Operation Velvetta

When Israel declared independence in May 1948, it immediately faced attacks from neighboring Arab countries and found itself in urgent need of military aircraft.[1] To address that need, Israel negotiated a contract with Czechoslovakia, ratified on July 15, 1948, for 59 British Spitfire IX fighters and spare parts at $23,000 per plane.[2] The aircraft had originally been turned over to Czechoslovakia by the Royal Air Force at the end of World War II.[2]

Both the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav Communist governments approved and supported the transfer.[1] Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito's government agreed on June 15, 1948, to allow an airfield in Yugoslavia to serve as a staging waystation.[1][2] Sympathy for Israel among some Communist leaders, along with financial considerations — including Israeli payment in dollars and a transit fee — are identified as factors behind the cooperation.[1]

The central logistical challenge was the Spitfire's limited range. The aircraft had a flight time of roughly two hours and a maximum range of about 600 miles, while the route from Podgorica to Israel stretched approximately 1,400 miles and would take nine to ten hours.[2] Alternatives, including dismantling the planes and shipping them by transport aircraft or by sea, were considered, but sea transport was judged too slow given the military situation.[2] Haganah technician Sam Pomerantz proposed a solution: stripping out nonessential equipment and fitting the aircraft with auxiliary fuel tanks to enable nonstop extended-range flights.[2] Authorities initially dismissed the plan as impractical, but a modified prototype flew for four and a half hours — described as the longest recorded Spitfire flight.[2] Czech pilots sent to discourage the scheme instead endorsed it, and Czech authorities agreed to the modifications and to allowing takeoffs near the factory, while reserving the right to halt deliveries if a forced landing caused an international incident.[2]

Accounts agree that the route ran from the aircraft-preparation area at Kunovice through Yugoslavia and then to Israel, but they identify the Yugoslav staging location differently. František Šístek's academic account places the waystation at Kapino Polje, roughly three kilometers from Nikšić in Montenegro, while Arnold Krammer identifies the field as Podgorica, later called Titograd.[1][2] Krammer says groups of six Spitfires, stripped of radio and navigational equipment to make room for fuel tanks, followed a DC-4 from Podgorica to Ekron in Israel.[2]

Šístek's account says Kapino Polje was code-named "Alabama" in Israeli aviators' internal communications, while the operation was called "Velvetta."[1] The airfield had been built in the 1930s in anticipation of an Italian attack across the Adriatic. Yugoslavia's king and government fled from it in April 1941, German military aviation later used it, and the charred remains of German aircraft destroyed in a 1944 American air raid still lay beside the landing strip several years after the war.[1]

Participant Oded Abarbanell later recalled the setting: "It was a huge green meadow surrounded by hills. A river passed on the west side of the airfiled [sic] and the town was on the east side."[1] The Israeli detachment at Kapino Polje was commanded by Gideon Shoshad.[1] Pilots wore Israeli uniforms but carried no documents or personal belongings — their pockets were literally empty.[1] If forced to make an emergency landing in Yugoslavia, they were instructed to seek the Yugoslav Secret Police immediately and tell no one else what they were doing.[1]

Before each aircraft continued toward Israel, it was searched and any traces of its passage through Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia were removed. Investigators paid particular attention to Czech and Yugoslav cigarettes, which could have revealed the route if a plane came down unexpectedly.[1] Israeli personnel were forbidden from fraternizing with local residents or Yugoslav guards outside the base.[1]

The sources also give different dates for the first departure: Krammer says six Spitfires left Kunovice on September 22, 1948, while Šístek gives September 24.[1][2] On September 27, two aircraft made emergency landings on Rhodes; Greek authorities seized the planes and arrested the pilots, who were released on October 12, while the aircraft remained confiscated until 1950.[2] Krammer says Yugoslavia had temporarily closed the Podgorica field in early September and placed Haganah officer Gadi Shochat and others under house arrest because of inadequate secrecy. It reopened on September 20 after assurances that the Spitfires would bear Israeli markings, closed again after the Rhodes incident, and reopened in December under conditions limiting flights to six aircraft and barring contact with civilians.[2]

Israeli pilot Mordechai Hod recalled that after the remaining pilots refueled in Yugoslavia, they followed a C-46 pathfinder toward Israel, "with the rest of us trailing behind like ducklings."[2] Pomerantz, who had conceived the extended-range fuel modification, was killed in a crash during the operation.[2] Krammer says the operation resumed "in earnest" on December 19, 1948.[2] Šístek dates the end of the Yugoslav and Montenegrin airfield phase to December 31; a special aircraft then took the Israeli staff stationed at Kapino Polje home, with the final group arriving in Israel on January 5, 1949.[1]

The secrecy was apparent even to people living nearby. Rade Banović, who as a boy herded his family's goats and cows in the hills overlooking the airfield, later recalled: "We knew something strange was going on because nobody was allowed to get near the field." He added that people later heard rumors that "Israelis" were present, "but at that time nobody knew what Israelis were."[1]

Sources differ on the number of Spitfires involved, apparently because they use different scopes. Šístek describes the mission as transferring 60 aircraft through Yugoslavia.[1] Krammer records a contract for 59 and says 24 Spitfires reached Israel by air by the end of 1948, while 33 were dismantled, crated and shipped aboard two Italian vessels that arrived on February 18 and 19, 1949.[2] Those delivery figures total 57. Krammer also records the confiscation of two aircraft at Rhodes but does not explicitly reconcile that episode with the contract and delivery totals.[2] A 2026 Jerusalem Post article gives 17 as its count for Operation Velvetta.[3]

Šístek says the transferred Spitfires were used in Israeli offensives in October and December 1948.[1] Maariv reports that the aircraft landed to refuel at an airfield in Nikšić that the IDF called "Yoram Field"; the report's headline states that the planes were painted in Israeli Air Force colors.[4]

Operation Velvetta remained a closely guarded state secret for decades. Its story only began to emerge after the start of the 21st century and the breakup of Yugoslavia, through historians' research and testimonies from surviving witnesses; reconstructing its details required consulting Israeli, post-Yugoslav, Yugoslav and Czech archives.[1]

Among the participants was Lieutenant Colonel Modi Alon, commander of the War of Independence's first fighter squadron, Squadron 101.[4] His daughter, Michal Gonen (Alon), later attended a ceremony inaugurating a memorial to the operation at a small airfield in Nikšić, where a congratulatory letter from Israeli President Isaac Herzog was read.[4]

A monument was also unveiled at the entrance to Nikšić in 2024.[3] The Jerusalem Post describes a vintage fighter jet painted in Israeli Air Force colors atop a concrete pedestal, with a bronze plaque in Serbian, English and Hebrew calling it "a permanent reminder of the unbreakable friendship of Montenegro and Israel."[3]

Israeli military historian Meir Pa'il assessed that the Spitfires transferred through Yugoslavia played a crucial role in Israel's defense and that, without them, Israel might not have won the 1948–1949 War of Independence.[1] This is an attributed historical judgment rather than a consensus finding established by the sources used here.

The operation's name appears inconsistently across the sources. Šístek and the Jerusalem Post use "Velvetta," Krammer spells it "Velveta," and a Jerusalem Post photograph caption uses "Velvet."[1][2][3] Krammer says the name came from suntan cream included in pilots' rescue equipment in case they had to bail out over the ocean.[2]

Other discrepancies concern the staging site, initial departure and aircraft count. Šístek identifies Kapino Polje near Nikšić and dates the first departure to September 24, while Krammer identifies Podgorica and gives September 22.[1][2] Šístek gives 60 aircraft for the overall transfer, Krammer cites a 59-aircraft contract but accounts for 24 air deliveries and 33 sea deliveries, and the Jerusalem Post gives 17 as its operation count.[1][2][3] The sources do not fully reconcile these different scopes and totals.