http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2012/6/5/main-feature/1/the-six-day-war-day-one/e
This week, Jewish Ideas Daily commemorates the forty-fifth anniversary of the Six-Day War with a day-by-day synopsis, for which we are indebted to Michael Oren’s comprehensive Six Days of War. Below, the second of a seven-part series. Read part I here.
As the sun rose on June 5th, 1967, squadrons of Egypt’s MiG fighter jets took to the skies for their morning patrols. Fearing that an Israeli attack would begin at dawn, their aim was to be ready to meet any Israeli planes. With an air force twice the size of Israel’s, consisting of over 400 modern combat aircraft (supplied by the USSR), they were more than a match for their adversary in the air. But finding everything quiet that morning, they returned to base for breakfast. At bases from the Sinai down to Luxor, the most powerful air force in the region stood inert on the tarmac, without even hangars for protection.
Unbeknownst to the Egyptians, the Israelis were wise to their daily routine. They had gathered intelligence not only on every Egyptian jet, but on every pilot, down to the sound of his voice. This intelligence was the basis of “Operation Focus”: the plan, revealed to only a handful of ministers, to attack the Egyptian air force at its most vulnerable. Still, no one expected what was to follow.
At 7:10 a.m., the Israeli Air Force set off for what looked like routine patrols. But although the planes appeared to be Mirage jets, they were in fact no more than a mirage: the real fighter jets, flying below radar detection, were about to begin the assault on Egypt’s airfields. Some flew out into the Mediterranean, to come back around to hit targets from Al-Mansura in the north, to Cairo, and still further to Al-Minya in the south. Others flew south over the Negev before turning east to hit targets across the Sinai peninsula. Still others continued on over the Red Sea, on their way to Luxor.