Gordon Levett - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lieut. Col. Gordon Levett (1921–2000) was a former Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

pilot in the Second World War who volunteered for a covert mission to fly supplies including dismantled fighter planes into the fledgling state of Israel in its War for Independence. Later Levett joined the first squadron of the newly-created Israeli Air Force

Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...

, helping establish a permanent Israeli military and aiding in the founding of the state of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Levett was the only English gentile

Gentile

The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....

pilot in the Israeli Air Force, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

Background

Born into such poverty in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

that his mother once placed him in an orphanage for eighteen months so he wouldn't starve, Levett

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

joined the RAF in 1939 at age 17 when World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

broke out. Initially a groundcrew

Groundcrew

In aviation, the groundcrew is the support crew supplying the aircraft with fuel and maintenance, as opposed to the aircrew.In airlines, ground crew members include:*Airframe and powerplant technicians*Avionics technicians*Baggage handlers*Rampers...

man, Levett applied for a pilot slot and in November 1940 was sent to flight school. He spent the rest of the war training other pilots and flying transport planes, becoming a Squadron Leader

Squadron Leader

Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...

. But he was subsequently expelled from the RAF after taking unauthorized leave from his remote Burma base, and so after the War was unable to find work as an aviator.

Levett went to work in a Jewish-owned diaper laundry in London

London

, where he learned about developments in the Middle East. When he read of attempts to found an Israeli state, he volunteered to join the Israeli Mahal

Mahal

-Geography:* Mahal, India, a small town in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India* Malé, the capital of Maldives* Mahalle, Turkish language country subdivision or neighbourhood term* Mahalla, an Arabic language country subdivision or neighbourhood term...

unit, a group of 5,000-odd overseas volunteers in early 1948. The Mahal were established to assist what had been a largely underground Zionist force. After two meetings with Jewish agents in London, Levett was supplied with a ticket for Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. From there he was sent to Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

With the Israeli Air Force

The Mahal pilots, mostly English Jews, began ferrying dismantled Avia S-199

Avia S-199

|-See also:-External links: *** with more pictures and further information...

s (a modified Messerschmitt-109G

Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...

with a bomber engine and gunpods) fighter aircraft from their base in Žatec

Žatec

Žatec is an old town in the Czech Republic, in Louny District, Ústí nad Labem Region. It has a population of 19,813 .The earliest historical reference to Sacz is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004. During the 11th century it belonged to the Vršovci - a powerful Czech...

, Czechoslovakia, where a group of mostly American Jewish volunteers had assembled a fleet of transport aircraft acquired in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, to Ekron

Tel Nof Airbase

Tel Nof Israeli Air Force , also known as Air Force Base 8, is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force. Tel Nof is located near Rehovot, Israel.-History:...

airbase in an operation codenamed Operation Balak

Operation Balak

Operation Balak was a smuggling operation, during the founding of Israel in 1948, that purchased arms in Europe to avoid various embargoes and boycotts transferring them to the Zionists...

. Levett's job was shuttling the Avias and an enormous cache of arms bought from the Czechs, with Soviet approval, to Israel. The cargo included the disassembled fighter planes, bombs, firearms and even first aid equipment.

Located on an out-of-the-way road in a rural area some 20 miles from the East German border, the Czech base was a primitive facility with a small control tower, a few huts and a single concrete runway used by the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

during World War II. The scene at the tiny facility startled Levett and other volunteers: They were greeted by a jarring jumble of American transport aircraft and several Messerschmitt

Messerschmitt

Messerschmitt AG was a famous German aircraft manufacturing corporation named for its chief designer, Willy Messerschmitt, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, notably the Bf 109 and Me 262...

109 fighters, six or seven Curtiss Commando C-46s, a Douglas Skymaster

C-54 Skymaster

The Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces and British forces in World War II and the Korean War. Besides transport of cargo, it also carried presidents, British heads of government, and military staff...

DC-4 and several smaller aircraft. "Even more astonishing, the ground staff wore baseball caps and were speaking with American accents."

The Balak airlift, operating under Israel's Air Transport Command, lasted three months. Operating under cover of darkness, Levett transported tons of arms, ammunition and personnel, as well as the disassembled Avias. The airlift was instrumental in Israel's success in the War for Independence. The hazardous trips, recounted by Levett in his memoir Flying Under Two Flags: An RAF Pilot in Israel's War of Independence, skirted enemy groundfire and hostile fighter planes in making their deliveries.

Some 5,000 foreigners volunteered to help Israel in the fight for independence. Levett was one of the few non-Jews, and his role as the primary pilot in the Balak airlift proved pivotal. The Avia fighters, dismantled and flown in pieces from the Czech base, were reassembled and painted in new colors when they arrived in Israel. The fighters Levett transported became the backbone of the new Jewish state's first air force.

Following the airlift, Levett joined Squadron 101 in November 1948. The squadron

Squadron (aviation)

A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...

, which included Ezer Weizman

Ezer Weizman

' was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.-Biography:...

(later commander of the Israeli Air Force, Minister of Defense and President of Israel

President of Israel

The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

), was instrumental in the War for Independence. During its first eight months, the fighter squadron shot down 20 Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

aircraft, including a few former RAF fighter planes piloted by the enemy during a January 1949 engagement. In that unlikely dogfight, Israeli pilots flying Nazi-designed Avias downed several English-made Spitfires flown by the Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ians.

Being a non-Jew wasn't the only thing that made Levett unusual. Some of the fledgling nation's new pilots were strictly mercenaries, paid far more than volunteers like Levett. Levett was scornful of the motives of the mercenaries. "One American fighter pilot," he wrote, "was getting 2,000 dollars-a-month and a 500-dollar bonus for every enemy aircraft he shot down," Levett recalled in his memoir. "They did their job well, but I did not care for them. At the toss of a shekel they would have been on the other side."

Before he began flying the hazardous sorties for 101 Squadron, Levett had kept secret from his Israeli handlers the fact that he had never flown a single RAF combat mission in a fighter, although he had trained in them. His only operational experience was flying lumbering cargo planes.

His early attempts at flying the nimble British-made Spitfires

Supermarine Spitfire

The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...

and American-made Mustangs

P-51 Mustang

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...

didn't always go smoothly. The Spitfires weighed less than four tons; the C-46 cargo planes Levett flew weighed more than 25 tons. Eventually Levett grew accustomed to the smaller aircraft, but it was a steep learning curve. The morning of Levett's first combat sortie on December 28, 1948, for instance, found Levett and pilot Syd Cohen dining on boiled eggs and black coffee in the predawn hours; both pilots were nervous. They were dressed casually, without badges of rank. They listened to the sound of their Spitfire Merlins

Rolls-Royce Merlin

The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled, V-12, piston aero engine, of 27-litre capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited designed and built the engine which was initially known as the PV-12: the PV-12 became known as the Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after...

being readied for flight on the tarmac. Levett had such jitters that he filled an ashtray sitting at the table.

Nor was Levett's inexperience his only obstacle. When he joined the Israeli forces, the Israeli agents believed that the English gentile and former RAF pilot was likely a British spy. Levett's English passport made him especially suspect: Most Israelis saw the English as opponents of the Zionist cause.

"Not only was he not a Jew," said The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, "but Mr. Levett was particularly notable because he was British. To most Israelis at that time, the recently lapsed British mandate

British Mandate

British Mandate may refer to:*British Mandate for Palestine*British Mandate of Mesopotamia...

in Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

had been decidedly pro-Arab

Arab

, and British Government policy was seen as anti-Zionist. Recruited in March 1948 by emissaries in Europe of the Haganah

Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

, the Jewish fighting force in Palestine, Mr. Levett was viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion."

"'In my last interview," Levett told The New York Times, 'I was told, 'We're quite convinced that you are a British spy, but we're going to take you to see what you're up to.'"

Levett turned out to be no spy. Decades later, in May 1998, he and several hundred Mahal volunteers were invited by Israel to be honored for their service at celebrations of the country's 50th anniversary. "Their expertise was critical," noted The Times "in helping what was previously an underground Zionist force win the war against the Arab armies."

The operation of which Levett had been part succeeded in supplying arms to the Israelis, but it was controversial and hazardous: The airlift violated a United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

embargo on arms shipments to the Middle Eastern combatants. Some flights by the neophyte fighter pilot Levett had involved actual bombing raids by transport planes jury rig

Jury rig

Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand. Originally a nautical term, on sailing ships a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast.-Etymology:The...

ged into bombers. The modified transport planes made bombing runs from the Sinai Peninsula

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

to Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

The modified bombers contained no bomb racks. Instead, the few bombs they carried were pushed out the aircraft's belly by a human 'bomb-chucker' who was tied to the aircraft's frame with rope.

Levett survived the nerve-jangling raids. In his memoir decades later Levett recalled his enthusiasm for the Israeli cause and his frustration with the British government's position. England's refusal to cooperate with a 1947 plan to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, and the British threat to remove its stabilizing forces from the region, compelled Levett to volunteer for the Israeli forces. Soon he felt comfortable in their ranks. He felt more at home walking down Ben-Gurion Street in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, Levett said later, than he did strolling in Piccadilly

Piccadilly

Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...

.

Some jarring contrasts from the conflict stayed with him. At the Žatec base, for instance, the Israeli-bound, German-designed Avias were festooned with the Star of David

Star of David

The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...

instead of swastika

Swastika

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

s. Later, Levett heard a rumor that former Luftwaffe pilots had been recruited as mercenaries by the Arab forces, and he wondered if he would have to face his old foe. He also wrestled with the prospect that someday he might face an RAF fighter in combat over Palestine. (A possibility which, fortunately, never presented itself.) "I remembered E.M. Forster's apophthegm that if he ever had to choose between cause and country," wrote Levett, "he hoped he would have the guts to choose the cause."

"Looking back, I have neither failed nor succeeded, the fate of most of us," Levett wrote in his memoir, "but I shall leave the world a better place than when I entered it because I helped found the State of Israel."

Following the Israeli War for Independence, Levett left Squadron 101, where he had flown over 20 combat missions and downed two Egyptian fighters, and instead took command of Squadron 106 of the Israeli Air Force, formerly a ragtag transport unit staffed by American volunteers. Levett transformed the squadron into a full-fledged Israeli Air Force unit. At his new post, Levett trained new native transport pilots. For his accomplishments he was promoted to the rank of Sgan Aluf (Lieutenant Colonel) in the Israeli Air Force.

Later life

Eventually, Levett retired from the Israeli Air Force. He gave some thought to remaining in Israel, but decided instead to return to England. On his return home, the former orphan and diaper laundry worker found work again as a pilot. He began ferrying planes for aircraft companies, often flying back to Israel for El Al

El Al

El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...

Airline. Gordon Levett died in England in 2000 at age 79. Israeli and Jewish organizations worldwide mourned his passing.

Background

With the Israeli Air Force

Later life

Further reading

See also