East of Nakba (17)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

May, 2022

Part I. Israel bombs a nuclear plant in Iran

 

Chapter 17. Operation code name ‘South of the Border’ (4)

 

Nine F16 fighters of Saudi Air Force met Israeli convoy of one refueling aircraft and two escort jet fighters in the middle of Arabian Peninsula. It did not mean that they directly confronted each other. Instead, Saudi convoy lowered the altitude before they met the enemy. As soon as the Israeli convoy passed overhead, they immediately turned around and chased the targets.

 

When Israeli jets found the figure on the radar at first, they could identify neither the model nor the number of flying objects. The radar of Israeli jets imaged that several aircrafts were approaching from Saudi Arabia. But Israeli pilots at last acknowledged that they were the convoy of nine jet fighters.

 

Radar taught them that the convoy of nine jets kept much lower altitudes. There were no symptom that they were going to attack them directly. The convoy passed beneath them. They thought that it had to be the flight training of the Royal Saudi Air Force.

 

When two convoys missed each other, Saudi nine jets turned around and soared. As soon as they reached the same altitude as the Israeli aircrafts, they began to chase them. At the top speed, the nine aircrafts quickly caught up with Israeli convoy. Both the Israeli and Saudi Arabian jet fighters were exactly the same F16s. Saudi jets, however, easily seized the enemy because Israeli refueling aircraft had to fly slower than F16s.

 

Israeli radar showed that nine jets were approaching minute by minute. The Israel convoy had nothing to be done. It was difficult to check enemy’s play behind them. The visibility of pilot was very much limited in back view though they could enjoy wide front and side view. Moreover, the pilot could hardly shake the head due to his helmet and oxygen mask were fixed to his head tightly. The Israeli pilots had no choice but to wait how enemy attacked them.

 

After nine Saudi jetfighters approached behind the Israeli three, two Saudi jets moved just above the two Israeli escort jets respectively. They began to cut in between the escort jet and the refueling aircraft by force. Israeli convoy was weak birds of a mother and children and Saudi convoy was ferocious falcons. The weak birds desperately tried to prevent the cut-in by falcons. But at last, the three Israeli planes and the two Saudi Arabian planes lined side by side. The two Saudi Arabian jets then wiggled their body and tried to move the escort jets away from the refueling aircraft. It looked like as if falcons tried to tear up child birds from their mother while they snuggled up each other.

 

Confirming the distance between the refueling aircraft and the escort jets gradually widen, the remaining seven Saudi jets moved forward. Eventually Saudi convoy surrounded each of the three Israeli aircraft with three fighters from the left, right, and rear.

 

Areha Kazuya