When I look back to those days in 1948 and before them, so many memories come flooding back. One of them is when I first heard the name of Smoky Simon. It was in London just before I came to Israel in 1948. At that time I was flying for BOAC in flying boats to the Far East. I had joined BOAC after leaving the RAF in which I had flown 50 wartime operational flights over occupied Europe in Mosquito fighter bombers (Mk VI) – 4×20 mm cannons, 4×303 machine guns, and up to a 2000 lb bomb load. Quite impressive for a wooden airplane. Anyway, it was payback for the licking I had taken from the Luftwaffe in London during the Blitz. One particular horrendous night then was December 29, 1940, when the City area went up in flames, and I was there trying to douse the incendiaries. People were already spending nights in air raid shelters, particularly in the underground railway stations. I recall that spirits were high, even after some 200 people were crushed to death in the Bethnal Green tube station. There was no alarm or despondency. In my youthful stupidity, I would wander round the center of London with a couple of friends (both later killed in action flying RAF Lancasters) and all in all we enjoyed ourselves. We would sometimes spend the whole night in the Brasserie of Lyons Corner House at Marble Arch drinking coffee. Interestingly, coffee, unlike tea, was not rationed. In the morning we would walk around inspecting the overnight damage.
I enlisted in the RAF in 1941 and trained as a navigator/wireless operator/ bombardier (NBW) – a category then recently designated especially for the newly-developed Mosquito, a wonderful airplane made of balsa wood. I trained in England and Canada, and all in all I enjoyed it. I made 50 operational flights over Europe. Two of my brothers also joined the RAF, and the third was in the army. One brother joined the RAF at the very beginning of the war and spent most of his time in Northern Ireland, Iceland and India. We didn’t meet again until after the war.
On leaving the RAF I joined BOAC, and flew flying boats to the Far East (which I thoroughly enjoyed) until fighting broke out in Israel’s War of Independence. I decided to come to Israel, but England was, to say the least, hostile to Israel. I went to the Jewish Agency in London to see how I could get to Israel, but got no help from them. But I did manage to contact some members of the IZL who said I should go to Paris (which was far less hostile). They also said that when I got to Israel I should contact Smoky Simon. I went to France and there I met Jack Ratushniak. Somehow, I reached St. Jerome – a DP camp near Marseilles, and finally got a flight to Haifa where I was interviewed by some UN workers. I was classified as a refugee and allowed entry. I then went to Tel Aviv and from there, I went straight to Ramat David. On arrival I was put in a B17 (either Al Raisin or Bill Katz was the pilot) and went off to bomb somewhere just south of Bat Yam, in Egyptian-held territory).
We flew two or three sorties daily, bombing Isdud (Ashdod), then Majdal (Ashkelon), Rafa (Rafiah) and the El Arish airfield. I remained in the air force after the last truce, got married to Shula Becker (a South African Machalnik serving in the air force) in Haifa, and a big wedding was arranged in a private house, organized by the Air Minded Women’s Association. While I was in Ramat David an English Royal Air Force reconnaissance plane would fly over every day. One day, a pilot named Wayne Peakeᶦ said he was going to get that plane. It flew over us daily at a regular time, so he went up to wait for it in a Mustang and shot the plane down.
From Ramat David the 69 Squadron was moved to Aqir (now Ekron). After a while I was posted to Air Force HQ as Rosh Mador Tichnun. Ezer Weizman came down from 101 Squadron and Rosh Agaf Avir. Paul Chomsky (Kedar) was Rosh Machleket Mivtzaim. Air Force HQ was in Machaneh Ariel in Jaffa, and Shula and I shared a flat there with Smoky and Myra Simon and another couple, Rita and Zeev Slotnik.
Sometime later I bought a flat in the South African shikun in North Tel Aviv.
Source: John Harris, 25th December, 2012