At the heart of this story was a remarkable feat in 1969 known as the Cherbourg Affair and the role of Admiral Mordechai Limon in this daring episode.
Limon, knicknamed Moka, came from Poland to British Mandate Palestine in 1934.
In his youth he joined the Hashomer Hazair Youth Organisation and was active in the nautical branch of Hapoel in Tel Aviv.
In 1939 he participated in a course for sailing instructors which led him to joining the Palmach’s nautical section in 1942.
During the years 1944 and1945, while WW2 was still in progress, Moka served on merchant ships of the Allies and, following the conclusion of the war, resumed service in the Palmach.
In 1947 Mordechai Limon, by then a sea captain and commander, helped and organised the illegal entry of thousands of Jewish refugees from Nazi concentration camps to British Mandate Palestine on the beaches.
After the war his rise from being a fleet commander to Chief of Operations of the navy and from 1950-1954 to Commander of the Israeli Navy was extremely noteworthy.
After such a demanding and highly successful career as a naval officer, his best service to the State of Israel was yet to come.
Following his retirement from the navy, Moka fulfilled many tasks as an emissary of the Minister of Defense, involving assistance to developing countries of the Third World. Then he headed the Israeli Ministry of Defense Purchasing Mission in France.
The Cherbourg Affair
During the 1960s the Israeli Navy was rather weak in comparison to neighbouring hostile states like Egypt and Jordan.
This led to them placing orders for 12 patrol boats from shipbuilders in Cherbourg, France.
In 1968 Israel launched a reprisal attack on Beirut Airport following PLO terrorist attacks in Israel.
This action angered French President Charles de Gaulle who subsequently imposed a total ban on all military sales to Israel.
Seven of the patrol boats had already been completed and handed over to Israel, but when the embargo was suddenly announced they quietly slipped out of the Cherbourg shipyard and headed to Israel.
The five unfinished patrol boats were left locked inside the shipyard and de Gaulle, in a very vitriolic speech, declared under no circumstances were the five boats ever to reach Israel, even though Israel had already paid for them.
This action set in motion a project devised by Admiral Mordechai Limon who headed the Israeli purchasing mission in France and General Yariv, head of Military Intelligence in Israel.
It was known as ‘Operation Noah’s Ark,’ a daring heist with a dash of chutzpah, a rather typical tactic for which Israel has earned worldwide praise.
The five boats were left in the shipyard for several months, but the new President of France, Georges Pompidou was in no mood to change the arms embargo previously imposed by Charles de Gaulle.
So Limon and Yariv devised a plot lulling the French authorities in believing Israel had agreed the five boats were out of reach and the Israeli government instead demanded compensation for their cost.
At the same time they secretly arranged for the five boats to be sold to a Panama-registered Norwegian company.
The terms of the deal were approved by the French Defense Minister Michel Debre who felt satisfied he had settled the matter of the five incomplete vessels.
Details of the deal were that the crew of the boats were experienced sailors who would sail them to an unspecified Norwegian port for refitting.
Once refitted they would be ideal for the company’s oil exploration work.
What was not relayed to the French authorities was the experience of the crew, who were actually personnel from the Israeli Navy.
Also not informed to the French was that the Panama-registered company was just a dummy company set up for Mossad to facilitate this daring heist.
Shortly after, the five patrol boats arrived in Israel after a rather turbulent voyage on the Mediterranean Sea, but safe and sound.
When the French discovered they had been duped they understandably expelled Rear Admiral Mordechai Limon from France.
It was claimed, though not authenticated, that the French President remarked:
“I do not like tea with Limon, nor Moka coffee.”
