The Commandos land

The Hagana - the largest Jewish military organization in Mandatory Palestine - set up its air wing, Sherut Ha'avir ('Air Service') in November 1947. The Sherut's immediate task was procurement of planes and weapons of all kinds abroad. Once the weapons were acquired, it was necessary to bring them to Palestine, and transports were essential for this purpose. Al Schwimmer - who would later become head of the Israel Aircraft Industries - founded a company called the 'Schwimmer Flight Service', with the purpose of buying planes from the US Air Force surplus, fixing them up and readying them for flight to Israel.

In early 1948 Schwimmer used Hagana funds to buy five Commando planes from the War Property Administration at $5,000 a piece.

The planes were sold "as is", after having been exposed to harsh weather conditions for a protracted period, and intensive repair work was needed to ready them for flight. In order to avoid arousing the FBI's suspicion (the US had placed an embargo on arms sales to the Middle East), a civilian airline was needed as a decoy front company. The Hagana contacted Irving Schindler of New York, who owned an inactive flight company called 'Service Airways', and who agreed to help.

The problem now was - how to smuggle the planes out of the USA. Schindler met Martin Belfond, who employed his wife's connections with the Panamanian president's niece to get a license for operating Panama's national carrier, LAPSA. The Panamanian government was interested in creating an official airline, and in utilizing Tocumen Airport, which had been built a few years earlier. Schindler and Belfond were quick to realize that their interests and Panama's coincided, and the Hagana now had an excellent cover for taking its planes out of the USA. The planes took off from Schwimmer’s field in Burbank, California, to Millville Airbase in New Jersey, for final inspections and repairs. From there they flew to Panama, and continued onwards to British Palestine, with stopovers in Brazil, Senegal, Morocco and Sicily.

All in all, 11 Commandos served the IAF.

Operation 'Black'

The first time Commandos were employed by the IAF was in Operation 'Black' - the airlift of weapons from Czechoslovakia to Israel. 25 Avia S-199 Messerschmitts reached Israel in the Commandos' cargo bays.

Two round trips by a Commando were needed in order to bring a single Messerschmitt to Israel, with all of its armaments. But the Commandos were way past their prime, and malfunctions were numerous. One Commando attempted to land at 'Ekron Airbase in adverse weather: it crashed, its crew was killed, and the Messerschmitt it had been carrying was destroyed. Another Commando had to land in a military airport in Italy, after an engine malfunctioned. The Italians were not amused when they discovered that the crates marked "glass" - contained weapons.

Operation 'Avak'

Another important operation made possible by the Commandos was Operation 'Avak', the airlift of supplies and munitions to the Negev desert, which had been effectively sealed off from the rest of Israel by Egyptian forces. A landing strip was readied in the sands between Moshav Ruhama and Kibbutz Shoval, and dubbed 'Sde Avak 1' ('Field of Dust 1'). On the night of August 23rd 1948, Commandos carrying 30 tons of supplies took off from 'Ekron. The following night, they carried another 75 tons (the flights were carried out at night, in order to avoid interception by Egyptian planes).

One night, a Commando was stranded in 'Sde Avak 1' due to a fuel-system failure. The next day, Egyptian Spitfires located the plane and pounced upon it in, diving and strafing it until it disappeared in a cloud of dust. Amazingly, when the dust had subsided, the plane was found whole and undamaged.

Operation 'Yoav'

The Commando was also employed as a bomber. In the planning stages of Operation 'Yoav' - for breaking through to the Negev and taking Be'er Sheva - it was decided that the Commandos would participate in bombing Egyptian targets. To this end, three Commandos were fitted for carrying and dropping bombs. Ladder-like contraptions that held the bombs were screwed down into to the planes’ cabin decks; the bombs would be rolled down the length of these ladders, towards the doors - and thrown out of the plane. Between October 15th and 22nd, the planes carried out 31 bombing sorties against Gaza, El 'Arish, Beit Jubrin and Majdal.

In 1949, after the War of Independence, the Commandos were handed over to Israel's newborn airline, El Al.

In 1936, the engineers at Curtiss-Wright began planning a new passenger plane, which would yield better performance and cost efficiency than the models that were in service at the time.

The prototype was completed in four years' time, and carried out its maiden flight on March 26th 1940. It was a relatively large plane, twin engined, with a fuselage that was composed of two cylindrical parts of differing diameters, that connected at the cabin deck level. This layout was meant to provide a wide passenger cabin, without creating a cross-section that was too large and would make the plane less aerodynamic.

The plane was immediately diverted to military use, with the US Army placing an order for 200 units. In WW2 the Commandos were used successfully and efficiently in all theaters of operations, especially by the US Marines in the Pacific. The US Air Force and Marine Corps continued to fly the Commandos after WW2, in the Korean War and other operations.