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Author Gandt, Robert L., author.

Title Angels in the sky : how a band of volunteer airmen saved the new state of Israel / Robert Gandt.

Publication Info. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]
©2017

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Farmington, Main Library - Adult Department  956.042 GAN    DUE 04-15-24
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  956.042 GAN    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  956.0424 GANDT    Check Shelf
Edition First edition.
Description xix, 442 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-421) and index.
Contents Part one: A war waiting to happen -- Part two: Besieged -- Part three: Fortunes of war.
Summary "The gripping story of how an all-volunteer air force helped defeat five Arab nations and protect the fledgling Jewish state. In 1948, only three years after the Holocaust, the newly founded nation of Israel came under siege from a coalition of Arab states. The invaders vowed to annihilate the tiny country and its 600,000 settlers. A second Holocaust was in the making. Outnumbered sixty to one, the Israelis had no allies, no regular army, no air force, no superpower to intercede on their behalf. The United States, Great Britain, and most of Europe enforced a strict embargo on the shipment of arms to the embattled country. In the first few days, the Arab armies overran Israel. The Egyptian air force owned the sky, making continuous air attacks on Israeli cities and army positions. Israel's extinction seemed certain. And then came help. From the United States, Canada, Britain, France, South Africa arrived a band of volunteer airmen. Most were World War II veterans--young, idealistic, swaggering, noble, eccentric, courageous beyond measure. Many were Jews, a third were not. Most of them knowingly violated their nations' embargoes on the shipment of arms and aircraft to Israel. They smuggled in Messerschmitt fighters from Czechoslovakia, painting over swastikas with Israeli stars. Defying their own countries' strict laws, the airmen risked everything--their lives, careers, citizenship--to fight for Israel. They were a small group, fewer than 150. In the crucible of war they became brothers in a righteous cause. They flew, fought, died, and, against all odds, helped save a new nation. The saga of the volunteer airmen in Israel's war of independence stands as one of the most stirring--and untold--war stories of the past century"-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Israel. Ḥel ha-aṿir -- History.
Israel. Ḥel ha-aṿir. (OCoLC)fst00578313
Israel-Arab War (1948-1949) (OCoLC)fst00980263
Israel. Ḥel ha-aṿir.
Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949.
Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949 -- Aerial operations.
Fighter pilots -- Biography.
Airplanes, Military -- Israel -- History.
Airplanes, Military. (OCoLC)fst00803587
Fighter pilots. (OCoLC)fst00923988
Military operations, Aerial. (OCoLC)fst01710198
Israel. (OCoLC)fst01204236
HISTORY / Middle East / Israel.
HISTORY / Military / Aviation.
Military operations, Aerial.
History.
Middle East.
Israel.
Airplanes, Military.
Fighter pilots.
Military.
Aeronautics.
Chronological Term 1948-1949
1948-1949.
Genre/Form Biographies.
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Standard No. 40027506221
ISBN 9780393254778 (hardcover)
0393254771 (hardcover)
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