The Avia S-199: Israel’s Unlikely Deliverer | Aviation

The newly formed State of Israel made use of the only thing available, it wasn’t the best and they didn’t have a lot of them, but in one of history’s biggest and least known ironies, the Jewish state defended itself with a fighter born of Nazi roots.

Humble Beginnings

Declaring independence on May 14, 1948, Israel found itself surrounded by well –armed enemies in the combined armies of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and Transjordan (Jordan.) These countries had large armies and air forces equipped mostly from the left-over stockpiles of World War Two that had concluded in 1945. The Jews however, had been fighting since November of 1947 with very little in the way of equipment, especially heavy weapons and aircraft.

The Sherut Avir (Air Service) was formed out of a civilian “glider club”, and was used primarily as a way to supply isolated desert Israeli settlements and for reconnaissance. Flying a handful of former British Auster  Autocrat light liaison aircraft, the most elaborate offensive military attacks that could be mustered from the air was shooting rifles and machineguns out the windows and tossing grenades out similar to early World War One techniques. Other light civil aircraft were also…