Israel wiped out much of the Egyptian Air Force on the morning of June 5, 1967, the first day of the war. Egyptian pilot Mustafa Hafez was stationed at one of the 11 Egyptian air bases that were targeted.

He told military historian and BBC website reader, David Nicolle, what happened that day:

In the build-up to war, I was sent to a squadron based at Kabrit, flying MiG-17Fs and MiG-17PF night fighters.

We didn't really think that there would be a war, and if there was one, I was confident that Egypt would win.

I was then a Flight Lieutenant and I was 26. Our confidence was not based on anything specific, but our morale was high.

On the first day of the war, 5 June, at about 8.20am I was in the mess, since I was due to fly later that day. No particular aircraft had been allocated to me. This was normal in our air force; we flew what was available....