RAF Beit Daras | |||||||||
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| Bayt Daras, in Israel | |||||||||
  RAF Beit Daras Shown within Israel | |||||||||
| Coordinates | 31°44′10″N34°41′57″E / 31.73611°N 34.69917°E | ||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||
| Owner | Air Ministry | ||||||||
| Operator | Royal Air Force | ||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||
| Built | 1941 | ||||||||
| In use | 1941 - 1949 | ||||||||
| Fate | Demolished | ||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||
| Elevation | 100 metres (328 ft) AMSL | ||||||||
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Royal Air Force Beit Daras or more simply RAF Beit Daras is a former Royal Air Force station located in Bayt Daras, Israel.
RAF Beit Daras was built in 1941 by the Royal Air Force in the British Mandate Palestine. It was used by the RAF’s De Havilland Mosquito bombers up until 1948 for supply flights. On the night of March 31, 1948 a part of The Czechoslovak Arms Deals, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster landed on the airfield as the first flight of Operation Balak to airlift the arms from Czechoslovakia to Israel. In 1949, the units were withdrawn from the airfield due to increasing anti-British resistance. [1] [2] After the war, the airfield was operated by the Israeli Air Force as an emergency landing ground for occasional manoeuvres. [3] After the war, the airfield was used as a one-time minor civil airfield known as Kiryat Gat or El-Faluja. Currently, there is no remnants of the airfield. [4]
On-site was two wooden hangars, two asphalt runways (NW/SE, 1,827 meters, N/W, 1,508 meters), and also a nearby power plant. [5]
The followings units based at RAF Beit Daras at one point.
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Josef Jan Hanuš DFC was a Czechoslovak fighter pilot who served in first the French Air Force and then the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in the Second World War.
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