5. Israeli Surprise Attack Destroys Egyptian Air Force at Start of Six Day War
Warplanes are among the deadliest weapons ever invented, but they are useless on the ground. That was amply demonstrated by Mivtza Moked, or Operation Focus, the code name for surprise airstrikes launched by Israel on June 5th, 1967. They destroyed the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian air forces on the ground, and disabled their airbases at the start of the Six Day War, setting the stage for a quick Israeli victory.
The operation was an all out attack by nearly all of Israel’s warplanes, which headed out westward over the Mediterranean, maintaining radio silence and flying low to evade radar, before turning south towards Egypt. The Egyptians were surprised by the sudden and simultaneous appearance of Israeli warplanes over 11 airfields at 7:45AM that morning. The time was chosen because the Egyptians routinely went on high alert at dawn to guard against surprise attack, but by 7:45AM the alert was usually over, the Egyptian airplanes were back on the ground, and their pilots were eating breakfast.
The first wave of Israeli attackers targeted the runways with special munitions: prototype penetration bombs that used accelerator rockets to drive the warheads through the pavement before detonation, resulting in a crater atop a sinkhole. The result was worse than that caused by normal bombs, whose damage could be repaired by simply filling in the ensuing crater and paving it over. The sinkhole caused by the prototype bombs required the complete removal of the damaged pavement in order to get at and fill in the sinkhole beneath. That was a far more laborious and time consuming process.
With the runways destroyed, the airplanes on the ground were stranded, sitting ducks for subsequent airstrikes. 197 Egyptian airplanes were destroyed in that first wave, with only 8 planes managing to take to the air. After striking an initial 11 Egyptian airbases, the Israeli planes returned home, refueled and rearmed in under 8 minutes, then headed back to wreck an additional 14 Egyptian airbases. They returned to Israel for yet another speedy refueling and rearming, and flew out in a third wave, divided between attacking what was left of the Egyptian air force, and striking the Syrian and Jordanian air forces.
By noon on June 5th, the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian air forces were effectively wiped out. Israel’s enemies lost about 450 airplanes, and about 20 Egyptian airbases were seriously damaged. That crippled what was left of the Egyptian air force and prevented it from participating in the remainder of the conflict. It was one of the most successful surprise attacks in history, and left the Israeli air force in complete control of the skies for the remainder of the war.