Strana 48
#948011BOXART STORY
After the end of World War II, major political and
territorial changes took place not only in Europe
and the Pacific region, but also in the Middle East.
The problems that this process brought to the latter
region continue to this day.
One of the fundamental issues of the anticipated
changes was the end of British control over the
territory of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN
General Assembly issued Resolution No. 181, on the
basis of which the territory of Palestine should be
divided into two independent states, Jewish and Arab.
While the Jewish side agreed to the proposal, the
representatives of the Arab world rejected it. Months
of armed clashes between the two sides followed,
which escalated into open conflict after the British left
in May 1848.
Based on the aforementioned UN decision, the
independent state of Israel was proclaimed on May
14, 1948. The very next day, the armies of five Arab
countries invaded its territory, and gradually some
others became involved in the conflict to varying
degrees. These were Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon,
Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Thus began the first
Israeli-Arab war, known as the War of Independence.
The Arab world refers to it as An-Nakba – The
Catastrophe.
At first, Israel had only a few tens of thousands
of soldiers and very inadequate weapons. The Arab
armies were more numerous and better equipped, but
they lacked unified command and a clear strategy.
The UN responded to the conflict by imposing an
arms embargo on the entire region. The young state
of Israel, which lacked its own production of heavy
weapons, was thus left without the possibility of at
least purchasing arms. Israel's requests for help
were heard by Czechoslovakia, with the tacit consent
of the Soviet Union, which was consolidating its
influence in the Czechoslovakia after the communist
coup in February 1948. Czechoslovakia was thus the
only European country to decide to secretly provide
military aid to Israel. The process of supplying
weapons and training Israeli pilots and technicians
in Czechoslovakia was based on agreements that had
been concluded even before the formal establishment
of Israel. Czechoslovakia supplied Israel with some
of its own Avia S-199s aircraft, along with light and
heavy weapons with ammunition, many of which
were of German World War II origin, and later also
Spitfire Mk.IX aircraft, with which the Czechoslovak
RAF squadrons had returned from Great Britain in the
summer of 1945.
Mezek (Mule) in Czech, Messer in Israel - Avia S-199,
a fighter aircraft with problematic characteristics,
was created by combining a Bf 109G airframe and
a Jumo 211 engine, designed for bomber aircraft. In the
immediate post-war years, together with the Spitfires,
it became the backbone of the Czechoslovak fighter
air force. A total of more than 500 S-199 and CS-199
(two-seater training version) aircraft were produced
in postwar Czechoslovakia.
During the secret Balak operation, 24 Avia S-199s
were sold to Israel. Four of them carried out their
first attack on May 29, 1948, against Egyptian columns
heading for Tel Aviv. The militarily controversial result
had a huge moral impact. Deliveries of Czechoslovak
S-199s to Israel were gradual. The aircraft shown,
marked D-123, was delivered on July 28 aboard Balak
flight No. 79 and entered combat on August 15, 1948.
It was assigned to the 101st Squadron, whose emblem
at the time was a winged skull wearing a flight helmet
and goggles. The skull symbolizes the Jewish belief in
the resurrection of the dead, who will form a great
army when the Messiah comes to earth. The D-123
aircraft took part in Operation Yoav, which took place
over seven days in October 1948 in the Negev Desert.
The aim was to divide the Egyptian forces located
along the coast and on the road between the cities of
Beersheba, Hebron, and Jerusalem. The Mezek D-123
entered these battles on the first day of the offensive
on October 16, 1948, when Israeli pilot Rudi Augarten
claimed to have shot down an Egyptian Royal Air
Force Spitfire Mk.IXc. The seven-day operation was
successful and significantly strengthened Israeli
positions.
In 1949, Israel began the process of concluding
ceasefires with individual Arab states. However, the
situation remained very fragile. The outcome of the
conflict, namely the initial Arab rejection of the 1947
UN resolution on a two-state solution for the territory
of former Palestine, and the subsequent attack on
Israel, meant political and territorial strengthening of
the Jewish state in the region. The first Israeli-Arab
war was not only a clash for borders, but above all
a question of identity and the right of the State of Israel
to exist. For the Palestinians, it meant the loss of their
homes and the beginning of refugee exile. The echoes
of this war still resonate today in all other conflicts
in the region. The 1948 – 1949 War of Independence
claimed the lives of around 6,000 Israelis and 10,000–
15,000 Arabs. About 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or
were expelled from their homes.
Thanks in part to aid from Czechoslovakia, Israel
was able to defend itself in this war. The same was
true in subsequent wars, in which, however, aid from
Czechoslovakia did not come. Under the rule of the
communist USSR, Czechoslovakia gradually turned
away from Israel. A return to normalcy, based on the
fact that Czechoslovakia had helped Israel in the most
difficult moments of its birth, came only after the
collapse of the socialist block at the end of the 1980s.
Text: Jan Zdiarský
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
Messers above the Negev Desert
INFO Eduard48
November 2025