Dan Tolkovsky

Dan Tolkowsky
Dan Tolkowsky, 1953
Born	(1921-01-17) January 17, 1921 (age 96) Tel Aviv
Allegiance	Israel
Service/branch	Israeli Air Force
Rank	Aluf

Aluf Dan Tolkowsky (Hebrew: דן טולקובסקי]; also seen as Tolkovsky) (born January 17, 1921) is a retired Israeli military officer who served as commander of the Israeli Air Force from 1953 to 1958.

Tolkowsky was born in Tel Aviv in 1921 and was educated at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. In 1936 he joined the Haganah. In 1938 he went to London to study at Imperial College London and graduated with a BSc. in engineering in 1941.

In 1942 Tolkowsky volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He was part of a group of Palestinian-Jewish RAF pilots sent to train at a flight school in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). He earned his wings in 1943, being the first in his group to complete the course, and went on to serve as a fighter pilot and later in aircraft reconnaissance. He saw action over the Mediterranean area, Germany, and France. At the end of World War II, he served as a transport pilot, and was later stationed in Palestine at RAF Lydda, in Lydda (now Lod). He was discharged from the RAF in June 1946 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

After his discharge, Tolkowsky moved to Britain and worked as a mechanical engineer. In December 1947 he began helping to secretly purchase aircraft for Sherut Avir, the Haganah's air arm and forerunner of the Israeli Air Force. In 1948, a few days before the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Tolkowsky returned to Palestine. He served in the Israeli Air Force during the Israeli War of Independence, participating in bombing attacks on the Egyptian front.