The first and last mosquito in the IAFThe plane was NS812, a PR.XVI Mosquito meant to be delivered to the US 8th air force on May 1945. However, due to the war's end it was delivered to a storage unit instead, declared "surplus", and put on auction. The buyer was group captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, previously CO of 617 sqd. "The Dam Busters". The plane earned the civilian registration G-AIRT in October 1946, but never flew.
During Israel's independence war, a man named John Harvey, a British citizen and ex-RAF bomber pilot was asked by Israeli purchase agents to locate and purchase Mosquitoes for the fledgling Israeli air force. At that time, war planes were offered for sale only to British companies. Harvey contacted his friend and war-time commander air vice-marshal Bennet who was an owner of a company, to purchase two mosquitoes for him. He purchased two mosquitoes for 4500 pounds a piece, one of them was G-AIRT.
On 7 July 1948 John Harvey took off from Abingdon with G-AIRT that was loaded with Mosquito spare parts, with the intent to fly to Corsica and then to Israel. However due to engine problems that increased fuel consumption he was forced to land in Nice, France. The French authorities arrested Harvey and placed him in house arrest in a hotel. The French were furious for not receiving any message about the plane's arrival, that was still painted in RAF colors and letters. The Israeli purchase agent was able to negotiate Harvey's release and the plane took off again after minor repairs.
When the plane landed in Corsica, the British console was informed of the landing and headed to the airport with local police. However, the police notified the field manager who passed the word on to the an Israeli liaison officer. By the time the Console and police arrived, new letters were painted on the plane, papers were forged, and Harvey took off and circled the island till the police left after finding no trace of the plane. Harvey landed again and on July 13 1948 took off for a direct flight to Israel.
As Harvey was over the Mediterranean nearing the shores of Israel, the fuel tanks were almost empty due to an increased fuel consumption problem again. Harvey could not proceed to Ekron airfield as planned and decided to land in the nearest strip - Haifa, coming in a direct approach. As he was coming with flaps out and gears down, the AAA gunners who were not informed started shooting... Luckily, gunnery in reality is more difficult that in Aces High, plus they plainly sucked, so Harvey landed safely on his last drops of fuel. The plane ran out of fuel on the runway and was unable to taxi. The controller on the field who also had no warning about this landing, pulled out his pistol and ran to the plane. He was smart enough not to shoot before asking questions...
The next day, the plane was repainted, received the ID "D-160" (actually the Hebrew equivalent letter to "D", later changed to "2101") and joined 103 squadron. The plane was fitted with a camera and bomb racks. On 13.9.1948 the plane went on its first mission, photographed Damascus and then Beirut on the way back. The plane went on to perform many long range PR missions from Egypt-Sudan border to Iraq.
After the war ended, the first mosquito was soon joined by many other mosquitoes of various models: FB.VI, NF.XXX, TR.33 (navalized mossies that were de-navalized and converted to fighter-bombers), and more PR.XVIs, about 80 Mossies in total. At its early days after the independence war, most of the IAF of composed of mosquitoes. However, soon most of them went into storage as the IAF entered the jet age - except the PR mosquitoes that were too valuable and were kept busy. During the Suez crisis in 1956 (operation "Kadesh" for Israel) some FB.VI mosquitoes were briefly taken out of the mothballs for one last dance and gave a good account of themselves without losses. The PR mosquitoes kept flying into Egypt in spite of the threat now being Mig-15s. PR mossies photographed the Egyptian airfields for a bold plan to destroy the Egyptian air-force on the ground. During the Suez crisis France & Britain were responsible for suppressing the Egyptian air-force, but the IAF plan of attack was eventually executed in 1967 "six days" war. The last of the IAF mosquitoes, our NS812/G-AIRT/2101, kept flying after the operation into 1957, until it was severely damaged in a landing accident and written off.
Thus ended the service of the mosquitoes in the IAF - with the same plane that started it.
2101 after the accident. The stripes on its tail and wings were painted yellow between black stripes as the IAF identifiers during the Suez crisis.
(based on several articles in Hebrew journals)
