War in the air: Israel and Jordan in the dogfight

ABSTRACT

The Israeli and Jordanian air forces were established during the 1948 war. While the Israeli air force did not enjoy prestige, the Jordanian air force enjoyed substantial budgets from its inception. However, in all the skirmishes it faced against the Israeli air force in the 1960s and in the 1967 war it suffered defeat. In addition to the lack of training and skill of the Jordanian pilots, the main reason for this was the lack of loyalty of the Jordanian pilots to the Hashemite regime, which hindered the development of the Jordanian air force prior to the 1967 war.

KEYWORDS:

• Israeli air force
• Jordanian air force
• Hashemite regime
• King Hussein
• the 1967 war

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The order to establish the IDF was officially published by David Ben-Gurion on 28 May 1948 (Cohen 1990, 8; McCarthy 2014, 11).

2. The first planes included: four Proctor planes, two Tiger Moth and one De-Haviland Rapide. See: National Archives (London), FO 371/68831: Letter from Amman to Foreign Office, 9 September 1948.

3. IDF Archives (Tel Hashumer), 74/600137/51: Intelligence information from al-Mafraq, 12 September 1948; IDF Archives 76/600137/51: Israel Air Force intelligence, 10 November 1948.

4. National Archives, FO 371/68831: Letter from Amman to Foreign Office, 9 September 1948.

5. National Archives, FO 371/68831: Letter from Amman to Foreign Office, 28 October 1948; IDF Archives, 76/600137/51: Report on Jordanian Air Force, 12 December 1948.

6. See also National Archives, FO 371/68853: Letter from Amman to Foreign Office, 17 May 1948.

7. Aharon Remez was commander of IAF from July 1948 to December 1950; Shlomo Shamir served as commander of IAF between December 1950 to August 1951; Haim Laskov was commander from August 1953 to May 1953. See Appendix 1 List of the Israeli and Jordanian Air Force Commanders.

8. Letter from the Embassy in Jordan (Mallory) to the Department of State, 18 February 1955, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII, Document No. 2.

9. Letter from the Embassy in Jordan (Mallory) to the Department of State, 18 February 1955, FRUS, 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII, Document No. 2; Letter from the Embassy in Jordan (Mallory) to the Department of State, 2 March 1956, FRUS, 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII, Document No. 19.

10. More about the involvement of Jordan in Yemen war see Robins (2004), 114–115; Shlaim (2007), 18.

11. The full text of the Anglo-Jordanian treaty of 1948 see Hurewitz (1972), 156–159.

12. Letter from the Embassy in Jordan (Mallory) to the Department of State, 25 June 1957, FRUS, 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII, Document No. 99.

13. More about operation Samu’a see Shemesh (2002), 139–167; Tal (2002), 109–111.

14. It should be noted that the airbase east of Amman was named after al-Salti in honor on his combat record. Haddadin (2001), 192.

15. Details about the power of the Arab armies and the Arab Forces see El-Edroos (1980), 389–392.

16. During the first wave over 189 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed on the ground (Jackson 1972, 185–190; McCarthy 2014, 15–11).

17. It is important to note that the Egyptian media claimed in the beginning that the Egyptian army foiled the Israeli Air Force attack and launched a counterattack during which it destroyed 75% of Israel’s air force (El-Edroos 1980, 397; Robins 2004, 124).

18. Special National Intelligence Estimate (Washington), 10 August 1967, FRUS, 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII, Document No. 414.

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Notes on contributors

Ronen Yitzhak

Prof. Ronen Yitzhak is the Head of the Middle Eastern Studies Division at Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel. His academic interests include: The Modern history of Jordan, Military, Intelligence and the 1948 War. He has published over thirty articles in refereed journals and three books. His book Abdullah al-Tall - Arab Legion Officer: Arab Nationalism and Opposition to the Hashemite Rregime (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2012) was published in an Arabic version in Amman in 2016.