THE SOVIET–ISRAELI WAR, 1967–1973Eini’s account was received only after his release from captivity in Eg ypt more than
three years later. In a published memoir and several interviews, he stated that Hetz
had been conscious and in control after the missile exploded, trying to fly back across
the canal at 600 knots and 100 feet. “No more than 15 seconds’ distance from the
canal ... the plane went out of control. ... To this day I don’t know whether I bailed
myself out or Hetz pulled his lever a split second before I pulled mine.”^6 Eini lost
consciousness after ejecting, and came to only on the ground, seriously injured. There
were, then, no Israeli eyewitnesses of the Phantom’s last moments and its actual crash.
In an effort to clear up the mystery, Eini and several other comrades of Hetz orga-
nized a search party on the west bank of the canal while it was still held by Israel after
the 1973 war. They reported finding fragments of an F-4, shreds of flight overalls and
parachute straps, and the remains of Hetz’s body. “We held a funeral for him in February
1974.” Hetz’s name is inscribed on a headstone in a military cemetery near Tel Aviv. So
the matter stood until 1998, when Soviet and Eg yptian veterans held a joint conference
in Moscow to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
The proceedings, entitled Shaking Hands after a Quarter-Century, were distributed
in 300 copies. It was in this mimeographed text that the present writers read the
following statement by Col. Yaremenko, delivered in his capacity as official military
historian:
On 18 July [1970] the Israelis tried to destroy a Soviet anti-aircraft gun and missile forma-
tion ... 24 Phantoms took part ... Lt-Col. V[asily] Tolokonikov’s divizyon was attacked
from several directions. In a fierce battle, the missile operators destroyed two enemy planes
and damaged one ... One of these Phantoms was “special.” ... The plane, which fell into
deep sand, remained intact—which immediately drew the attention of the Soviet experts.
In short order, the plane and pilot were sent to Moscow.^7The IAF pilots that we consulted considered it impossible that a disabled and aban-
doned Phantom could have landed in one piece. But photos published by Soviet veter-
ans show them posing proudly next to such hulks. Yitzhak Pe’er, who’d been shot down
on 30 June, related that though he bailed out at about 10,000 feet, his F-4 “came down
next to me, full of fuel and ammunition, and I was afraid it would explode.”^8 Eini
denied to us ever being removed from Eg ypt during his captivity or even encountering
Soviet personnel. So the only candidate for transfer to Moscow was Hetz.
We contacted Yaremenko in Moscow. He reaffirmed his claim, and volunteered
“Shamuel” Hetz’s name. It appeared in 2001 in an official book of the Military
History Institute, of which Yaremenko was a co-author.^9 “If I hadn’t been sure the
story was true I’d never have published it,” he said, and attributed it, among others,
to eyewitness testimonies of two Soviet officers, one of whom “saw an Israeli pilot
being put on the plane” to Moscow and the other flew there with him. “Ever since I
told this, I have been waiting for someone to refute it, but no one has.”