Destiny
Destiny
Lorin Roche & Camille Maurine
Genres: Drama, Thriller, History, War.
Tagline: The miracle of flight.
Plot: A ragtag group of young pilots from around the world take on the Arab Empire and win.
Short Synopsis: Hollywood, 1948. CAPTAIN LOU LENART is a lean and muscular 26-year-old Marine. During World War II, Lou miraculously survived the crash of his fighter plane and experienced a mystical near-death vision. Now Lou is in awe and gratitude just to be alive. Every day, he looks up at the sky and says, “Okay, World, here I am. What do you want from me?”
Los Angeles in 1948 is a boom town. The war is over and the California sun is shining. Lou is having the time of his life, dating gorgeous actresses. All his friends are starting companies, making money, and asking him to join them in business.
But the news stories are making his heart ache. He hears there are still millions of homeless refugees wandering in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish children are living in camps, often the same camps the Nazis put them in. No country will accept them. Lou hears that the UN is going to recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people in 5 months, on May 15. Then Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, declares a “war of extermination” against the people of Israel. Military experts are saying that the Jews will last at most two weeks, because they have no army and no air force, while the Arabs have been fully supplied by the British with tanks, artillery, armored cars, and warplanes.
Lou knows that somehow he has to help. As a fighter pilot, his instinct is to get a squadron together and fly in Israel’s defense. Lou buys an old cargo plane, under the guise of starting an airline, and flies first to New Jersey, then Italy, then Israel. Along the way he meets other young fighter pilots, and together they form a brotherhood devoted to creating an air force for Israel. They are opposed by every nation – there is a worldwide embargo against weapons for Israel. They are hunted by the FBI, British agents, and Arab assassins. The pilots manage to smuggle four Nazi-surplus fighters from Czechoslovakia to Israel. They name their squadron “Angels of Death,” in honor of the Angel in the Exodus story, that God sent to persuade the Egyptians to let the Jews go.
It is now May 29, 1948 and Arab armies are rampaging through the newborn State of Israel. The Egyptian army is 16 miles from Tel Aviv and about to conquer the city. There are only a few hundred Israeli troops to stop them. The Egyptians are parked bumper-to-bumper at a bridge, their hundreds of armored cars, fuel trucks, and ammo trucks all in a line. Suddenly out of the late afternoon sun, four warplanes painted with the Star of David appear, bombing and strafing.
This is the first combat mission of the Israel Air Force, led by Lou. It stuns the Egyptians into abandoning their attack on Tel Aviv. This first crucial victory gives Israel desperately-needed time to equip its soldiers and consolidate its defenses.
Flying with Lou that day was Ezer Weizman, who later becomes head of the IAF and then President of Israel.
Source material:
The best online source of information about the founding of the Israel Air Force is 101squadron.com. The site is a labor of love, and the webmaster has collected in one place photographs and information from dozens of books and much personal research. The site has a list of links about the 101 squadron. He is in the process of publishing a book about the cobbled-together, Nazi-surplus Messerschmitts the pilots were forced to fly: Avia S-199 in Israeli Air Force Service, to be published in Spring 2007. Check the 101squadron site for updated information.
Jason Fenton, who fought on the ground in Israel in 1948, has compiled a book of his personal experiences in the war, plus interviews, articles, and hundreds of photographs. Part of it is available online here. He also makes a printed, 500-page book available.
On Eagles' Wings: The Personal Story of The Leading Commander of the Israeli Air Force
by Ezer Weizman. This is Ezer's "official" bio and it leaves out a lot of the wild goings-on that fighter pilots are famous for. Just the facts. The respectable facts.
No Margin For Error: The Making of the Israel Air Force
by Ehud Yonay. Ehud has a great sense of humor and love of life, and it shows in this book, which is somewhat scandalous because he tells the truth. Ehud wrote an article for California Magazine entitled "Top Guns," which inspired the movie with Tom Cruise, TOP GUN. Ehud GETS fighter pilots. According to Wikipedia, "The primary inspiration for the film was discovered by producer Jerry Bruckheimer when he found an article in the May 1983 issue of California magazine which would form the basis of the film. The article, Top Guns, was about the TOPGUN fighter pilots at the Miramar Naval Air Station, located in San Diego, nicknamed "Fightertown USA"
Volunteers in the War of Independence
by Jason Fenton
I Am My Brother's Keeper (Hardcover)
by Jeffrey Weiss (Author), Craig Weiss (Author). This is a wonderful book, based on an incredible amount of research and interviews with pilots and volunteers in Israel's War of Independence. The authors are brothers.
The Desert Hawks
by Leo Nomis and Brian Cull
The Glory by Herman Wouk
Lorin Roche & Camille Maurine
Genres: Drama, Thriller, History, War.
Tagline: The miracle of flight.
Plot: A ragtag group of young pilots from around the world take on the Arab Empire and win.
Short Synopsis: Hollywood, 1948. CAPTAIN LOU LENART is a lean and muscular 26-year-old Marine. During World War II, Lou miraculously survived the crash of his fighter plane and experienced a mystical near-death vision. Now Lou is in awe and gratitude just to be alive. Every day, he looks up at the sky and says, “Okay, World, here I am. What do you want from me?”
Los Angeles in 1948 is a boom town. The war is over and the California sun is shining. Lou is having the time of his life, dating gorgeous actresses. All his friends are starting companies, making money, and asking him to join them in business.
But the news stories are making his heart ache. He hears there are still millions of homeless refugees wandering in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish children are living in camps, often the same camps the Nazis put them in. No country will accept them. Lou hears that the UN is going to recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people in 5 months, on May 15. Then Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, declares a “war of extermination” against the people of Israel. Military experts are saying that the Jews will last at most two weeks, because they have no army and no air force, while the Arabs have been fully supplied by the British with tanks, artillery, armored cars, and warplanes.
Lou knows that somehow he has to help. As a fighter pilot, his instinct is to get a squadron together and fly in Israel’s defense. Lou buys an old cargo plane, under the guise of starting an airline, and flies first to New Jersey, then Italy, then Israel. Along the way he meets other young fighter pilots, and together they form a brotherhood devoted to creating an air force for Israel. They are opposed by every nation – there is a worldwide embargo against weapons for Israel. They are hunted by the FBI, British agents, and Arab assassins. The pilots manage to smuggle four Nazi-surplus fighters from Czechoslovakia to Israel. They name their squadron “Angels of Death,” in honor of the Angel in the Exodus story, that God sent to persuade the Egyptians to let the Jews go.
It is now May 29, 1948 and Arab armies are rampaging through the newborn State of Israel. The Egyptian army is 16 miles from Tel Aviv and about to conquer the city. There are only a few hundred Israeli troops to stop them. The Egyptians are parked bumper-to-bumper at a bridge, their hundreds of armored cars, fuel trucks, and ammo trucks all in a line. Suddenly out of the late afternoon sun, four warplanes painted with the Star of David appear, bombing and strafing.
This is the first combat mission of the Israel Air Force, led by Lou. It stuns the Egyptians into abandoning their attack on Tel Aviv. This first crucial victory gives Israel desperately-needed time to equip its soldiers and consolidate its defenses.
Flying with Lou that day was Ezer Weizman, who later becomes head of the IAF and then President of Israel.
Source material:
The best online source of information about the founding of the Israel Air Force is 101squadron.com. The site is a labor of love, and the webmaster has collected in one place photographs and information from dozens of books and much personal research. The site has a list of links about the 101 squadron. He is in the process of publishing a book about the cobbled-together, Nazi-surplus Messerschmitts the pilots were forced to fly: Avia S-199 in Israeli Air Force Service, to be published in Spring 2007. Check the 101squadron site for updated information.
Jason Fenton, who fought on the ground in Israel in 1948, has compiled a book of his personal experiences in the war, plus interviews, articles, and hundreds of photographs. Part of it is available online here. He also makes a printed, 500-page book available.
On Eagles' Wings: The Personal Story of The Leading Commander of the Israeli Air Force
by Ezer Weizman. This is Ezer's "official" bio and it leaves out a lot of the wild goings-on that fighter pilots are famous for. Just the facts. The respectable facts.
No Margin For Error: The Making of the Israel Air Force
by Ehud Yonay. Ehud has a great sense of humor and love of life, and it shows in this book, which is somewhat scandalous because he tells the truth. Ehud wrote an article for California Magazine entitled "Top Guns," which inspired the movie with Tom Cruise, TOP GUN. Ehud GETS fighter pilots. According to Wikipedia, "The primary inspiration for the film was discovered by producer Jerry Bruckheimer when he found an article in the May 1983 issue of California magazine which would form the basis of the film. The article, Top Guns, was about the TOPGUN fighter pilots at the Miramar Naval Air Station, located in San Diego, nicknamed "Fightertown USA"
Volunteers in the War of Independence
by Jason Fenton
I Am My Brother's Keeper (Hardcover)
by Jeffrey Weiss (Author), Craig Weiss (Author). This is a wonderful book, based on an incredible amount of research and interviews with pilots and volunteers in Israel's War of Independence. The authors are brothers.
The Desert Hawks
by Leo Nomis and Brian Cull
The Glory by Herman Wouk