In March 1948 Joe Sunderland was already a qualified pilot. Together with John Harvey (British Machal) and Freddy Fredkins (Belgian Congo Machalnik), he advised Emmanuel Tsur (a Haganah agent) to purchase five Avro Anson aircraft in Europe. All three had flying experience on Ansons in the RAF.
Unfortunately, in the process of ferrying these five aircraft to Israel, they were impounded in Athens and Rhodes Island by the Greek government under pressure from the British consul in Rhodes. Only in January 1949 was the IAF successful in bringing the Ansons to Israel.
In March 1948, 20 Nordyne Norseman light transport aircraft had been purchased in Germany by Freddy Fredkins. The Norseman aircraft were sturdy Canadian aircraft designed for bush work. Five had already been delivered to the airport in Rome by late April. Three of them left Rome on May 2nd 1948, and went into service on the very morning after their arrival in Israel, dropping supplies to the encircled Etzion Bloc.
Sadly, on May 29th 1948 one Norseman blew up over Rome’s airport and both pilots were killed: Canadian George “Buzz” Beurling and British Leonard Cohen, both RAF aces during the siege of Malta in WW ll. They had been practicing take-offs and landings prior to flying the aircraft to Israel.
Three other Norseman aircraft on a ferry flight from Rome to Israel ran out of fuel in adverse weather conditions and had to force land in Sinai, and their Machal crew members were taken prisoner by the Egyptians.
Joe Sunderland and five other pilots: Gino Narboni from France, British Freddy Fredkins, and Americans Phil Marmelstein, Max Gordon and Lou Lenart, successfully brought three Norseman aircraft to Israel from Rome.
During the summer of 1948, Joe was one of the pilots flown in a DC-6 from Israel to the Haganah’s secret base in Yugoslavia. Oded Abarbanel was an Israeli pilot who was also flown from Israel to Yugoslavia. Supplies were to be ferried from Czechoslovakia to this base, and then transshipped to Israel in the DC-6. However, after crashing in the mountains on a flight from Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia, Joe Sunderland returned to Israel on an immigrant ship. Joe flew as a pilot on Norseman aircraft in 35 Flight, and subsequently he also flew Dakota DC-3 aircraft.
Source: Prepared from information supplied by the British Machal Association.