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At Christmas, Under the Nose of the French | Israel today

2019-12-23T22:35:04.134Z


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50 years after operation in which Israel "stole" French battleships - Chief of Staff Suffa restores heroism

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"The sea was terrible. I don't remember a sea like that in my life. The waves reached six to seven meters. Normally you don't do such things. The navy then stormed, in the dramatic moments before the departure of the Sherburg ships from the French shipyard en route to Israel.

These were the last days of 1969, exactly 50 years ago, and Israel's relations with France came to the fore, literally. France, led by President Charles de Gaulle, imposed an embargo on Israel, and five ships that were to join the Navy were stranded in the port of Sherburg. Rune, then a young captain, was sent to command the Suffa, when in fact he commanded all Israeli ships in the shipyard.

The months passed, and in Israel a decision was made to extract the ships in a secret operation, called Operation Noa. They formulated a cover story about the sale of the ships to a businessman, and thus managed to get the ships out of the secure dock to the civil shipyard.

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"Ten days before the operation, I was informed of what was happening, and we started preparing for a long voyage," Rune recalls. The operation required unusual trickery: "The engines had to be heated, so we turned them on every night to get the residents to noise." Three days before the operation, the other crews of the ships, 100 men, arrived and joined 60 already in France. "We were not wearing uniforms, we were all civilians. Nobody could know that we were soldiers."

And so came December 24, Christmas. Rune's ship, after Sufa, was designated as the command ship, and the operations commander, Col. Hadar Kimchi, began to look into the possibility of leaving. "The sea was very difficult. It was determined that we were going out at midnight, but Citrus had not made a decision. We worked on the weather maps until two and a half in the morning, and then we realized that there was a chance that it would improve.

Aryeh Rune

Rona says that "Hadar made a very courageous decision. At sea you fight not only with enemies - but also at sea." And so when France celebrated Christmas in the heated houses, the five ships embarked on a journey to Haifa. "One of the ships installed a temporary radar, and after an hour it flew into the water. Surprisingly, my ship held up without incident. "On December 31, the ships entered the port of Haifa.

The significance of the operation was critical: in the Yom Kippur War, the Navy fulfilled its mission perfectly and kept the shipping lanes open. Spear and Volcano, two of the rescued ships, took part in the battle of Latvia, the first naval missile battle in history.

This Wednesday, a heritage evening will be held in Haifa to mark a jubilee for the storm ships and the ship's escape from Sherburg. The film "Sherburg / Haifa - The Story of Ships", which was produced for French television, will also be screened for the first time in Israel.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2019-12-23

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