The London Daily Mail asserted today that the Israeli Air Force had used two secret weapons to achieve one of the most fantastic feats in history — the destruction of Nasser’s air force on its Egyptian runways and strips.
The paper said that examination of photographs of Nasser’s shattered Soviet-built MIG fighters showed “something very special was used against them.” Each one of the planes, it said, had been hit in the engine and cockpit with a single shot. This was done, according to the Daily Mail, by a rocket armed with a homing device, possibly magnetic, developed by Israeli scientists. The paper noted that the dummy, decoy planes made of wood and canvas, scattered around the fields, were not touched and that the Israeli pilots had gone only for the real planes.
The second secret weapon credited to Israel by the London daily was a rocket-powered bomb designed to destroy runways. By use of this bomb, it said, the enemy planes were trapped on the ground and picked off at leisure. Airfields in the very heart of Egypt were devastated in this fashion, some of them at the extreme flying range of the French-built Vautour jet-bomber. The raid on the Luxor airfield, the paper said, called for extremely delicate flying. Israeli bombers, it asserted, cruised on one engine and attacked on the first pass over the target, flew back on one engine and glided into their own bases with all fuel gone.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
