At 11:24 a.m., the Central Coastal Command received the first of several reports that Arish on the Sinai coast was being shelled from the sea, and half an hour later sent three torpedo boats to investigate. This was near the
Liberty's position. Investigative journalist
James Bamford points out that
Liberty had only four
.50 caliber machine guns mounted on her decks and, thus, could not have shelled the land.
[27]
At 1:41 p.m., the torpedo boats detected a target "20 miles northwest of El Arish and 14 miles off the coast of
Bardawil"
[1] on their radar.
[28] The Combat Information Center officer on the torpedo boat Division flagship, "Ensign Yifrach Aharon, reported that the target had been detected at a range of 22 miles, that her speed had been tracked for a few minutes, after which he had determined that the target was moving westward at a speed of 30 knots. These data were forwarded to the Fleet Operations Control Center."
[28]
The speed of the target was significant because it indicated that the target was a combat vessel.
[28] "The Chief of Naval Operations asked the
torpedo boat Division to double-check their calculations."
[28] "A few minutes later, the Division Commander reported that the target, now 17 miles from him, was moving at a speed of 28 knots" on a different heading.
[29] "Since the Division was cruising at the same speed as the target, and therefore could not intercept it the Division commander requested that IAF planes be dispatched."
[28] Bamford, however, points out that the Liberty's top speed was far, far below 28 knots. His sources say that at the time of the attack the Liberty was following its signal-intercept mission course along the northern Sinai coast, at about 5 knots speed.
[27]
At 1:48 p.m., the Chief of Naval Operations requested dispatch of IAF fighter aircraft to the ship's location.
[30] Two Mirage III type aircraft arrived at the ship at about 2:00 p.m.
[28] The formation leader, Captain
Iftach Spector, reported the vessel appeared like some type of non-Israeli warship.
[28] Authorization to attack was issued by the chief air controller, Lieutenant Colonel Shmuel Kislev, immediately after a recorded exchange between a command headquarters weapons systems officer, one of the air controllers, and the chief air controller questioning a possible American presence.
[31]
[edit] Air and sea attacks
Beginning about 2 p.m., the
Liberty was attacked by several IAF aircraft, initially by two Mirage IIIs, employing cannon, rockets and bombs,
[32] followed by two
Dassault Mysteres carrying
napalm. One napalm bomb hit the ship.
[33] The leader of the Mirage formation identified the ship as a
destroyer, mistaking the off-center fed
parabolic antenna on its
forecastle for a gun. The fact that the ship had Latin markings led IDF Chief of Staff
Yitzhak Rabin to fear that the ship was Soviet; he ordered the planes and a three torpedo boat squadron that had been ordered into the area to withhold fire pending positive identification of the ship, and sent in two helicopters to search for survivors. These radio communications were recorded by Israel. The order also was recorded in the ship's log, although the commander of the torpedo boat squadron stated that he had not received it.
[34]