With Israel's 1948/49 war placing enormous demands on its fledgling Air Force, the need for fighter aircraft was desperate. Efforts, up until the early stage of the war, had concentrated on scouring the world to purchase suitable aircraft and rushing them to Israel by any means necessary... As Britain's Mandate to control Palestine expired and the State of Israel came into existence on 15 May 1948, the Royal Air Force (RAF) withdrew from its bases there and left behind a rich cache of aircraft wrecks in dumps adjacent to it's old air bases. One such dump was at Ein Shemer in northern Israel, formerly home to 32 and 208 Squadrons, where IAF technicians recovered three Spitfire Mk IX fuselages and a large quantity of spare parts. This collection of matériel was initially worked on in Tel Aviv and later Ma'arbarot, north of the City. One of the fuselages came from 208 Sqn’s ‘RG-W’ which had been field modified for photo-reconnaissance purposes and most likely formed the basis of D-130, the first IAF Spitfire...