ABSTRACT
When we first saw the high-altitude reconnaissance planes hovering over Haifa, most of us in the neighborhood reacted with bewilderment. Our apprehension was minimal, since they were seen only in the daytime and appeared to be harmless. But in the spring of 1940 the hostile bombing attacks on our area began, at first distant, short, and at odd hours, but never at night. As spring turned into summer, they became heavier and more frequent, drawn by the immenseness of our harbor and our petroleum refinery with its liquid gold. Then there was the large and efficiently run railroad station that tied the three warring continents together: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Since these assets were among the ultimate sources of energy and maneuverability for waging war, the Italians spread their destructive capability to our shores to bleed the Allies to defeat. Joining forces with German air power, they started raiding those facilities at random times with little regard for the innocent people who had nothing to gain from that war.
