The story of this incredible and dramtic race aginst time -- to provide a state not yet born with an army that was still illegal -- is told in one of the most suspenseful works of history ever published. It was an epic that contained heroism, farce, endless contradication: the Israeli air force was supplied with old Nazi fighter planes bought from Communist Czechoslovokia with money solicited from a real-estate magnate on the urging of a Socialist farmer. Operating out of a Manghattan hotel: known for its tall chorus girls and little old ladies, this same amateur underground bought a surplus U.s. Navy aircraft carrier and prepared to sail it halfway around the world in a vest-pocket replica of D-Day... Yet somehow, this dedicated band of conspirators managed to create an armed force out of nothing.