High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Boats of Cherbourg was an Israeli military operation which took place on 24 December 1969, and involved the escape of five class 3 missile boats from the French port of Cherbourg. The boats had been paid for by the Israeli government but had not been delivered due to the French arms embargo in 1969. The whole operation was planned by the Israeli Navy, and was codenamed "Noa-Operation", after the daughter of Captain Binyamin (Bini) Telem.