As Narrated By Arnon Barak (And Editor By African Herald Express)
This is the full story of the covert Biafra Air Rescue operation of 1969 – 1970 by a few heroic foreigners – mostly Jewish pilots and humanists that flew ill-maintained aircrafts by night, in bad weather and across enemy fire – and landed with supplies of food and medicines for Biafran civilians ravaged by starvation/air and sea blockade during the dark days of the Nigerian civil war. The moving details of the highly secret and dangerous Mission are being made public now in the words of a few of the surviving pilots and crew who came together to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of what was also known then as the “Red Cross Operation — Relief Action Nigeria”.

The anniversary, which was organized by the IsraelAircraft Industries (IAI, the initiators of the Mission back in 1968, will also serve as a symbolic monument to the fallen Air-Crew and others, who heroically died on their mission while saving lives in Biafra. The anniversary which took place in Israel on March 3, 2010 also gave Honourable Mentions to the hundreds of surviving volunteers, Air and Ground Crew, who jeopardized their lives, day and night during the operation. Below is the rest of the story (in the words of Arnon Barak, the narrator): Our story began at the end of the year 1968, when in one morning the phone rang. On the other side was my boss in IAI, (Israel Aircraft Industries), “come quickly to my office” he said. When I got there he told me straight away, “There is a massive genocide in Biafra. We were called up by Balair, the Swiss airline that asked IAI, to help their maintenance crew to take over the “big monster” the C-97 STRATOFREIGHTER. The Red Cross is supplying food and medicine to the besieged people in Biafra”.

My boss continued, “I decided to assign our best maintenance crew experts to this mission, so, do you agree to join the delegation which includes Ezra Melamed, Samuel Karniely , Josef Shimony and yourself Arnon Barak ?” Without any hesitation I agreed and so my friends. One month later we arrived in Basel starting working in Balair’s huge hangar. A short time later, Uri Shani, our friend from IAI joined us. Our small group of friends from Israel – Ezra, Uri, Josef, Samuel and myself Arnon (the author of this story) – decided to erect a website, so that the history of this Mission will live on in the public square. We were the beginner technicians in the Biafra Operation. The purpose of the Biafra Operation was to save lives of more than a million people of those living in Biafra, a large territorial area in Nigeria. The people of Biafra were surrounded by tens of thousands of Nigerian soldiers armed with “smart” weapons and fighter airplanes, including MIG 15. Neither food nor medicine was supplied to these people. The Red Cross was not allowed to render assistance. At the beginning of 1968, the Red Cross decided to initiate a Secret Mission. Its goal was to supply medicine and food to the Biafra area in order to save the life of a few millions people starving in a small shrinkable territory. The Red Cross wanted to use large volume transportation aircraft for the mission. It was a huge problem to locate a runway to land and take-off in the Biafra territory. The only time those aircraft could land in the Biafra area was during the night.

Finally, they did find a road (in a place named ULI), long enough to use as a “runway” for a large airplane such the C-97g. The flights to ULI operated after sundown in total darkness, the Nigerian fighter pilots were afraid to fly during darkness. The air crews involved in this operation were very brave and some of them were shot down during the operation while others crashed in ULI close to the jungle. Balair Airline, a daughter company of Swissair, was selected by the Red Cross to conduct the air rescue operation. After a short time, they realized that their DC-6's and DC-7's were not large enough to carry the quantities of food & medicines needed for this operation. The decision was made to try operating the huge Boeing C-97g (the largest U.S.A.F. Aircraft at that time) which was operated by only two countries the U.S.A.F. And Israeli Air Force. Officially, the U.S. Government was not involved, but they did not prevent Air-Crew- U.S. citizens to take part in the Biafra Operation as volunteers. Five aircraft were purchased at the beginning from the civil aviation market– subject to the U.S. Government approval. From the maintenance point of view, the C-97 was very difficult to handle and complicated aircraft to maintain. Years of experience were needed in order to certify and authorize technicians for these aircraft. There were two reasons for these difficulties. Firstly, the C-97 piston engine was the largest ever made and caused many problems. Secondly, most of the aircraft systems were electrically and electronically driven. Also, special logistic support was needed to fly continuously.

For all of these reasons, Balair contacted Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), the only Company outside of the U.S., familiar with the C-97's, in order to train Balair’s technicians. The plan was to train a group of Balair’s maintenance personal within a month (the goal was unattainable so it failed). A group of four technicians was selected by IAI to start the operation, and we were honored to be that group.The U.S. Air National Guard contributed five C-97's for this operation, Israeli air crew transferred the aircraft to Basel, Switzerland (the First aircraft landed in February 15, 1969) and immediately we prepared them for the operation. In parallel, Hugo Marom, IAI’s chief pilot, conducted a flight test of the aircraft and checked the volunteer pilot candidates from the U.S in order to certify them for this operation. After one month of hard work in Balair facilities trying to train their technicians to perform the C-97's maintenance work, Balair came to the conclusion that it was impossible to achieve the goal of operating those aircraft with their technicians. IAI was asked to continue supporting the operation for as long as needed. The first cargo flight toAfrica, bound for Biafra, was made on March, 1969 and considered as a key flight to decide go/no go for the whole fleet of C-97's aircraft. Unfortunately, Engine failure occurred during flight and the aircraft was forced to land in the Sahara Desert at Niamey airport, in Niger Africa. A second Aircraft was flown with a spare engine to rescue the first aircraft and we were the 4 technicians onboard. It was the most horrendous time I can remember. A few of us contracted malaria and the work was done only at night due to the hot weather.

Our base station was in Cotonou airport, Dahomey (today Benin) in Africa, close to the Nigerian border. The five C-97's were operated every night to ULI in Biafra Nigeria, landing in the darkness. Several accidents occurred such as one aircraft returned without one propeller and another landed on its belly due to the pilot forgetting to lower the Landing Gear. Every night some aircraft returned with bullet holes in the body and others were shot down. From time to time we flew to Europe and returned with food and medicines. During one of those flights we made an emergency landing and it is a hair-raising story. A special relationship developed between our people and the air crew guys. We spent our leisure time discussing ideas and coming up with solutions to problems that arose. I would like to quote a few lines from a letter written by Captain K. Herzog, Balair president at the time of the Biafra operation. The letter was written for the reunion celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Biafra operation. The reunion was held in Israel inDecember, 1989. “I would like to remember you, how the cooperation with IAI started. When the problem came up to increase the load Capacity of the Airlift in Biafra by taking over a number of C-97's from The American Air Force I realized, that Balair, as DC-6 a/b operator, Was not qualified to handle such a sophisticated airplane in West Africa. As Israel was the only country in our hemisphere flying the C-97's I was aware, that only close operation with IAI gave us the chance to realize a successful operation.

Fortunately, we had already good contacts with “Bedek” (IAI), due to the major overhand of a Balair DC-4 and due to the Maintenance assistance given our DC-3 flying for Untso. The most important question to get full technical assistance was settled and I could sign the contract to take over the first five C-97's from the U.S. National guard. To enable the start of the operation, Israeli air crew ferried the aircraft from different air ports in the U.S. to Switzerland for registration. Who of you of about 50 participants of the Israeli delegation does not remember the long ferry flights around the whole African coast (refuelling at Las Palmas) to Cotonu (Dahomey) and back for maintenance to Lod (today called Ben-Gurion Intl. A/P), avoiding strictly overflying any Arabic territory. I remember by this Opportunity that an American-Balair-crew made an emergency landing in Sidi-ifni in Spanish Morocco, where the Israeli staff members had to be hidden in the tail cone of the C-97. You started this maintenance in the Biafra Airlift with endless working Hours as C-97 experts with an unusual technical knowhow due to your Experience in the air force. You kept this a/c, which had no famous Reputation, in the air. Already after 2 months high ranking U.S. Air Force officers were aware of the extreme high monthly utilization of our Fleet. Colonel Dewey, also still a friend of mine, who supervised our activity had to confirm the flight hour figures to the chief of the National Guard force.

Due to this success, I could get the contract from “Joint Church Aid” an American group based with 5 other C-97's in Sao Tome, an island four hundred kilometers south of Dahomey (Benin). On short call we ferried you to this island, where we took over the 5 C-97's. 3 of these a/c were grounded due to lack of maintenance. Do you remember the lousy spare part shops we found in the hangar? The U.S. Air Force ferried immediately 5 spare engines and after one week the whole Fleet was in operation again. I remember one thing again as it would have happened yesterday. One of our ground mechanics a small fellow, Climbed up inside the tail to the top to repair an electrical failure of the position tail light. Of course we had no ladder to climb so high upon this island. The success of the Biafra Airlift brought a lot of congratulations to the favor of IAI and Balair. All of us can be proud of what we did for the starving people of Biafra, bringing night after night under ugly circumstances food and medical supplies (16 tons on each flight). Editor’s note: This story was brought to our attention by Philip Udegbunam, a Nigerian-Israeli, who met the surviving pilots of the Biafra Air Rescue and encouraged them to share their story

Great bit of history here, Tonte.    I have taken the liberty of saving this story to later weave into my ongoing novel about African brush wars, and the quiet, unsung heroes that conduct humanitarian operations on the periphery of those conflicts, at enormous risk to their lives.

tonte23:

As Narrated By Arnon Barak (And Editor By African Herald Express)
This is the full story of the covert Biafra Air Rescue operation of 1969 – 1970 by a few heroic foreigners – mostly Jewish pilots and humanists that flew ill-maintained aircrafts by night, in bad weather and across enemy fire – and landed with supplies of food and medicines for Biafran civilians ravaged by starvation/air and sea blockade during the dark days of the Nigerian civil war. The moving details of the highly secret and dangerous Mission are being made public now in the words of a few of the surviving pilots and crew who came together to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of what was also known then as the “Red Cross Operation — Relief Action Nigeria”.

The anniversary, which was organized by the IsraelAircraft Industries (IAI, the initiators of the Mission back in 1968, will also serve as a symbolic monument to the fallen Air-Crew and others, who heroically died on their mission while saving lives in Biafra. The anniversary which took place in Israel on March 3, 2010 also gave Honourable Mentions to the hundreds of surviving volunteers, Air and Ground Crew, who jeopardized their lives, day and night during the operation. Below is the rest of the story (in the words of Arnon Barak, the narrator): Our story began at the end of the year 1968, when in one morning the phone rang. On the other side was my boss in IAI, (Israel Aircraft Industries), “come quickly to my office” he said. When I got there he told me straight away, “There is a massive genocide in Biafra. We were called up by Balair, the Swiss airline that asked IAI, to help their maintenance crew to take over the “big monster” the C-97 STRATOFREIGHTER. The Red Cross is supplying food and medicine to the besieged people in Biafra”. 

My boss continued, “I decided to assign our best maintenance crew experts to this mission, so, do you agree to join the delegation which includes Ezra Melamed, Samuel Karniely , Josef Shimony and yourself Arnon Barak ?” Without any hesitation I agreed and so my friends. One month later we arrived in Basel starting working in Balair’s huge hangar. A short time later, Uri Shani, our friend from IAI joined us. Our small group of friends from Israel – Ezra, Uri, Josef, Samuel and myself Arnon (the author of this story) – decided to erect a website, so that the history of this Mission will live on in the public square. We were the beginner technicians in the Biafra Operation. The purpose of the Biafra Operation was to save lives of more than a million people of those living in Biafra, a large territorial area in Nigeria. The people of Biafra were surrounded by tens of thousands of Nigerian soldiers armed with “smart” weapons and fighter airplanes, including MIG 15. Neither food nor medicine was supplied to these people. The Red Cross was not allowed to render assistance. At the beginning of 1968, the Red Cross decided to initiate a Secret Mission. Its goal was to supply medicine and food to the Biafra area in order to save the life of a few millions people starving in a small shrinkable territory. The Red Cross wanted to use large volume transportation aircraft for the mission. It was a huge problem to locate a runway to land and take-off in the Biafra territory. The only time those aircraft could land in the Biafra area was during the night.

Finally, they did find a road (in a place named ULI), long enough to use as a “runway” for a large airplane such the C-97g. The flights to ULI operated after sundown in total darkness, the Nigerian fighter pilots were afraid to fly during darkness. The air crews involved in this operation were very brave and some of them were shot down during the operation while others crashed in ULI close to the jungle. Balair Airline, a daughter company of Swissair, was selected by the Red Cross to conduct the air rescue operation. After a short time, they realized that their DC-6's and DC-7's were not large enough to carry the quantities of food & medicines needed for this operation. The decision was made to try operating the huge Boeing C-97g (the largest U.S.A.F. Aircraft at that time) which was operated by only two countries the U.S.A.F. And Israeli Air Force. Officially, the U.S. Government was not involved, but they did not prevent Air-Crew- U.S. citizens to take part in the Biafra Operation as volunteers. Five aircraft were purchased at the beginning from the civil aviation market– subject to the U.S. Government approval. From the maintenance point of view, the C-97 was very difficult to handle and complicated aircraft to maintain. Years of experience were needed in order to certify and authorize technicians for these aircraft. There were two reasons for these difficulties. Firstly, the C-97 piston engine was the largest ever made and caused many problems. Secondly, most of the aircraft systems were electrically and electronically driven. Also, special logistic support was needed to fly continuously.

For all of these reasons, Balair contacted Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), the only Company outside of the U.S., familiar with the C-97's, in order to train Balair’s technicians. The plan was to train a group of Balair’s maintenance personal within a month (the goal was unattainable so it failed). A group of four technicians was selected by IAI to start the operation, and we were honored to be that group.The U.S. Air National Guard contributed five C-97's for this operation, Israeli air crew transferred the aircraft to Basel, Switzerland (the First aircraft landed in February 15, 1969) and immediately we prepared them for the operation. In parallel, Hugo Marom, IAI’s chief pilot, conducted a flight test of the aircraft and checked the volunteer pilot candidates from the U.S in order to certify them for this operation. After one month of hard work in Balair facilities trying to train their technicians to perform the C-97's maintenance work, Balair came to the conclusion that it was impossible to achieve the goal of operating those aircraft with their technicians. IAI was asked to continue supporting the operation for as long as needed. The first cargo flight toAfrica, bound for Biafra, was made on March, 1969 and considered as a key flight to decide go/no go for the whole fleet of C-97's aircraft. Unfortunately, Engine failure occurred during flight and the aircraft was forced to land in the Sahara Desert at Niamey airport, in Niger Africa. A second Aircraft was flown with a spare engine to rescue the first aircraft and we were the 4 technicians onboard. It was the most horrendous time I can remember. A few of us contracted malaria and the work was done only at night due to the hot weather.

Our base station was in Cotonou airport, Dahomey (today Benin) in Africa, close to the Nigerian border. The five C-97's were operated every night to ULI in Biafra Nigeria, landing in the darkness. Several accidents occurred such as one aircraft returned without one propeller and another landed on its belly due to the pilot forgetting to lower the Landing Gear. Every night some aircraft returned with bullet holes in the body and others were shot down. From time to time we flew to Europe and returned with food and medicines. During one of those flights we made an emergency landing and it is a hair-raising story. A special relationship developed between our people and the air crew guys. We spent our leisure time discussing ideas and coming up with solutions to problems that arose. I would like to quote a few lines from a letter written by Captain K. Herzog, Balair president at the time of the Biafra operation. The letter was written for the reunion celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Biafra operation. The reunion was held in Israel inDecember, 1989. “I would like to remember you, how the cooperation with IAI started. When the problem came up to increase the load Capacity of the Airlift in Biafra by taking over a number of C-97's from The American Air Force I realized, that Balair, as DC-6 a/b operator, Was not qualified to handle such a sophisticated airplane in West Africa. As Israel was the only country in our hemisphere flying the C-97's I was aware, that only close operation with IAI gave us the chance to realize a successful operation.

Fortunately, we had already good contacts with “Bedek” (IAI), due to the major overhand of a Balair DC-4 and due to the Maintenance assistance given our DC-3 flying for Untso. The most important question to get full technical assistance was settled and I could sign the contract to take over the first five C-97's from the U.S. National guard. To enable the start of the operation, Israeli air crew ferried the aircraft from different air ports in the U.S. to Switzerland for registration. Who of you of about 50 participants of the Israeli delegation does not remember the long ferry flights around the whole African coast (refuelling at Las Palmas) to Cotonu (Dahomey) and back for maintenance to Lod (today called Ben-Gurion Intl. A/P), avoiding strictly overflying any Arabic territory. I remember by this Opportunity that an American-Balair-crew made an emergency landing in Sidi-ifni in Spanish Morocco, where the Israeli staff members had to be hidden in the tail cone of the C-97. You started this maintenance in the Biafra Airlift with endless working Hours as C-97 experts with an unusual technical knowhow due to your Experience in the air force. You kept this a/c, which had no famous Reputation, in the air. Already after 2 months high ranking U.S. Air Force officers were aware of the extreme high monthly utilization of our Fleet. Colonel Dewey, also still a friend of mine, who supervised our activity had to confirm the flight hour figures to the chief of the National Guard force.

Due to this success, I could get the contract from “Joint Church Aid” an American group based with 5 other C-97's in Sao Tome, an island four hundred kilometers south of Dahomey (Benin). On short call we ferried you to this island, where we took over the 5 C-97's. 3 of these a/c were grounded due to lack of maintenance. Do you remember the lousy spare part shops we found in the hangar? The U.S. Air Force ferried immediately 5 spare engines and after one week the whole Fleet was in operation again. I remember one thing again as it would have happened yesterday. One of our ground mechanics a small fellow, Climbed up inside the tail to the top to repair an electrical failure of the position tail light. Of course we had no ladder to climb so high upon this island. The success of the Biafra Airlift brought a lot of congratulations to the favor of IAI and Balair. All of us can be proud of what we did for the starving people of Biafra, bringing night after night under ugly circumstances food and medical supplies (16 tons on each flight). Editor’s note: This story was brought to our attention by Philip Udegbunam, a Nigerian-Israeli, who met the surviving pilots of the Biafra Air Rescue and encouraged them to share their story

I am happy I learned of this. I have grudges against Israel and America on the way they relate with the Palestine, but today I see their good side. Today, I will forever do all that is within my power to protect every Israeli and American Soul, because people from their land gave up their lives so that my tribe will not be wiped out of the earth.

Today I see the true meaning in our one humanity.

may God continue to bless the Israelis; may God bless America.

Of course, I have always known that I owe the Tanzanians, the Ivory coast and so many others that came to our side when our Nigerian brothers tried to eliminate us from the face of the earth.

But nevertheless, I pray that my Nigeria works.