Gordon Levett Lieut . Col . Gordon Levett ( 1921 – 2000 ) was a former Royal Air Force pilot in World War II who volunteered for a covert mission to fly supplies including dismantled fighter planes into the fledgling state of Israel in its War for Independence . Later Levett joined the first squadron of the newly created Israeli Air Force , helping establish a permanent Israeli military and aiding in the founding of the state of Israel . Levett was the only English gentile pilot in the Israeli Air Force , where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel . Biography . Background . Born into such poverty in London that his mother once placed him in an orphanage for eighteen months so he wouldn ' t starve , Levett joined the RAF in 1939 at age 17 when World War II broke out . Initially a groundcrew man , Levett applied for a pilot slot and in November 1940 was sent to flight school . He spent the rest of the war training other pilots and flying transport planes , becoming a Squadron Leader . But he was subsequently expelled from the RAF after taking unauthorized leave from his remote Burma base , and so after the War was unable to find work as an aviator . Levett went to work in a Jewish - owned diaper laundry in London , where he learned about developments in the Middle East . When he read of attempts to found an Israeli state , he volunteered to join the Israeli Mahal unit , a group of 5 , 000 - odd overseas volunteers in early 1948 . The Mahal were established to assist what had been a largely underground Zionist force . After two meetings with Jewish agents in London , Levett was supplied with a ticket for Paris . From there he was sent to Czechoslovakia . With the Israeli Air Force . The Mahal pilots , mostly English Jews , began ferrying dismantled Avia S - 199 s ( a modified Messerschmitt - 109G with a bomber engine and gunpods ) fighter aircraft from their base in Žatec , Czechoslovakia , where a group of mostly American Jewish volunteers had assembled a fleet of transport aircraft acquired in the United States , to Ekron airbase in an operation codenamed Operation Balak . Levett ' s job was shuttling the Avias and an enormous cache of arms bought from the Czechs , with Soviet approval , to Israel . The cargo included the disassembled fighter planes , bombs , firearms and even first aid equipment . Located on an out - of - the - way road in a rural area some 20 miles from the East German border , the Czech base was a primitive facility with a small control tower , a few huts and a single concrete runway used by the Luftwaffe during World War II . The scene at the tiny facility startled Levett and other volunteers : They were greeted by a jarring jumble of American transport aircraft and several Messerschmitt 109 fighters , six or seven Curtiss Commando C - 46s , a Douglas Skymaster DC - 4 and several smaller aircraft . " Even more astonishing , the ground staff wore baseball caps and were speaking with American accents . " The Balak airlift , operating under Israel ' s Air Transport Command , lasted three months . Operating under cover of darkness , Levett transported tons of arms , ammunition and personnel , as well as the disassembled Avias . The airlift was instrumental in Israel ' s success in the War for Independence . The hazardous trips , recounted by Levett in his memoir " Flying Under Two Flags : An RAF Pilot in Israel ' s War of Independence " , skirted enemy groundfire and hostile fighter planes in making their deliveries . Some 5 , 000 foreigners volunteered to help Israel in the fight for independence . Levett was one of the few non - Jews , and his role as the primary pilot in the Balak airlift proved pivotal . The Avia fighters , dismantled and flown in pieces from the Czech base , were reassembled and painted in new colors when they arrived in Israel . The fighters Levett transported became the backbone of the new Jewish state ' s first air force . Following the airlift , Levett joined Squadron 101 in November 1948 . The squadron , which included Ezer Weizman ( later commander of the Israeli Air Force , Minister of Defense and President of Israel ) , was instrumental in the War for Independence . During its first eight months , the fighter squadron shot down 20 Arab aircraft , including a few former RAF fighter planes piloted by the enemy during a January 1949 engagement . In that unlikely dogfight , Israeli pilots flying Nazi - designed Avias downed several English - made Spitfires flown by the Egypt ians . Being a non - Jew wasn ' t the only thing that made Levett unusual . Some of the fledgling nation ' s new pilots were strictly mercenaries , paid far more than volunteers like Levett . Levett was scornful of the motives of the mercenaries . " One American fighter pilot , " he wrote , " was getting 2 , 000 dollars - a - month and a 500 - dollar bonus for every enemy aircraft he shot down , " Levett recalled in his memoir . " They did their job well , but I did not care for them . At the toss of a shekel they would have been on the other side . " Before he began flying the hazardous sorties for 101 Squadron , Levett had kept secret from his Israeli handlers the fact that he had never flown a single RAF combat mission in a fighter , although he had trained in them . His only operational experience was flying lumbering cargo planes . His early attempts at flying the nimble British - made Spitfires and American - made Mustangs didn ' t always go smoothly . The Spitfires weighed less than four tons ; the C - 46 cargo planes Levett flew weighed more than 25 tons . Eventually Levett grew accustomed to the smaller aircraft , but it was a steep learning curve . The morning of Levett ' s first combat sortie on 28 December 1948 , for instance , found Levett and pilot Syd Cohen dining on boiled eggs and black coffee in the predawn hours ; both pilots were nervous . They were dressed casually , without badges of rank . They listened to the sound of their Spitfire Merlins being readied for flight on the tarmac . Levett had such jitters that he filled an ashtray sitting at the table . Nor was Levett ' s inexperience his only obstacle . When he joined the Israeli forces , the Israeli agents believed that the English gentile and former RAF pilot was likely a British spy . Levett ' s English passport made him especially suspect : Most Israelis saw the English as opponents of the Zionist cause . " Not only was he not a Jew , " said " The New York Times " , " but Mr . Levett was particularly notable because he was British . To most Israelis at that time , the recently lapsed British mandate in Palestine had been decidedly pro - Arab , and British Government policy was seen as anti - Zionist . Recruited in March 1948 by emissaries in Europe of the Haganah , the Jewish fighting force in Palestine , Mr . Levett was viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion . " " ' In my last interview , " Levett told " The New York Times " , ' I was told , ' We ' re quite convinced that you are a British spy , but we ' re going to take you to see what you ' re up to . ' " Levett turned out to be no spy . Decades later , in May 1998 , he and several hundred Mahal volunteers were invited by Israel to be honored for their service at celebrations of the country ' s 50th anniversary . " Their expertise was critical , " noted The Times " in helping what was previously an underground Zionist force win the war against the Arab armies . " The operation of which Levett had been part succeeded in supplying arms to the Israelis , but it was controversial and hazardous : The airlift violated a United Nations embargo on arms shipments to the Middle Eastern combatants . Some flights by the neophyte fighter pilot Levett had involved actual bombing raids by transport planes jury rig ged into bombers . The modified transport planes made bombing runs from the Sinai Peninsula to Damascus , Syria . The modified bombers contained no bomb racks . Instead , the few bombs they carried were pushed out the aircraft ' s belly by a human ' bomb - chucker ' who was tied to the aircraft ' s frame with rope . Levett survived the nerve - jangling raids . In his memoir decades later Levett recalled his enthusiasm for the Israeli cause and his frustration with the British government ' s position . England ' s refusal to cooperate with a 1947 plan to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states , and the British threat to remove its stabilizing forces from the region , compelled Levett to volunteer for the Israeli forces . Soon he felt comfortable in their ranks . He felt more at home walking down Ben - Gurion Street in Tel Aviv , Levett said later , than he did strolling in Piccadilly . Some jarring contrasts from the conflict stayed with him . At the Žatec base , for instance , the Israeli - bound , German - designed Avias were festooned with the Star of David instead of swastikas . Later , Levett heard a rumor that former Luftwaffe pilots had been recruited as mercenaries by the Arab forces , and he wondered if he would have to face his old foe . He also wrestled with the prospect that someday he might face an RAF fighter in combat over Palestine . ( A possibility which , fortunately , never presented itself . ) " I remembered E . M . Forster ' s apophthegm that if he ever had to choose between cause and country , " wrote Levett , " he hoped he would have the guts to choose the cause . " " Looking back , I have neither failed nor succeeded , the fate of most of us , " Levett wrote in his memoir , " but I shall leave the world a better place than when I entered it because I helped found the State of Israel . " Following the Israeli War for Independence , Levett left Squadron 101 , where he had flown over 20 combat missions and downed two Egyptian fighters , and instead took command of Squadron 106 of the Israeli Air Force , formerly a ragtag transport unit staffed by American volunteers . Levett transformed the squadron into a full - fledged Israeli Air Force unit . At his new post , Levett trained new native transport pilots . For his accomplishments he was promoted to the rank of " Sgan Aluf " ( Lieutenant Colonel ) in the Israeli Air Force . Later life . Eventually , Levett retired from the Israeli Air Force . He gave some thought to remaining in Israel , but decided instead to return to England . On his return home , the former orphan and diaper laundry worker found work again as a pilot . He began ferrying planes for aircraft companies , often flying back to Israel for El Al Airline . Gordon Levett died in England in 2000 at age 79 . Israeli and Jewish organizations worldwide mourned his death .