The Machalniks

In 1947, two Jewish American World War II airmen, Mike Kaplan and Paul Schatz, had a plan. With two surplus cargo planes, they would fly Holocaust survivors over the British naval blockade, set up to prevent the victims from reaching Palestine.Before the plan could be executed, circumstances changed when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine. Five Arab nations with a combined population of over 60 million, vowed to annihilate the virtually unarmed 600,000 Jews when the...
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In 1947, two Jewish American World War II airmen, Mike Kaplan and Paul Schatz, had a plan. With two surplus cargo planes, they would fly Holocaust survivors over the British naval blockade, set up to prevent the victims from reaching Palestine.Before the plan could be executed, circumstances changed when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine. Five Arab nations with a combined population of over 60 million, vowed to annihilate the virtually unarmed 600,000 Jews when the British withdrew. Now the greater urgency for Kaplan and Schatz was to get weapons to the Jews to defend themselves. Only one country was willing to sell them armaments. Czechoslovakia. Kaplan and Shatz increased their fleet to twelve cargo planes, and gathered a volunteer crew of Jewish World War II pilots to fly them. They were called Machalniks, the Hebrew acronym for Volunteers from Abroad.Facing fines, prison, and loss of their citizenship for attempting to break the Mid-East Arms Embargo, and with their aircraft about to be confiscated by the U. S. Treasury Department, the pilots whisked the planes out of the country. Reaching Czechoslovakia, the Machalniks, began clandestine smuggling operations, flying arms into Palestine. On May 29, two weeks after Israel proclaimed itself a State, a column of 5,000 Egyptians in tanks and armored cars had advanced to within 15 miles of Tel Aviv. If the city fell, the fledgling State of Israel would cease to exist. Kaplan, a combat seasoned veteran, led three inexperienced pilots in a desperate attempt to stop the advancing enemy. They soared into the sky in untested World War II German fighter planes, whose dismantled pieces were smuggled into the country by Shatz only days before. Flying the only four combat aircraft the newly created Israeli Air Force possessed, beneath their wings lay the fate of the newborn nation.