History's Biggest Airlift

Under a bright moon, civilian and military police with dogs patrolled the edges of Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire last week, shooing away the curious townspeople drawn by the steady roar of big jet engines. "The only other time you hear that much activity at night is when the reservists fly in," said Bob James, who owns a gas station near the end of the runway. As he spoke, KC-135 tanker jets labored off the runway, then banked right toward the nearby Atlantic Ocean. During the day, half a dozen blue-and-white Boeing 747s had shuttled in and out of the base.

The frenetic activity at Pease A.F.B. was part of a mammoth U.S. airlift to resupply the Israeli army. The KC-135 tankers, according to New Hampshire Representative Louis Wyman, were refueling U.S. aircraft en route to Israel over the Atlantic. The 747s, owned by El Al, were ferrying bombs, ammunition and spare parts to Israel. Similar scenes took place at airbases in Europe as well as the U.S. Among them was Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where arms were loaded aboard C-5A transports. These scenes were probably also taking place at airports in Eastern Europe as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. engaged in fiercely competitive efforts to resupply their Middle East allies.

Military Gear. According to military analysts, it was the largest airlift in the history of both countries. By week's end, the Russians had flown about 9,000 tons of military gear to Egypt and Syria. Most of it was carried aboard AN-12 cargo carriers--similar to the American C-130--and by Russia's largest air transports, the turboprop AN-22, which has a payload of 80 tons (30 tons less than the giant U.S. C-5A Galaxy). The Soviets also transported an unknown quantity of supplies by ship from Black Sea ports through the Bosporus to the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia and to Alexandria in Egypt.

Much of the Soviet equipment came from front-line units in Eastern Europe, according to one analyst. It included at least 600 surface-to-air missiles, some 1,200 tanks--light PT-76 tanks aboard planes, heavy T-62 and T-55 tanks on ship--and about 300 MIG-21 jet fighters in crates for reassembly in Egypt and Syria.

The Russian airlift began five days after the war started, the U.S. effort four days later. By the end of last week, however, the U.S. was equaling the daily Soviet tonnage and had transported approximately 5,000 tons of supplies to Israel by C130, C-141 and C-5A cargo planes. Prevented by Spain from using U.S. bases there during the crisis, the American transports refueled at Lajes Field in the Portuguese Azores, then flew on to Israel. The Defense Department stationed what it called a "limited" number of Air Force logistics experts in Tel Aviv to help unload antiaircraft and antitank missiles, 105-mm. shells, bombs and radar jammers.

The U.S. tonnage totals did not include supplies being hauled by El Al's jets or heavy equipment--like M-60 tanks--being transported in Israeli ships. One day last week, the Israeli freighter Aben Dat took on tracked vehicles and other materiel at Norfolk, Va., Naval Station and then put to sea at 4 a.m. Nor do the U.S. figures include 30 F-4 Phantom fighters and 50 A-4 Skyhawk light attack bombers that the U.S. has agreed to give Israel.

Almost all of the equipment sent to the Israelis was ready for immediate use; so, too, was much of the weaponry shipped by Russia to the Arabs. Some Western correspondents reported seeing brand-new equipment clogging Israeli roads to the Sinai front as well as new Russian tanks on their way to the front south of Damascus.

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