We take off from Runway 23 of Ramat David airbase. I cleaned up my aircraft and circled until my wingman Alpha 2 took off then we headed north-east for the Sea of Galilee. Bravo flight wass in the air a minute later. If it comes to an air-to-air fight then at least they were close enough to help.

Our waypoint for swinging north was Kineret, at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, some 19 miles short of the border.

I ordered Alpha 2 to kick out and we crossed the border into hostile territory. As soon as we did so ground control advised us of unidentified contacts some 30 miles to our north, heading our way. With a radar range on the Kfir of just 10 miles we kept the radars off and hoped that we could evade. With our heavy loads we were in no mood for a fight - and the target had to come first. Ground control has also given us no indication of the numbers or altitude of the potential enemy and I had no wish to enter a fight we could lose.

At 15 miles the AI indicator lit up and the RWR showed that we had been spiked by Mig 21 radar. There wasn't much hope of evading now so we dropped tanks and I gave my wingman Weapons Free. I also lit up low afterburner, putting my aircraft in a 10 degree climb to try to gain some height advantage.

At 9 miles the Migs appeared on my radar - I locked up the leader and the HUD targeting box showed he was some 2000 feet above me. Then we saw them, a pair of dots against the sky racing down towards us.

My wingman went for the risky head on shot - two missiles streaked past my right wing and impacted right on the trailing bandits nose. He burst in a smoky orange fireball. I threw the wing over and pulled the aircraft round in a maximum G right turn, going after the leader who had raced past me. His greater speed gave me the advantage; I was behind his wing line and saw him in a fast turning dive to my front. I swept in behind him and the IR seeker picked him up and I launched. At that moment he went into a hard right turn and the missile missed. I flicked the radar mode to wide angle ACM and picked up the bandit, cueing my Python-3. I launched again, and this time the missile flew through the countermeasures and right up the hot exhaust pipe.

I flew unscathed through the falling debris as my wingman announced he was once again on my wing. A glance at the RWR showed ground spikes off to our left, so it was a fair bet that the target was down there somewhere. We turned left as the navigation computer confirmed - we were 10 miles from the target. Seconds later Bravo flight came on the radio and announced they had hit their target - the western bridge, as well as a couple of AA sites overlooking it.

I armed my bombs and found the target waypoint in the HUD. I could see the bridge below and put the aircraft in a 15 degree dive towards the target. As the pipper crossed the target I pressed the pickle button and held it until the delay line disappeared and I felt the bombs come off the racks. In all I dropped eight along the length of the bridge, then put my aircraft ina fast shallow climb to try to outrun the explosions and any defensive fire.

Alpha 2 confirmed that the bridge was down and dropped on some neighbouring vehicles, then we went close formation and heading west for the coast to try to gain some separation from Syrian airspace. We turned over the coastline and found ourselves admiring the view - high mountains to the left, the Mediterranean to our right and Tel Aviv visible to our front.

We turned above Tel Aviv and as Ramat David came into sight we split and landed safely. We had dropped both bridges, 2 Migs and sustained no losses. Mission successful!