Giora Epstein obituary: Israeli Air Force's ace fighter pilot

Times

29-07-2025

Guiding his Mirage fighter jet a mere 50ft above sand dunes near the Egyptian city of El-Arish, Giora Epstein stalked his target at a speed of more than 800mph, raised the trigger cover, flicked the cannon switch and fired. His volley struck the Soviet-made Sukhoi Su-7 and the tail of the plane exploded, while the front flipped over and smashed into the ground. No pilot, Epstein concluded, could have ejected in time. He returned to his base in Israel knowing he had achieved his first kill. Many were to follow.
After this success in his French-built plane during Operation Moked (Focus), a surprise attack on Egyptian air force facilities in 1967 in what came to be known as the Six-Day War, Epstein downed another 15 Egyptian jets and a helicopter. His career tally of 17 kills made him ace of aces in the Israeli air force and top globally in the supersonic jet fighter era. 'I remember each one,' he wrote in his 2020 autobiography, Hawkeye. 'Every detail, every pressing of the trigger or firing of the missile. I vividly recall the pursuit, the aerial manoeuvres, the moment when I saw the plane ahead of me crash and burn on the ground.'
He reached ace status with his fifth kill in 1970 during the War of Attrition and was promoted to head the departments of photography and long-range airstrikes. Egypt and Syria suddenly attacked Israel on October 6, 1973, while Epstein was at air force headquarters. He turned on the national warning siren system that announced the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War to the country but had no interest in remaining in the command and control bunker.
Returning to the cockpit, he claimed 12 kills in the space of a week. Flying a Nesher fighter plane, he was lured into an ambush and outnumbered 20 to one by Egyptian MiGs but shot down four of them during a nine-minute dogfight that left him exhausted and shaking from exposure to extreme G-forces.
Physical and mental advantages, he later mused, helped to make him a remarkable pilot. A calm personality kept him clear-headed under pressure, his tolerance for pain was unusually high, his small stature helped him to withstand G-forces and his eyesight was exceptional. 'The average range of vision for a fighter pilot is eight to twelve miles,' he wrote. 'I could spot fighter jets that were as much as 24 miles away.'
Giora Epstein was born in 1938, to Polish parents, Hillel and Chaya, who met at a Zionist camp. He later added the Hebrew word Even, meaning 'stone', to his surname. His father was a docker and construction worker while his mother looked after children on the kibbutz where the family lived: Negba, a Jewish settlement founded in the south of what was then Mandatory Palestine.
He was evacuated at the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War only hours before the Egyptian military attacked the kibbutz after Israel's declaration of independence. When he returned two years later, he had developed a fascination with aircraft and was a voracious reader, especially of American Wild West stories and books about RAF pilots. 'I knew by heart all the tales of the battles of Douglas Bader,' he said. He would later meet the Second World War ace. When informed of Epstein's combat record, Bader was said to be 'quite impressed'.
Drafted into the Israeli military at 17, Epstein volunteered for the pilot course but was made to train as an aircraft mechanic after medical tests indicated a heart condition. Still, he negotiated his way into a paratroop unit and discovered a love of free-falling. He made hundreds of jumps, twice breaking a leg in hard landings. In 1962 he competed for Israel's skydiving team in the World Sport Parachuting Championships in the United States and recalled the folk musician Pete Seeger giving a concert for the competitors. 'I knew all of his songs by heart and at the end of the evening, I taught him to sing Hava Nagila,' he said.
The persistent Epstein was finally cleared for pilot school in 1963 after more medical tests and graduated top of his class. Two missions did end in failure: attempts to assassinate Yasser Arafat. In 1968 a pair of suspicious Mercedes cars, one black, one blue, were spotted on a road in Jordan and Epstein was ordered to fire at the blue vehicle. 'When I landed, I was told, 'Idiot, Yasser Arafat was in the other Mercedes!' ' In 1972, Epstein strafed a building in Lebanon where the Palestinian political leader was believed to be holding a meeting, but he survived.
Unwilling to accept a desk job as he approached his forties — he protested that he 'didn't want to fly Parker pens' — Epstein joined the Israeli commercial airline El Al in 1977. He flew Boeing aircraft until the mandatory retirement age of 65, remaining an air force reservist until his 59th birthday. He flew Israelis and Iranian Jews out of Tehran in 1979 on a chaotic rescue mission during the Iranian Revolution.
In 1967 Epstein married Sara, an operations secretary in his squadron. She survives him along with two daughters, Adi and Dana, and a son, Guy. All worked in the air force: Guy as an officer in an anti-aircraft missile unit and Adi and Dana as operations officers.
In his seventies, Epstein was diagnosed with heart failure and fitted with a mechanical pump. He was honoured by the Israel Defence Forces in 2018 with a special promotion to brigadier general.
Though he appreciated the attention, his reserved nature meant that he did not ostentatiously celebrate his triumphs in the manner of his fellow pilots. 'With me, there were no buzz flights [low-altitude passes over the airfield] or whoops of victory after each kill,' he said. 'But I let nothing stop me on my way to victory.'
Giora Epstein, ace fighter pilot, was born on May 20, 1938. He died on July 19, 2025, aged 87