Operation Tarnegol

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Operation Tarnegol (Hebrew: תרנגול, lit. 'Rooster') was an Israeli Air Force operation carried out on the eve of the 1956 Suez Crisis. It witnessed an Israeli Gloster Meteor NF.13 intercept and destroy an Egyptian Ilyushin Il-14 carrying high-ranking members of the Egyptian General Staff en route from Syria to Egypt. On 24 October 1956, as Israel, France and Britain were preparing for the launch of operations Kadesh and Musketeer, Abdel Hakim Amer, Egypt's defence minister and commander-in-chief, departed Egypt for a visit to Jordan and Syria. Early on Sunday, October 28, a day before operations were to commence, Israeli intelligence learned that Amer and the entire Egyptian General Staff were soon to depart Damascus for Cairo on board an Ilyushin Il-14. This presented an opportunity to incapacitate Egypt's high command on the eve of operations and the Israeli Air Force was tasked with shooting the aircraft down. The IAF had only received its first three Meteor NF.13s, the night-fighting variant of the British jet, shortly before the outbreak of the Suez Crisis. Newly formed 119 Squadron, operating out of Ramat David and led by Major Yoash Tsiddon, was therefore shut down for the upcoming campaign and Tsiddon detailed to 117 Squadron as a regular Meteor pilot. Although neither Tsiddon nor his navigator Elyashiv Brosh had practised night intercepts since training, they were dispatched to take 119's lone serviceable aircraft and intercept the Ilyushin. Late on 28 October, half an hour after the Ilyushin had reportedly left Damascus, Tsiddon and Brosh departed Ramat-David in Meteor 52. They had taken off with a maximum fuel load and external fuel tanks, but soon discovered that fuel would not flow from the external tanks and jettisoned both.