“A FAMOUS INDISCRETION” AS THE AIR WAR PEAKSThe Soviets’ special interest in the Phantom, and in the knowhow possessed by its
pilots, was demonstrated when they took part in the interrogation of the downed
airmen. Yitzhak Pe’er ( Jeff Peer), the pilot of the second plane shot down on 30 June,
was captured by the Eg yptians but told the present authors that several of the officers
who questioned him were Russian. He identified them by appearance, accent, and—
in one case—the Cyrillic letters on a wristwatch dial.^22 Pe’er volunteered his American
birth early in his interrogation, and was told “you are ... a mercenary. We’ll hang you
in public in Cairo to show the whole world that American pilots are flying for
Israel.”^23 The threat was not carried out, but Pe’er’s origin appears to have reinforced
the fabrication that Israeli planes were being flown by Vietnam-seasoned USAF
pilots—American Jewish volunteers or, in a version widely circulated among Soviet
personnel, highly paid mercenaries.^24
Pe’er was the only US-born IAF pilot who took part in combat missions during
the War of Attrition, but he arrived in Israel as a boy of fourteen and had never served
in any US force. Several former USAF pilots did serve at various times with the IAF,
including in this period at least one Vietnam veteran, but he was barred from combat
missions precisely to avoid any risk of capture.^25 There were also contrasting rumors
among the Soviets that “many of the Israeli pilots are believed to have been emigrants
from the Soviet Union.”^26 This may have been more plausible, given the Israelis’ abil-
ity to intercept and even imitate Soviet signals. But while such immigrants were
common in other functions—including intelligence and signals—none are known to
have served as pilots.
For Smirnov and his men, the 30 June triumph ended on a sour note. He wrote
thirty years later:
when P.F. Batitsky issued the combat orders for Operation Kavkaz, he notified me that the
first missile divizyon commander to shoot down a Phantom would be nominated for Hero
of the Soviet Union. He said this had been arranged with the defense minister. Of course
I did not share this with anyone, but when the first Phantom was shot down we officially
submitted Malyauka’s nomination.The Lithuanian officer received, however, only the lower-ranking Order of the Red
Banner, which was understood as discrimination against a non-Russian. His dis-
mayed superior could only console himself in retrospect that “later we had ‘heroes’
too.” Malyauka’s certificate of internationalist service was signed only in December
1988, by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev; it mentions neither Eg ypt nor his
feat there.^27
C. A ceasefire initiative masks intensified Soviet involvement
In Moscow, the overstated good news evidently reinforced Soviet–Eg yptian agree-
ment to press on with the military buildup. After returning to Cairo, Nasser told his