Palestinian Helwan Ha-200R

[comrade harps]

Helwan Ha-200R
a/c 408, Jabra Nicola Squadron
personal mount of Captain Tamer Saleh
Palestine Arab Republic AIr Force (PARAF)
Lod, Palestine, February, 1965



By early 1965 attempts to create a United Arab Federation (UAF)  involving Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Syria had reached a crisis point. Since 1957 the interim Arab Community (AC)had been tasked with fostering closer economic, political and military ties between its member nations, including administering a negotiated settlement to the West Bank issue. Occupied by Jordan during the 1948 Arab liberation of Palestine, it was annexed in 1950.




By 1965 Egypt had become the prime mover in the AC's Mutual Defence Agreement, supplying equipment and training to the other AC states. Egypt's Helwan military-industrial complex was vital to this status, building and exporting a wide range of weapons including T-54 and T55 tanks, the Helwan Ha-100 advanced jet trainer and its single-seat fighter derivative the Ha-200 and the licence-produced MiG-21F-13 Fishbed fighter. However, with these exports came Egyptian advisors, many of whom had been trained in the Socialist Union.



With Egypt supporting Palestine's claimed over the West Bank and Jordan increasingly concerned about the political activities of its Egyptian military advisors, a political crisis that threatened to derail the AC loomed. The spark for the conflict of February 1965 was the inevitable Jordanian crackdown against Palestinian protesters in the West Bank. Communal tensions had escalated throughout 1964 resulting in growing death toll and ultimately the shooting of 28 unarmed Palestinian civilians by the Jordanian Army. When a Jordanian Army unit (with embedded Egyptian Army advisors) based near Jerusalem mutinied and was attacked by loyalist units, the governments of Egypt, Palestine and Syria moved to liberate the West Bank by force.



The war for the West Bank quickly spread as opposing air forces struck at airfields and other targets well beyond the disputed region. Concerned that the conflict would embolden the Socialist Union into intervening and that the advancing Egyptian, Palestinian and Syria armies might not stop at the eastern border of the West Bank, the UN launched Operation Desert Peace, a large-scale bombing campaign against Egypt,  Palestine and Syria intended to force them into a negotiated settlement. For the UN, it was also an opportunity to strike at Egypt for its support of insurgencies in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. After six weeks of bombing, and with the Jordanian's forced out of the West Bank, an agreement was signed that brought an end to the West Bank War. In the process, the Arab Community was dissolved and the United Arab Federation was formed with just Egypt, Palestine and Syria. This lasted until 1973, when Syria left the federation as it and Palestine clashed over the Lebanese Civil War.



a/c 408 is one of six Ha-200R photo-reconnaissance planes operated by the PARAF during the West Bank War. These jets formed part of a 68 aircraft Palestinian order for Ha-200 fighter-bombers, which served alongside 28 Ha-100 advanced trainers. Their diminutive size,  nimble agility and small radar cross section made them difficult to intercept. Although they required pinpoint accuracy for their modest armament to cause significant damage, Ha-200s nevertheless shot down four Jordanian aircraft (one Fishbed, two Sabres and a Thunderjet) and a USAF Super Sabre without loss in air-to-air combat during the West Bank War.




This plane was the personal mount of Captain Tamer Saleh, an Egyptian-trained pilot who flew 35 combat sorties during the 6-week war, 26 of them in this plane. Photos reveal that a/c408 started the conflict in a bare metal finish but was quickly camouflaged. The plane appears to have used several drop tanks during the war, only some of which were camouflaged. Although the Ha-200R was armed, Captain Saleh wrote after the war that he always flew recce missions without cannon in order to save weight.

[The Rat]

That's an attractive little nipper! 

[PR19_Kit]

Nicely done, and an ingenious backstory too. 

[zenrat]

Nice.  I've been wondering what Palestinian roundels would look like.

[AS.12]

Very clever indeed.  I like that a lot.

It sparked-off a memory for me and after a search I found that the proposed Palestinian air force in the Real World was designated Force 14 and was under training in Libya in the 1970s.  Mr Gadaffi had obtained MiG-21s for their equipment but the tangled web of Middle East politics quashed the idea.

[comrade harps]

Nice.  I've been wondering what Palestinian roundels would look like.

I used Kuwaiti markings, minus the lettering.

[Old Wombat]

 

[TheChronicOne]

Very nice!!! Good choice of subject matter and what not.....   don't see much (errrr.... any?  ) Palestine builds. 

[zenrat]

...   don't see much (errrr.... any?  ) Palestine builds. 

No.  But heaps of Israeli ones.  I often feel I should do my part to restore the balance.

[Tophe]

Good!
Unusual and nice (even if do not like much military subjects, sorry)

[PALG]

Great inspiration. i toyed for years with idea of doing a Palestine Free Air Force Helwan Ha-300 and getting custom decals made up. i even designed the decals and got them put on a T-Shirt.  The hilarious thing is - I'm wearing that T-shirt right now!

I was going to buy the Ha 300 Helwan 1/72 Classic kit, but never got around to learning how  to make resin models, and the idea languished.

[PALG]

Just read the full backstory - great minds think alike. MIne was a little less detailed: The UNited Arab Republic resolved to create a Free Palestine air wing based in Syrian zone and flying the newly-produced Helwan Ha-300 fighter. The special force was to fly under dedidcated Palestinian livery under UAR command. After the break up of the UAR, the Free Palestine component remained in SYria on a similar footing under Syrian command.

Roundels? I put my design on a the tshirt i made up for fun in 2008 - and happened to be wearing today. Must be fate.

http://s257.photobucket.com/user/PALG/media/8IIR0qrB.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

This was my runner-up:

http://s257.photobucket.com/user/PALG/media/joround_1.png.html?sort=3&o=0

[DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT I CANT GET THE IMAGES TO DISPLAY]

[PR19_Kit]

[DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT I CANT GET THE IMAGES TO DISPLAY]

That's because Photbucket got greedy and won't let you display on 3rd party sites unless you pay them LOTS of money. Lots of other threads about it on here.