On This Day in Jewish History: June 3rd, 1948. ✈️
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Mordechai “Modi” Alon, one of Israel’s first fighter pilots (left with sunglasses with DBG himself) and commander of the first Israeli fighter squadron, downs a pair of Royal Egyptian Air Force C-47 bombers over Tel Aviv. . . .
As the sun rose over Israel on June 3rd, 1948, the nascent Israeli Air Force had just one serviceable plane. The Egyptians were planning their 16th bombing of Tel Aviv that day until Modi flew in on that plane to engage the Egyptian aircraft head-on. Evading two of the Spitfires, Alon went after both bombers and tallied the first aerial victories in Israeli history. After this day, no enemy bomber would appear over the city again. . . .
The entire battle took place directly over Tel Aviv (second image) in front of an astonished citizenry that was not aware that Israeli fighter aircraft even existed. Afterwards, the air force HQ was flooded with gifts, alcohol, and flowers for the pilot regardless of the wartime scarcity of such items. . . .
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Text Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modi_Alon
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modi_Alon
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