Synopsis:
"ZANEK!" is the Hebrew command to Israeli fighter pilots meaning "Go" & "Jump take-off!"; or "Scramble!" With the sense of urgency implied by its title, this book conveys the personal and up-to-the-minute story of a heroic group of young men and women struggling against great odds for the survival of their tiny nation. In February 1970 William Stevenson gained the confidence of the Israeli Air Force and was given unprecedented freedom of access to its facilities and to all levels of its personnel. In the fateful months before the August cease-fire, he gathered the raw material for Zanek! inside headquarters; in the cockpits and crewrooms at the air bases; at the technical institutes and training schools; in cafes, homes, and kibbutzim; and from library archives. Interwoven throughout this chronicle, which traces the full development of the Air Force since 1948, is the gripping story of a young pilot shot down over Syria, culminating in this rescue fourteen hours later. All the characters in the mission are based on actual people, though in some cases the names have been changed for security reasons. There are also intimate glimpses of the individuals who have created what Stevenson calls the first guerrilla air force in history, because they have revolutionized aerial strategy and tactics, substituting innovation and surprise for what they lack in equipment and manpower. A former R.A.F. pilot, Stevenson illustrates this concept with dramatic scenes, authoritatively depicted of dogfights between Russian supersonic jets and outmoded Israeli planes. Full of anecdotes and surprising facts, Zanek! is an adventure story, a superb journalistic feat, a unique military and historical record - and more. It is a timely and compassionate portrait of young people who, as Stevenson writes, represent "a microcosm what all men profess to seek: a community of all kinds of individuals from all quarters of the earth, united".
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