[Guest]

we bought whatever we could get our hands on but not everyone was happy to sell
five veaufighters were bought from the uk but in order to get them to sell it they told them it was for a war movie and they ware smugeld here. most plane were second hand like spitfires from the chech republic
and dont forget that before israel declerd indipendece it was under the control of the british empire so after they left a lot of spare parts were left behind.
but the first fighter the israeli air force had was the avia s-199 that's a version of a me109.
and four of them were assembeld 20 may 1948 piloted by two isrealis and two volentires and went on a ground attack mission on egyptien armor.

Personally, I like how they got the American planes. They "bought" four unarmed B-17's. One was stopped by US Agents before it could fly from Czechoslovakia to Israel and bomb Cairo on the way. The IAF also bought about 79 P-51D's and smuggled another four in. One of the smuggled Mustangs shot down a British Mosquito Rece plane that was flying too high for 199's and Spits to catch and later shot down an Egyptian Dakota. On the note of fighting the Brits, the Israeli's were just beast. They shot down three British Spits and one Tempest in the last hours of the war.