69 Squadron (Israel)
The 69 "Hammers" Squadron is an Israeli Air Force squadron operating the F-15I Thunder out of Hatzerim. It was formed in July 1948 to operate three B-17 Flying Fortresses which the fledgling Israeli Air Force had acquired in the United States. The squadron flew the Flying Fortress, an aircraft credited with propelling the IAF into the realm of modern aerial warfare, during both the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and 1956 Suez Crisis. Disbanded in early 1957, 69 Squadron reformed in 1969 to fly the F-4 Phantom II.
69 Squadron operated the Kurnass, as the Phantom was known in Israel, for 25 years. Its Phantoms saw extensive action during the War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War, First Lebanon War and numerous engagements in between. The squadron often played a central role in IAF suppression of enemy air defences efforts and took part in repeated battles against Egyptian and Syrian air defence.
The squadron retired its Phantoms in 1994 and reformed shortly thereafter to operate the F-15I Thunder. Described as the "long-range, heavy bombing element of Israeli air power", 69 Squadron, together with Squadrons 119 and 253, carried out Operation Outside the Box, the September 2007 airstrike on a nuclear site in Syria.
Formation and B-17 years
1948 Arab–Israeli War
In early 1948, before the establishment of the State of Israel, the Haganah ordered three Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress planes from the United States through US Mahal operative Al Schwimmer, circumventing a US arms embargo during the 1948 Palestine war. Two were demilitarised and modified for freighter use by Aerodex Inc. of Miami, then sold unknowingly to a front company that said they would be used in the Caribbean. The first two departed the city on June 12, followed a day later by a third, and made their way first to Puerto Rico and then across the Atlantic via the Azores to Žatec, Czechoslovakia, where they arrived on June 14.By June 16 the story had made it to the press and a fourth plane, whose crew only barely managed to elude the FBI, was impounded in the Azores by Portuguese authorities. At Žatec the three B-17s, missing bomb shackles and sights, oxygen systems and defensive weapons, were militarized and the squadron that was to operate them, at the time referred to as the "Hammers Program", first took shape. Ray Kurtz, a former B-17 navigator with 31 missions over Europe, was assigned command of the squadron, staffed by an international crew of World War II veterans who volunteered to fight for Israel. Robert Luttrell, a sailor by trade, flying as a bombardier, recalled that for each mission the B-17s were given new markings and their armament was altered to lead the enemy to believe Israel possessed an entire squadron of the type.
On July 15, 1948, one of the B-17 planes, recently put in the service of the Israeli Air Force, flew to Cairo and bombarded a residential neighborhood near Qasr al-Qubba, killing 30 Egyptians breaking their Ramadan fast and striking a rail line, in an operation that intended to bomb King Farouq's Abdeen Palace. With fighting raging in Israel and Tel Aviv suffering from Royal Egyptian Air Force raids, the three B-17s departed Žatec for Israel. Still ill-equipped, the bombers were tasked with bombing Egyptian targets en route. Flying south along the Adriatic, near Crete the bombers separated, with Bill Katz and Ray Kurtz taking the only Fortress with an oxygen system and a proper sight to bomb the Royal Palace in Cairo, and the other two B-17s heading towards the REAF base at El-Arish. While Katz and Kurtz successfully bombed the Abdeen Palace, the other two failed to locate their target and bombed Rafah instead. All landed that evening at Tel Nof.
The three aircraft were back in action at 06:30 on the next day, hitting the REAF base at El-Arish they had missed the previous night. As Tel-Nof was deemed vulnerable to Egyptian attacks, the aircraft then landed at Ramat David, which housed the squadron for the remainder of the war. In the following days, until a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect on July 18, the Fortresses struck across three fronts, attacking Majdal, Damascus and Tulkarm. Raising the average bomb load of an IAF sortie from 100 kg per sortie to 743 kg per sortie, the B-17s are credited with propelling the Israeli Air Force into the realm of modern aerial warfare.
All three bombers flew in support of Operation Shoter on July 20. Combat operations then ceased until October 1948. These three months saw the unit reorganize and by August it had received its official designation as 69 Squadron. With Bill Katz now in command, the squadron spent the truce training, qualifying new airmen and equipping the veteran aircraft. Fighting resumed on October 15 with Operation Yoav, aimed with breaking the Egyptian siege of the Negev. Over the next week the Hammers flew 47 sorties against Egyptian targets in and around Majdal, Gaza, El Arish, Al-Faluja, and Rafah. Missions were flown in either a trio or a pair to maximize defensive firepower, and sometimes with 101 Squadron escorts, but no enemy fighters were ever encountered. In late October a number of sorties were flown against Tarshiha, in the Upper Galilee, in support of Operation Hiram against Fawzi al-Qawuqji's Arab Liberation Army.
Operation Yoav had left Faluja as an enclave within Israeli-held territory. During November 1948 the Hammers routinely returned to bomb what became known as the Faluja Pocket. The town held out until the end of the war. On December 22, Israel launched Operation Horev, its last major offensive of the war, to defeat the Egyptian expeditionary force and expel it beyond the borders of Mandatory Palestine. 69 Squadron again flew in support of Israeli efforts in the south, targeting the air base at El-Arish, Khan Younis, Gaza and Rafah. The squadron revisited Faluja to prevent an Egyptian sortie from the beleaguered pocket, and on New Year's Day 1949 flew a failed attempt to bomb an Egyptian Navy flotilla which had shelled Tel Aviv. 69 Squadron flew its last missions of the war in the early morning of January 7, 1949, against Rafah. Having evaded Egyptian flak on most occasions, both participating bombers were hit, rendering one unserviceable.
Postwar deactivation
With the end of the 1948 Arab Israeli War, the majority of volunteer airmen returned home, and 69 Squadron went through a period of reorganization. From an English-speaking outfit it was transformed into a Hebrew speaking unit. Training was stepped-up to qualify Israelis to take over vacated positions. The squadron settled into a peacetime routine, with the B-17s conducting bombing and cloud seeding tests and participating in IDF exercises. The IAF itself was undergoing major changes, and in early May 1949 69 Squadron relocated to Tel Nof.In October 1951 the squadron moved, this time to Hatzor. In December 1952 the three B-17 was joined by three PBY Catalinas, acquired to guarantee supply to the town of Eilat at Israel's southern extremity. Utilization of these aircraft was low and they were soon withdrawn from service with the squadron. Spares, meanwhile, were hampering B-17 operations. In March 1954 69 Squadron was deactivated and its assets handed over to 103 Squadron, which soon retired the Catalinas but continued to operate the three B-17s.
Suez Crisis
In 1956, growing diplomatic tensions in the Middle East, tensions that would soon culminate in the Suez Crisis, resulted in the resurrection of 69 Squadron. On April 19 the IAF issued an order reactivating the squadron at Ramat David, with Nahum Efrat as its commanding officer. The squadron was soon tasked with its first mission, allocating two B-17s for search and rescue operations during Dassault Mystère delivery flights from France to Israel. The reformed squadron again began training personnel and equipping the aircraft for possible hostilities. As Israel purchased more jet fighters, room had to be made for the new arrivals, and in September 1956 the IAF ordered the squadron to send its aircraft into storage and changed its status to reserve. By October 3 the aircraft had been stored at Bedek Aviation, later Israeli Aircraft Industries, at Lod. Three weeks later, on October 25, the IAF reactivated the squadron.Only two Fortresses had left Bedek's storage facility by the time hostilities commenced on October 29, 1956. The squadron had not flown a single training sortie before fighting began and had only two full crews ready for battle. Israeli piston-engined aircraft flew few missions in the first two days of the war, but on October 31, 69 Squadron received an order to bomb Rafah in support of IDF Brigade 27 operations. Arriving over the target early on November 1, the aircraft could not tell the location of friendly troops, and without being able to communicate with the forces on the ground, were forced to dump their bomb loads in the Mediterranean. The B-17s were back in action the following night, to attack retreating Egyptian forces. A repeat of the previous night's lack of communications with Israeli forces operating in the same area again prevented the strike, and the bombers dropped their loads on the outskirts of Gaza.
With the threat of Egyptian air power curtailed by Anglo-French strikes against Egyptian air bases, the B-17s began flying daylight operations. On November 2, the squadron supported the Israeli push towards Sharm el Sheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai. Two aircraft bombed the local barracks but were met with effective anti-aircraft fire which damaged the lead aircraft. The damaged aircraft managed to return to Ramat David, just as the third B-17 returned from storage at Bedek. Two aircraft were therefore available for the B-17s' final combat sorties with the IAF, another failed strike on Sharm el Sheikh on November 4.
The squadron flew 8 sorties throughout the war and dropped 27 tons of bombs. With the conclusion of hostilities the squadron continued training and on November 10 moved to Tel Nof. The B-17s flew a few more sorties during a January 1957 survey of the Sinai but were soon sent back to storage. 69 Squadron was disbanded on March 1, 1957. It was initially slated to operate the IAF's next heavy bomber, the Sud-Ouest Vautour, but these plans were dropped in favour of 110 Squadron.