Ramat David Airbase

Ramat David Airbase (ICAO: LLRD, Hebrew: בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִיר רָמַת דָּוִד Basis Kheil HaAvir Ramat David, English: David Heights) is an Israeli Air Force (IAF) base located 20 km southeast of Haifa in the Northern District of Israel, close to kibbutz Ramat David in the Jezreel Valley. It is the northernmost IAF base in Israel with fighter jets and UAVs based on it. And it has three runways, each about 2.5 km long, and a heliport.

There is an ongoing debate about whether Ramat David should be converted into an international airport for the city of Haifa. It now seems almost certain that this will happen (see here).

Before the airbase was built during World War II, there was already a British military camp here. Kibbutz Ramat David "David Heights", founded in 1926, takes its name from British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was in office at the time of the Balfour Declaration (1917), where the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine was announced.

Roald Dahl, in his World War II autobiography 'Going Solo', mentions landing his RAF Hawker Hurricane Mk.I at Ramat David in June 1941. At that time it was a ribbon of dry earth that had been rolled out in the middle of a large field of sweet-corn built by the Brits and residents of the nearby kibbutz, as Roald Dahl also reports near the end of his book. This secret airstrip behind Mount Carmel was installed as an alternative runway in case the Haifa Aerodrome (RAF Haifa) 20 km northwest of it was attacked and damaged by the Germans or Italians.

In 1942, the RAF Ramat David military airfield was finally established by the Royal Air Force (RAF) under the British Mandate for Palestine. From this point on, several British aircraft squadrons with fighter aircraft, bombers and transport aircraft were stationed there in turn (see list of former RAF units below).

During the Second World War Jewish paratroopers trained at Ramat David to serve in RAF special operation commandos and to drop behind enemy lines in German or German-occupied territory. They were supposed to help bring downed Allied airmen safely back and help Jews hide from the Nazis. Several of them died (see memorial stone in the gallery below).

Former Royal Air Force operational units at RAF Ramat David:

After the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 and the start of the First Arab–Israeli War the next day, the base was temporarily maintained by the RAF to cover the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine. On 22 May 1948, the Royal Egyptian Air Force attacked the base, mistakenly believing it was now an Israeli controlled airbase. In a series of three attacks, several aircraft were destroyed or damaged, a hangar was destroyed, and four British airmen were killed. In the further course of the fighting, five Egyptian fighter planes (all British made) were shot down. The British were furious with their allies. A short time later the base was taken over by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).