flying a MiG-21 aircraft. After the tea, Redfa's account of the power of the MiG machine and Israel's willingness to pay millions of dollars to get it made Jozefer's heart light up.
"If he could persuade his son to fly the MiG-21 fighter jets to Israel, then in exchange, Israel would agree to send his entire family abroad and use sufficient funds to ensure that his family's life would not be at least below the level in Baghdad." In this way, when one of his friends was going to Europe on business, he asked him to stop by the Israeli Embassy in France to convey his ideas. After that, he waited patiently, and now finally there is a result.
Headquarters building in the Mossad, Israel
At this moment, Mysore was very excited, and things went so smoothly that he greatly surprised him. He solemnly asked Jozefer, "Sir, how much do you want in exchange?" ”
"I only need £500,000 and nothing else."
"Well, in a word, I will immediately ask my superiors for instructions, and you should wait for the good news!"
After the breakup, Mysore discovered through a secret investigation that what Jozefer said was completely true. So he sent Amit a secret telegram.
Transnational action
When Amit received a call from Baghdad, he couldn't help but say to himself: "500,000 pounds to buy a MiG-21 is just too good." Together with chief of the General Staff, Yitzhak Rabin, he reported truthfully to the Cabinet meeting. Immediately afterward, Amit instructed to draw up plans for the operation at once, as soon as possible.
After 3 days, a detailed top-secret plan was drawn up:
Operation One, composed of Mysore and a telegraph operator, still lurks in Baghdad in the name of doing business. Mysore was tasked with liaising with Jozef and, if conditions were ripe, with Hisshef's family.
Operation Group TWO, consisting of 4 people, infiltrated Baghdad to secretly assist Mysore. In effect, Operation Group II was tasked with rescuing Mysore and the operators in case of failure, or, if Mysore mutinied due to a sudden change in the situation, Operation Group TWO would replace it.
Sean Connery, who starred in the movie "007", was specially invited by the Israeli military to take a photo with the 007 MiG 21
Operation Group III, composed of six members from the Israeli Military Intelligence Service, was tasked with infiltrating the Kurdistan region to transport Jozef's family out of Iraq.
Operation Group IV lives in Ahvaz, Iran, and participates in the evacuation of the families of Jozef.
Israel has also sent a large number of personnel to Turkey, whose mission is to prepare for the refueling and landing of aircraft. Because the route from Iraq to Israel was all the airspace of a hostile country, the MiG-21 could not land, and Jordan also had fighter jets capable of intercepting MiGs in the air. In addition, Israel is more aware that the Soviets, fearing that miG fighter jets will be hijacked by the West, only fill half of the fuel tanks in training, and cannot fly from Baghdad to Israel without refueling.
Amit knew that the CIA and the Pentagon were also anxious to get a MiG-21 fighter. So he called the CIA director in Washington and asked the United States for help. The United States readily agreed. One night, a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad secretly received Jozef and Redfa at the agreed location, "This MiG fighter jet has a very far-reaching significance not only for Israel, but also for the entire West, and the actions of your father and son will shock the world." ”
On the banks of the Tigris River on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, Mysore and Jozef met again. Mysore glanced around and whispered, "The Israeli Cabinet has approved our plan to smuggle your wife, children, and your entire family out of the country." ”
The MiG-21 was publicly unveiled at a military parade in Israel
"Well, then I decided to ask my uncle to go to Switzerland first, arrange the house, and prepare the whole family for the trip." In this way, you are asked to draw up 250,000 pounds first. What do you think? ”
"Okay, just let your uncle withdraw money with my check." You and your entire family departed on the night of August 14, 1966, and Redfa flew to Israel on the 15th. ”
At this time, in the great forests of The Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Mossad Operations Group III was busy smuggling the Jozef family. Kurdish guerrillas, who are at odds with the Iraqi authorities, frequently roam the mountains and forests under the leadership of patriarch Benzani, and their weapons and equipment are provided by Israel. Today, the Israelis have brought them another large number of weapons, and these Kurds are overjoyed. Now, the Mossad finally needed them.
Soon, a Kurdish guerrilla detachment entered Baghdad, tasked with securing The Redfa family and smuggling them all out of the country. Jozef's uncle arrived in Switzerland first in the name of medical treatment, bought a house, and waited for the family to return from Iraq.
F-4 Ghost Fighter
Radfa asked a doctor to prescribe a diagnosis, saying that his son had a difficult disease that could not be cured in Iraq and that he must go to London immediately or risk his life. In this way, Redface's wife went to England with her children.
On the night of August 14, Benzani arrived in Baghdad in two cars and transported the entire Family of Jozef. When the helicopter slowly took off, Jiao Zefu was elated in the cabin and sent a secret telegram to Redfa: "The whole family is safe, and I hope that the children will return quickly!" ”
Fly to Israel
On August 15, the MiG-21's training plan was for Redfa to take off from its base in Mosul for a training flight in northern Iraq. When he received his father's code word by radio, he was ready to act. This morning, Redfar calmly walked toward his plane. He ordered the mechanic to fill his auxiliary tank with oil as well. The mechanic was surprised because Soviet advisers had repeatedly ordered fuel to be limited to the minimum amount necessary to carry out the mission.
After the successful defection, Redfa took a group photo with the MiG-21 fighter jet that had changed the Israeli flag
Redfar has always been "well-behaved" in his solo patrols for years, which has helped him a lot. And, at this moment, Soviet advisers were gathering for breakfast. The mechanic obeyed Redfa's orders. The mechanics had no idea that a defection plan had been drawn up in distant Tel Aviv.
Munir Redfa's movements did not show the slightest haste, and he flew calmly into the blue sky, in the direction of Baghdad. As soon as he flew out of view of the base, he quickly turned around and flew toward Turkey. As soon as it entered the Turkish border, the American F-4 "Ghost" fighter came out to lead the way, and After landing at the airport to refuel, Redfa flew through the Mediterranean Sea to Israel.
After flying close to Israeli airspace, in order to keep his identity from being suspected, Redfa made a series of pre-agreed maneuvers before he was allowed to cross the Dead Sea and land on the tarmac of an air base in the Negev Desert, a journey that took only 25 minutes. Since then, the MiG-21 fighter jet is no longer an ace in the hands of the Soviets.
This incident immediately caused a sensation in the world. In the hours after the incident, the U.S. government, the French, British, and other governments secretly put pressure on Tel Aviv to see the MiG-21. You know, this is the first MiG-21 aircraft to fall into the hands of Western countries!
MiG-21
Of course, the Israeli government was also threatened by the Soviet Union. The Soviets demanded that their aircraft be immediately recovered. The Israelis tried to narrow the situation, saying that the pilots and planes had suddenly fallen from the sky, and even the authorities were extremely surprised. In the months after the MiG incident, in order to calm the anger of the Soviets, all requests from Western countries to study the aircraft were strictly rejected, and even the United States ate behind closed doors. The Americans also wanted to take a closer look at the plane, because in Vietnam, the U.S. Air Force was fighting the same aircraft. But Israeli Prime Minister Levi Ashikol, hoping to quell soviet anger, rejected any request from Washington for the plane, and it was only after the June 5 War that the United States shipped the MiG-21 back home for study.
Soviet advisers and iraqi army chiefs spent months trying to figure out how the pilot's defection was planned. The Iraqi authorities are well aware that this was not just a whimsical impulse to disgruntle the pilots, but a well-organized and well-prepared operation:
In the weeks leading up to the events, all the members of the Munir family had gone abroad for one very convincing reason or another, and his bank deposits had been exhausted; Under normal circumstances, the intrusion of a foreign aircraft into Israeli airspace would always provoke a rapid response from the Israeli army, and it is almost certain that the invaders will not be able to escape the fate, but this time it is an exception.
The MiG-21 fighter jet hunted by the Mossad was painted red and exhibited in the Open Museum of the Israeli Air Force
The suspicions of the Soviets naturally fell on the Israelis. Moscow, on the other hand, only gathered enough details many years later to sort out this complex mystery.
Experience flying
The original bright silver No. 534 MiG machine was painted bright red after coming to Israel. In addition to spraying the fuselage with large satellites, the humorous Israelis also named it "007" after the code name of the famous spy James Bond in the movie, and sprayed three particularly eye-catching numbers of "007" on the fuselage to prevent an overly active Israeli pilot from inadvertently shooting it down.
One of Israel's finest pilots, Danny Shapina, flew the MiG.
The Israeli Air Force found that although the MiG's appearance was not very good — its thousands of rough rivets contrasted with the delicate shiny smooth shell of the French aircraft — the Soviet aircraft was indeed first-class. Especially at high altitudes, that's really an outstanding fighter. Another great surprise to the Israelis was the discovery of a technologically advanced, infrared-guided Atoll air-to-air missile on board. This missile is mounted on a MiG, and it has a "killer weapon."
With the testing of the MiG-21, the Israeli Air Force quickly grasped the equipment of the Arab countries and gained the upper hand in the Third Middle East War
However, simulated air combat with the Mirage fighters also exposed the weaknesses of Soviet aircraft. Although it is maneuverable at high altitude supersonic and subsonic speeds, it lacks thrust; Although it has good acceleration performance, its combat radius is very short; The Mirage has a horizontal field of view of 360 degrees, while the MiG has a considerable number of dead ends; The MiG's 30 mm gun is also much different from the Mirage fighter gun.
In the days that followed, Redfarth worked with Israeli pilots. He taught the Israelis without reservation all the flying techniques he had learned from Soviet instructors and all the knowledge of airplanes. Piloted by Munir Redfa and other Israeli pilots, the 007 flew tens of thousands of kilometers, conducting hundreds of simulated battles over Israel.
They processed the countless data obtained by electronic computers, analyzing every advantage and every disadvantage of the MiG-21. Thus, by the time the June 5 War broke out, The Israeli Air Force pilots had fully grasped the performance of the MiG-21 and its weaknesses. All this played a decisive role in the Israelis' seizure of the initiative in air warfare in the war.