Milton "Milt" Rubenfeld was a Sarasotan who flew for the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army during World War II, later becoming one of the five founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force in Israel's War of Independence. They:
“dropped their bombs on the front end of the column. They then pulled up and began to come around to strafe the tanks and trucks.... As he was pulling up, Rubenfeld's plane was hit by antiaircraft fire or by fragments from his own bomb and began to fall to the west, thick black smoke trailing behind.”
“Rubenfeld nursed his plane to Kfar Vitkin, a moshav on the coast just north of Netanya, and bailed out over the Mediterranean at only a thousand feet altitude. His parachute opened just before he hit the water, four or five miles from shore. Rubenfeld had suffered three broken ribs, a hurt groin, and several cuts, and faced a long swim to the beach.”
“I swam for a couple of hours. When I finally gave up, I stood up and the water was only up to my knees. I'd been swimming for hours in water I could have stood up in at anytime. I didn't realize it because I was so far out. The farmers at Kfar Vitkin were shooting at me as I was coming in out of the water. They thought I was an Arab pilot. (Rubenfeld, pers. comm.) Not knowing any Hebrew, Rubenfeld turned to the next best thing - he began shouting in Yiddish. Unfortunately, his Yiddish was almost as limited as his non-existent Hebrew, consisting of the words "Shabbos" and "gefilte fish", which he repeatedly shouted. The locals must have understood, for they pulled him out of the water and held him safely.”
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