Talk:Naval Intelligence Department
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[edit] Boats of Cherbourg 1969 From Interview with Late Lt. CDR Edmond Wilhelm Brillant
Mistakenly people tend to refer the escape of the 5 boats form Cherbourg Harbor at the Christmas eve 1969 to Mossad. This affair had no relation to Mossad. The plot to take the boats was made by Israeli Navy and Rear – Admiral, Retired Mordechi (Nick name Mokka) Limon (Commanded the Israeli Navy between 1950 – 1954) who was the head of IDF mission in Paris France. To make the long story short, the boats were transferred to a straw company called Starboat. This company was Norwegian company for Oil Drills. The idea was of Mokka and he was aided by the connections of Milla Brenner, retired Naval officer Commander in Rank that had the Merchant Marin company for fruits freight ships in Israel. The boats were sold and transferred legally by the government of Israel to the straw company by the approval of Michel De-Breh the French minister of defense. The crew on board of the ships was Israeli Navy. They kept routine of short sails to the Atlantic. Also they started to operate engines at nights in full noise to make a routine of noise in Cherbourg. The local police came and that issue continued. So the locals gave up on that and it became normal. Prior to escape, small groups of reinforcement navy crew started to come officers ratings and sailors. They purchased food in local stores in small groups to prevent attention, since Cherbourg was a small town and Israeli Navy guys were known there. Next they asked help from ZIM navigation company Europe Lines for fueling. This was given to them by Edmond Wilhelm Brillant, Naval Architect and retired Israeli navy officer (Edmond served in the Royal Navy during WW2 as RNVR from HAGANA). He designed M.V. Lea and M.V. Netanya. To provide fuel at the Biscay (Netanya Bcackup) and Gibralter (Lea). Lea’s bow was modified from settling tank to fuel tank. Lloyds register insurance ticket for letting the Lea go to sea with fuel in her bow was solved by the aid of Kirstine shipyards
The second fueling was in Create by the Dan, a RO – RO (roll on roll off) ferry ship that carried fuel trailers in the garage. This was a different task of ZIM RO – RO dept. At Sylvester time December 24th 1969, five missile boats sailed at night from Cherbourg harbor to Israel. Boats arrived Haifa at Dec 31st 1969. The boats had significant role in Yom Kippur war 1973 and made huge victory in the first Naval warfare of sea missile using ECM (electronic counter measures) and EW (electronic warfare) technologies. This was studied by USN. Operation commanding officer Captain Hadar – Kimhi, Vice, Commander Ezra Kedem Krishinsky (Nickname “Karish” Shark), INS Suffa (Storm) skipper Lt. Ronna Arie, INS Ga’ash (Volcano) skipper Lt. Gil Koren, INS Herev (Sward) skipper Lt. Commander Gaddi Ben Zeev,INS Hanit (Spear) skipper Lt. Commander Haim Shaked, INS Hetz (Arrow) skipper Commander Moshe Tabak. The rest is history. (Boats names for oil drill company Starboat 1, 2,3,4,5)
Recommended reading: The Boats of Cherbourg by Abe Rabinowitch
