The Boats of Cherbourg The Navy That Stole Its Own Boats and Revolutionized Naval Warfare

On a stormy Christmas eve, Israeli sailors ran off from Cherbourg harbor with "patrol boats" that had been embargoed by France. These innocent looking craft were platforms for the first missile boats in the West. In the Yom Kippur War, they overcame the Soviet-made missile boats in the Arab fleets, opening a new era in naval warfare.