Arms shipments from Czechoslovakia to Israel 1947-1949

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Between june 1947 and October 31 1949 the Jewish agency (to become the Israeli government) seeking for weapons, during Operation Balak, made several purchases of weapons in Czechoslovakia, some of them of former German army weapons, captured by Czechoslovak army on its national territory or newly produced German weapons models from Czechoslovakia post-war production. The Czechoslovak partner in this deal was department of Ministry of National Defense called "Secretariat D", under command of general J. Heřman.

One of the first larger contracts was signed on January 14, 1948, and included 200 MG 34 machine guns, 4,500 P 18 rifles and 50,400,000 rounds of ammunition. The deliveries from Czechoslovakia proved important for defending of Israeli indenpendence.

1 Total deliveries
2 Other defense cooperation
3 The end of cooperation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Total deliveries

(confirmed until October 1948)

[edit] Infantry weapons

34,500 P 18 rifles
5,515 MG 34 machine guns with 10,000 ammo belts
10,000 bayonets vz.24
900 vz. 37 heavy machine guns
500 vz. 27 pistols

[edit] Other infantry weapons

12 ZK-383 submachine guns
10 ZK 420 semi-automatic rifles
500 ZB vz.26 light machine guns (shipped, yet delivery not confirmed in Czech sources)

[edit] Ammunition

91,500,000 7,92 x 57 mm cartridges
15,000,000 9mm Parabellum cartridges
375,000 13mm cartridges for MG 131
150,000 20mm cartridges for MG 151
375,000 cartridges 7,65mm for vz. 27 pistol

[edit] Aircraft

25 Avia S-199 fighters
61 Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX fighters

Some of the aircraft were lost during flight to Israel. The delivery of aircrafts begun on May 20 1948, and was conducted from Czechoslovak air force airfield near the town of Žatec, so in Czechoslovak army it was known under codename Akce Žatec (Operation Žatec).

Some of the deliveries were not finished until after cessation of hostilities. Only eighteen Spitfires reached Israel prior to end of war by direct flight from Czechoslovakia (operations Velveta 1 and 2) in September (6 planes) and December 1948 (12 planes)(both operations with refueling stop in Yugoslavia), the rest was shipped in crates, officially declared as scrap iron, together with 12 Merlin 66 engines and deliveries lasted until the end of April 1950.

[edit] Other defense cooperation

Czechoslovakia also trained 81 pilots and 69 ground crew specialists, some of them later forming first fighter unit of Israeli Air Force, and on the soil of Czechoslovakia a group of Jewish volunteers in size of aproximately a brigade was also trained. The Czechoslovakia trained ground forces didn't take part in the 1948 war.

[edit] The end of cooperation

With the rising power of communists in Czechoslovakia, as well the changing views of the Communist Party and the decline of Stalin's support for state of Israel, the Czechoslovak government was forced to end its weapons sales to Israel.