World Espionage Famous Spies Revealed: Operation Noah's Ark Steals Speedboats (Part 1)

Operation Noah's Ark stole the speedboat

The military rivalry between Israel and the Arab states has not stopped. Due to the special geographical location, the two sides have never relaxed their competition in military development and military reserves, and have worked hard to improve their own equipment level in order to achieve the purpose of balancing each other. In the early 1960s, Egypt developed a maritime combat force, taking the lead in obtaining advanced warships from the Soviet Union. The move struck a nerve in Israel, and the imbalance in military power on both sides has led Israel to step up its purchases of German missile boats. The plan, which could have gone smoothly, was stranded by France's declaration of an arms embargo against Israel after the Third Middle East War in 1967. Later, in order to retrieve the missile speedboats that had been ordered, the Mossad agents quickly launched an operation to skillfully retake the ship that had been their own...

Threatened by the sea, Israel buys strong troops

In the 1960s, the situation in the Middle East was uncertain. From a geographical point of view, the Arab countries and Israel are surrounded and besieged relations, Israel is in a situation of being surrounded by Arab countries, there is great pressure on the defense of the country, we must always maintain a high degree of vigilance, beware of the every move of its neighbors; Although Israel is in the middle of the desert, the characteristics of its geographical location make its national development face the dilemma of lack of natural resources, but its scientific and technological strength has not been underestimated, so that neighboring countries have to maintain vigilance against it. In addition, behind these two forces, there was also a power confrontation between the two superpowers in the world at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union.

The United States, through Israel, infiltrated its forces into the mysterious Middle East, trying to control the situation in the region and profit from its own energy grabs in the region, which undoubtedly put pressure on the Soviet Union; At the same time, the Arab states also urgently needed to take countermeasures to achieve a balance of military power with Israel, and while the two achieved common interests for their own purposes, the Soviet Union strengthened its ties with Arab countries such as Egypt and began various cooperations, of which arms assistance was one of the important ways.

One afternoon in the late spring and early summer of 1962, Egyptian officers on the docks of Alexandria Military Harbor in Egypt cheered en masse as they celebrated the six missile speedboats that had quietly sailed into the harbor. These missile boats are the "Mosquito" and "Wasp" class missile speedboats (also translated as "Yuemar" class and "Yue Sa" class), the former displacement is 200 tons, the latter displacement of 100 tons, with the advantages of strong aggression and low cost, belongs to the light ships. The six ships came from the Soviet Union and, in addition to equipping the Warsaw Pact Navy, were also exported to India, Cuba, including Egypt and other countries. The sale to Ethiopia was part of a secret deal between Sue and Ethiopia. With these speedboats, Egypt gained an overwhelming advantage over the Israeli military in terms of navy.

As a secret force of naval equipment, Egypt has always kept this secret out of the consideration of not being captured by the other side, and also wanting to achieve the effect of surprising victory in actual combat. But there is no impermeable wall, not to mention the israeli spies' superb ability to obtain intelligence, and this news was captured by Israeli spies lurking in Egypt and spread to the intelligence headquarters in Tel Aviv. Intelligence makes it clear that once the Egyptian Navy is equipped with such missile speedboats, Israel's Tel Aviv and Haifa will be placed within enemy fire range first, while other densely populated large cities will not be spared, which is clearly a great threat to Israel's national security. The outgoing Mossad chief Harrell immediately realized the seriousness of the problem when he received the information and immediately reported it to Prime Minister Ben Gurion, who was also the Minister of Defence.

This information was conveyed to the Israeli authorities, and within the government, there were differences in the way of the matter: the IDF General Staff led the operational idea of "quick war and quick decision", believing that the importance of sea passage was not high, sea protection was not the focus, although the enemy was equipped with relatively advanced sea weapons and equipment, the focus of combat was not at sea, in addition, a considerable number of government and army leaders also believed that there was no need to be so afraid of the Arab sea blockade - if this situation really appeared, The great powers behind Israel will certainly stand up and intervene, and the land power of the Arab countries is not strong, and the Israeli army and army combat have full advantage over it, and the rout of its land power will naturally affect the overall war situation, and the so-called sea blockade will naturally be automatically lifted.

However, Prime Minister Ben Gurion objected to this, he believed that the issue of national defense must be comprehensively observed from the characteristics of geographical location, the enemy forces from the sea are a threat that cannot be ignored, in order to maintain Israel's territorial security, it is necessary to achieve coordinated development of various services, but the army side is strong but ignores others that will not only cause tacit understanding in the war, but even the enemy will find weak points. Therefore, a strong navy is indispensable.

Building a strong navy is imperative, first of all must have strong combat equipment, to deal with Egypt's missile speedboats must have advanced combat ships only. While Prime Minister Ben Gurion was struggling to prepare for naval armaments, Simon Perez, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence, told the Chancellor that the Federal Republic of Germany had developed a missile speedboat called the Jaguar, and that if it could be used to equip the Navy with such a missile boat, it would be a very ideal weaponry program. The best way to make a speedboat is the nemesis of the two types of speedboats in the Soviet Union, and Israel's coastal defense capabilities have always been a weak underbelly, which is also the reason why the Kraber countries introduced Soviet-made ships and wanted to focus on surprise attacks from the sea.

If the "jaguar" is obtained, the long coastline will be reliably secured. Simon Perez also mentioned that the reason for the idea of importing ordnance from Germany was other than the excellent performance of the Jaguar: during World War II, the Germans carried out an inhumane massacre against the Jewish people, which left deep scars on the Jewish psyche and made germans feel deeply guilty after the war. Although Israel has not yet formally established diplomatic relations with Germany, it should not be rejected if it submits an arms purchase request to Germany for national sentiments and historical reasons. Ben Gurion, having heard Simon Perez's advice, felt that the plan for arms importation from Germany was feasible and entrusted the matter to him.

The purchase was highly classified, and the whole process was due to many factors, and Simon Perez's trip was a strict secret to the outside world, not only did not inform the media, but even a few people inside the official were aware of it. Arranged by informal envoys from both sides, Simon Perez flew to Bonn and soon made secret contacts with German Chancellor Adenauer. Prime Minister Adenauer expressed great enthusiasm for the Israeli visit, believing that this is a major positive measure taken by the two sides to improve German-Israeli relations since The Second World War. Of course, the Israelis have not forgotten that their trip is not just to improve the relations between the two countries, Simon shoulders a heavier task, that is, for the protection of the country's maritime security, this trip to Germany, must promote the purchase of the "Jaguar" missile speedboat. After indicating this intention, Prime Minister Adenauer made it clear that the German side was willing to provide a certain degree of assistance to the Israeli side within its capabilities, including facilitating this arms deal with the Israeli side. But at the same time, the German side also has some scruples, so this matter must be carried out in secret.

The German side proposed to secretly carry out this arms deal based on the situation at that time: Western countries, including West Germany, had a huge consumption of energy and therefore had a very high degree of dependence on oil. Germany, in particular, is in a critical period of recovery and development at this stage. Once the arms sales to Israel are exposed, it is bound to cause a strong reaction from the Arab countries, and Germany will lose the oil supply of the Arab countries, which will directly lead to the slowdown or even stagnation of the country's development. Prime Minister Adenauer stressed the stakes to Simon Perez, hoping that Israel would understand that Germany did not want the deal to be made public. Simon Perez, of course, understood and agreed with Germany that both sides would keep their promises and operate the whole process behind closed doors.

The news leaked, and the Germans terminated the agreement

After removing Germany's scruples, it became much easier to formulate and sign agreements. Soon, Germany and Israel secretly signed an arms agreement in accordance with the prior agreement, according to which Germany will provide Israel with 2 advanced Jaguar missile speedboats and deliver them all within 6 years.

The implementation of this agreement was very smooth at the beginning, the German side built missile speedboats for Israel in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, and the Israeli side paid money to the German side in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, and the two sides did not have any problems in fulfilling the agreement. It wasn't until the end of 1964 that west Germany delivered three speedboats that something unexpected happened: a report in the New York Times across the ocean made the arms sale public.

Once the matter received media attention, it would spread at an alarming speed, and soon the matter would spread all over the world, and the international Olympiad would be well-known, and it would cause great repercussions in the Arab world. In the Middle East, the Arab countries were greatly stimulated, they did not expect that there was such an agreement between West Germany and Israel, the control of oil resources is a tried and tested trump card in the hands of the Arab countries, in response to the dependence on energy west Germany, some of which are radical countries even directly question west Germany whether it wants oil, other countries threaten to take action to boycott West German goods, and some countries are dissatisfied with Germany's behavior, and have upgraded it from public opinion to the level of actual action. Diplomatic notes were submitted directly to the West German government through official channels.

Weighing the pros and cons, under the pressure of strong public opinion, the German government had to take measures to carry out crisis public relations, in order to calm the mood of the Arab countries, announced the holding of a press conference - the German government first denied the existence of this deal, and stated that the German government has always attached importance to friendly relations with Arab countries, whether in the past, at present or in the future, will not do anything to hurt the feelings of the Arab people, I hope that the Arab countries will not misunderstand, The Federal Government will, as in the future, continue to maintain good friendship and cooperation with the Arab countries.

This secret leak led to a huge international storm, fortunately the German government handled the emergency properly and decently, the situation was not expanded in the end, and gradually resolved in a statement full of sincerity. But how exactly did the secret leak out? Which side of the blame should be attributed? Is it the carelessness of the German side or the carelessness of the Israeli side?

The origin of the matter has to start with the New York Times. The New York Times has always focused on the in-depth excavation of news and the exposure of unknown events, and there were many Times reporters on the European continent at that time who were appointed to collect news, and their purpose was to use some unconventional ways to obtain "valuable" news. Journalists would consciously make friends with people who worked in key departments and involved sensitive information, and by making friends with them, occasionally get some unexpected and amazing news--this journalist who dug into the news of Germany's arms sales to Israel did just that, and while drinking in a bar, he met a West German technician named Andrea who was in charge of building speedboats, and planned to get some "valuable" news out of his mouth through drinking and chatting. Andre, nourished by the Munich beer, completely forgot his identity and the instructions of his superiors, and after a few glasses of wine, this earth-shattering secret came out of his mouth.

So the news spread around the world, and the whole agreement was only halfway through. The Israelis were completely unaware of the leaks of the news, until the voice of international public opinion led Germany to unilaterally declare that cooperation did not exist, and they began to tense up.

In response to the fact that Israel's coastline is long and only 3 missile boats equipped with a navy that cannot meet the requirements of defense, Israel has once again sent special envoy Simon Peres to hold intense consultations with the German side. In the consultation, the German side adopted a relatively smooth statement, the first of all to admit their own faults in the leakage of the news, that their own secrecy work was improper caused by the current situation, but since the matter has come to an end, out of dependence on oil, Germany can not ignore the attitude of the Arab countries, to help Israel continue the manufacture of the next three missile speedboats is now impossible. Simon Perez heard what Germany was saying and immediately stated that Israel fully understood the situation of the German government, and sincerely expressed the current situation of the Israeli side and the urgent need for the speedboats. The Germans were quite satisfied with Simon Perez's answer, and negotiations between the two sides continued.

The continuation of negotiations shifted the focus of the discussion to the next step on how to implement the remainder of the agreement. Building speedboats in Germany is certainly not possible, and it would be an ideal solution if the project were transferred to France, which has a close arms deal with Israel. So Simon Perez flew to Paris.

The Germans thought the deal was lucrative, and the French would not refuse, and the results were unsurprising. Thanks to a public relations effort by Simon Perez, France decided to undertake the construction of the Jaguar speedboat. Of course, the French also have the same concerns as the Germans. Considering the friendly relations that France has established with the Arab world in the Middle East, the French demand that Israel must never start a war in the Middle East. France, which presents itself as the mediator of disputes between major powers and international relations, does not want the situation in the Middle East to be unbalanced by israel's unilateral military strength.