The true story of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967
Written: Jul 16 '06 (Updated Oct 07 '06)
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Pros: The true story of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967.
Cons: Graphic detail may bother some.
The Bottom Line: In 1967, Israeli fighter-bombers and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty for 75 minutes. More than 200 American crewmen were killed or wounded. A survivor tells the tale.
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| Don_Krider's Full Review: Assault On The Liberty Books |
The USS Liberty, an American spy ship sailing in international waters, flying an over-sized American flag and unlike any ship the enemies of Israel owned, was attacked by Israeli fighter-bombers and torpedo boats for 75 minutes on June 8, 1967.
The U. S. spy ship was attacked in weather described as calm and with "the visibility excellent." The ship was hit with machine-gun fire, rockets, napalm and a torpedo. Life rafts placed in the water for survivors were deliberately strafed by the Israeli pilots.
A frustrated radioman called for help. Challenged by other U. S. stations on his report that his ship was under attack by "unidentified aircraft," the angry radioman uttered some colorful comments and held open his microphone button so others could hear the enemy rockets hitting the USS Liberty.
Within strike range of the USS Liberty in the sea near Crete sat a U. S. battle fleet with two American aircraft carriers.
U. S. fighter planes were scrambled from one carrier when a distress signal was received from the USS Liberty reporting that she was under heavy attack. For still unexplained reasons, orders from Washington told the U. S. fleet to "stand down" and the fighter planes were recalled.
Who issued those orders to recall the fighter planes which could have defended the USS Liberty, leaving the U. S. ship and her American crew unassisted in their time of need, remains a classified government secret nearly 40 years later.
This happened on President Lyndon Johnson's watch (the same thing happened in 1968, again on Johnson's watch, when U. S. fighter jets were launched and then recalled when the USS Pueblo was attacked and seized in international waters by North Korea in 1968).
When the USS Liberty's survivors brought their damaged vessel home, they were ordered not to talk about the incident.
Despite having flown 13 photo surveillance flights over the ship, one flight just 200 feet above the USS Liberty's deck, during a six-hour period before attacking the ship, Israel claimed later that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Israeli claims
Israel's government claimed the attack force thought the USS Liberty, flying a huge American flag, clearly marked as a U. S. Navy ship, and twice the size of anything in the Egyptian Navy, was an Egyptian transport.
The ship's company included 294 officers and men (including three civilians), of which 34 were killed and 174 wounded during the attack.
The Israeli strike nearly sank the ship, which listed badly after an Israeli torpedo tore out a 40-foot hole in the ship's side. The ship, a $40 million "state of the art" vessel, was so damaged that she was sold as scrap three years later for just over $100,000.
Questions
So why did Israel, America's long-time ally in the Middle East, launch this attack on a lightly armed U. S. vessel in international waters? And why hasn't the U. S. government opened its files on the incident (what could be so secret 40 years later)? Was it an accident or a deliberate attack on a U. S. spy ship at a time Israel was preparing an assault on Syrian forces?
One of the ship's officers, James M. Ennes, Jr., seriously wounded in the attack while on the ship's bridge, published his memories in a book for Random House in 1980, Assault On The Liberty. The book describes his personal recollections of the attack and the crew's fight to find out the truth about why they and their ship were attacked by a supposedly friendly nation.
You might also be interested to know that the ship's survivors filed a "War Crimes Report" with the Secretary of the Army (executive agent of the Secretary of Defense) in 2004, which may be of interest and you can read about it at http://www.ussliberty.org/report/report.htm .
The book basics
I'm reviewing the 2004 Reintree Books reprint of Assault On The Liberty by James M. Ennes, Jr., available from most major retailers, including Amazon.Com, where I bought my copy last month.
Six editions were published by Random House between 1980 and 1986, followed by editions for both Ballantine Books and Reintree Books (which published editions in 2002 and 2004).
The 2004 edition I'm reviewing here is an over-sized Reintree Books paperback and is over 319-pages in length, with a prologue by the author and a foreword by retired Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff, who supports the author's conclusions about a government cover-up.
This is the edition to get, since it has a 2004 addendum by Ennes that updates his original 1980 tale with events since the book's original publication. The 319-plus pages in the book include numerous appendixes, a thorough index, with footnotes in each chapter to cite sources of information.
The book features illustrations throughout, but there's an amazing 16-page, black-and-white photo section at the center of the book with photos taken from the ship of attacking Israeli planes and ships.
Other photos in the book show the damage done to both the ship and to her crew --- one impressive shot shows the ship listing badly, while another shows the 40-foot hole an Israeli torpedo tore in the ship's side, while another shows a bullet-riddled gun mount where two sailors died trying to return fire against their attackers.
This edition
The 2004 edition of Assault On The Liberty includes a new addendum written by Ennes that updates his original story, including comments made to Ennes by the crew members on the American aircraft carrier which launched the initial fighter aircraft to defend the USS Liberty which were later recalled by the U. S. government.
The carrier crewmen told Ennes their planes could have reached the USS Liberty in time to stop the Israeli torpedo boats from attacking the ship (since the torpedo that blew a 40-foot hole in the ship killed 25 men instantly, the recall of the fighters did cost lives, so this is important information).
Ennes also addresses an unconfirmed report of a U. S. submarine in the area that may have filmed the ship under attack.
Since he wrote Assault On The Liberty, Ennes has been attacked by Jewish groups as "anti-Israel" and "anti-Jewish" for writing a book accusing Israel of deliberately attacking his ship. Some of those groups have conducted active campaigns to get the book removed from the shelves of bookstores and from libraries.
It could be expected that a survivor of this event might be biased against Israel, but I don't sense that here. I don't consider what Ennes has written to be anti-Israel or anti-Jewish.
What I do sense in Assault On The Liberty is a dedicated career military officer writing about what he personally experienced in combat and afterward.
Here's a man in uniform seeking the truth, exposing corruption in governments, and critical of the U. S. Navy's procedures, none of which he takes any pleasure in reporting. He's every bit as critical of the U. S. administration of Lyndon Johnson as he is of the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's government.
Assault On The Liberty, as a book, has some important defenders, too. Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New Yorker, said Ennes was an "honest participant" and commented on Assault On The Liberty saying, "I've never read a more graphic depiction of war and its effects at sea."
The Washington Post called the book "a real thriller." The U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings called the publication "the most important naval book of the year," while the U. S. Naval War College Review said "the author develops a strong case to support his contention of a cover-up."
I personally found Assault On The Liberty to be one of the most interesting military history books I've ever read. It kept my attention from cover-to-cover in detailed accounts that made me feel as if I was witnessing the events first-hand.
An asset of the book is its list of all the men on the ship at the time of the attack (sailors, Marines, civilians) and their fate. We should never forget men such as these.
The author
The author, James M. Ennes, Jr., born in Newark, New Jersey, has a degree in business administration. He enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 during the Korean War and retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander in 1978.
From 1965 to 1978, he was assigned to cryptologic duties in the Naval Security Group. He presently lives in the Pacific Northwest, according to his biography.
The writing style
In a detailed and graphic style, Ennes puts you on his ship in 1967. You ride with the ship as she sails from Norfolk, Virginia, on May 2, 1967, heading to destinations in Africa and Spain.
He describes the ship's origins as a Victory-hulled freighter built in 1945 originally known as the SS Simmons Victory, through her name change to USS Liberty and re-designation as a "Technical Research Ship" (something the press prefers to call a "spy ship"). Fascinating reading in itself.
You really do get to know the crew from his descriptions of the men he worked with, from a chief petty officer with a premonition of disaster, to a Jewish officer on the ship in the Navy since World War II who boasts that "I'm the only one who knows what's going on around here" to the young college-educated officers on the ship.
You experience an old Navy tradition for first-timers crossing the equator, see a trained crew get increasingly fearful about being ordered to within 13 miles of the Gaza Strip. There are fights, drinking, and port calls for supplies along the way to the engagement.
In the battle, he notes that at a time when racism was rampant stateside, he tells the tale of an African-American seaman rescuing a badly wounded white officer on the ship.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
Besides the previously mentioned 2004 addendum to this edition, Assault On The Liberty features a foreward by Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, a Navy aviator who flew off the USS Langley, the USS Lexington and the USS Enterprise before and during World War II.
Moorer was one of the first American pilots in the air responding to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He had a distinguished career, including being chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before his retirement in 1974.
Moorer's foreward to Assault On The Liberty is an incredible indictment of the governments of both the U. S. and Israel. Coming from a Navy legend and from a man who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his comments are stunning:
"In my opinion, the United States government and the Israeli government must share responsibility for this cover-up."
Photos fill the book and help illustrate this well-told story of valor and treachery.
There are photos of a bullet-riddled gun mount where sailors died defending their ship, of a 40-foot hole caused by a torpedo which killed 25 men, of a "crew's mess" (where the men usually ate) turned into an emergency room, and photos of Israeli planes and ships making close attack runs on the U. S. Navy vessel. There are numerous photos of this amazing crew, in happier times and during the battle.
The author, wounded in combat
Ennes descriptions of the attack are priceless. As the attack begins, one Israeli jet has already attacked the ship and he has been wounded:
"...My khaki uniform was bright red now from two dozen rocket fragments buried in my flesh. My left leg, broken above the knee, hung from my hip like a great beanbag.
"The taste of blood was strong in my mouth as I tested my good leg. Was I badly hurt? Could I help the men floundering here? Could I help myself? Was it cowardice to leave here?
"On one leg, I hopped down the step ladder..."
Such are the tales of Ennes in the book. He took mental images that he never forgot and later wrote down every event he had seen and experienced. So many experiences from war are never recorded, but Ennes provides a graphic picture of the horrors of war.
He describes the effect of jellied-gasoline bombs known as napalm that hit the ship and its crewmen:
"The jellied slop burst into furious flames on impact, coating everything, then surged through the fresh rocket holes to burn among the men inside..."
He also shows us his great pride in the ship's crew, who used wooden timbers and steel to brace bulkheads weakened by enemy fire, while other men fought fires while being fired upon, the only things that kept the ship afloat. There was no abandoning the ship with Israeli jets machine-gunning the ship's life rafts in the water.
Medal of Honor to the ship's captain
We see the dozens of brave U. S. personnel later cited and decorated for valor. He names them all and quotes from their citations for valor.
Among the tales of heroism, the reader encounters a wounded ship's captain, William McConagle, who refused to leave his post even though he was badly wounded.
McConagle later received the Medal of Honor, given to him in part for refusing "much needed medical attention until convinced that the seriously wounded among his crew had been treated," and for leadership that saved his ship and men.
McConagle's story alone would be worth the price of this book. Ennes describes him as a wounded leader who refused to relinquish his command until U. S. Navy destroyers arrived on the scene more than 16 hours after the Israeli attack began, followed by the slowly responding U. S. fleet and its carriers.
Band of brothers
There are many tales like this in the book. You can be proud of this band of brothers.
Each chapter opens with a quote from military history, from both historical figures and from historians, about other incidents in history which seem to relate to this incident in some way.
I was 10 years old when this incident happened in 1967, and the media reported the government's statement that this was a case of "mistaken identity" by Israel. I remember my father, a career-Navy man sailing on the USS Arcadia at the time, not buying into the reports. I was too young to understand why back then. This book has been an eye-opener for me.
I saw one TV news documentary related to this book two decades back which had me fuming on this issue, but I hadn't read the book until now (why, I don't know; perhaps because it was hard to find in stores and libraries, a situation online retailers have now helped end).
The book will make you mad over the obvious cover-up involved and the treatment of U. S. military personnel by their own government. The U. S. Navy Court of Inquiry, some of which is public and much of which is still classified, created as many questions as it answered.
A congressional investigation is still long overdue, just as Admiral Moorer said in the book a quarter-of-a-century ago, if only to get the true facts out, and the American people should always demand the facts from its elected "leaders."
If Ennes is right, this country has a lot to come clean about in this incident. The sad part is that many witnesses from 40 years ago have since passed away, so any testimony taken now would be incomplete.
Among details uncovered by Ennes are a U. S. warning to Israel that "starting hostilities" with Arab nations would not be supported by the U. S.; an Israeli warning that it might attack U. S. planes and ships that "accidentally" violated its claimed waters and air space; the decision of the U. S. to place a Navy ship in what Egypt had declared to be a "no-passage" zone (meaning ships could be attacked in international waters), and the massive cover-up of the attack on the USS Liberty that Ennes convincingly suggests continues four decades after the event.
My recommendation
Assault On The Liberty by James M. Ennes, Jr., is a must-read, in my opinion. One of the best books I've ever read about the Navy in which the author puts you in the fight. With the Middle East still in turmoil 40 years after the incident, it also is fascinating to see how history truly does repeat itself time and again.
The book is written in an easy-to-read style, which takes the time to explain military jargon to the novice. The type is easy to read, too, a pleasant surprise for aging eyes.
While I can trace my personal heritage back to Americans who have served in all the wars of this country since the American Revolution, I do not consider it unpatriotic to call upon my government to answer for its errors. I love this country, but part of a democracy involves holding one's government accountable for its actions.
This is a must read. I was raised to trust the government, but my career Navy father always told me to not believe everything the government says. My dad's wisdom is evidenced by the facts presented in this stunning book.
When I read Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's 1967 statement that "these errors do occur," it reminded me of statements made by current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the current war in Iraq. History has always fascinated me, and the way it repeats itself is a theme of our nation's history, unfortunately.
This is one book American conservatives and liberals will devour for the same reasons: an injustice was done to the fine men who served on the USS Liberty and four decades later we should unite to expose this cover-up.
The book is also a fascinating tale of courage under fire that is as heroic as any military history I've ever read.
I want to thank Book Category Lead Amy (also known as Pearannoyed, http://www.epinions.com/user-pearannoyed) for adding this title to the Epinions.Com book database for me.
On the web
The USS Liberty Home Page: http://www.ussliberty.org (includes color photographs, among them one of the huge torpedo hole in the ship's side)
A biography of Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, who wrote the book's foreward: http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/88bios/moorer88.htm
Recommended:
Yes
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