Israel's Six Day War | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories

Middle East 1967 at lightning speed Israeli oil

tank

ers charge against the Sinai. It was a big mistake for them to believe that Egyptians do not know how to fight. What is at stake is the fate of the Middle East. They are willing to stay there. two armies are ready to confront the

israel

is six days and only one winner the fate of the war was in our hands this is the confrontation in the sinai this is the six day war the desert borderlands of southern

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a very corner disputed Middle East that has been torn by a conflict born in the middle of a violent war to survive, Israel has had to learn to fight and in the desert

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of the last 60 years it is the oil

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ers who have held the key to military success Since its creation in 1948, the modern state of Israel has been besieged on all sides by hostile Arab neighbors whose ambition was nothing less than its complete and utter annihilation.

The first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was quickly followed in 1956 by a second war against Egypt and ten years later, with a conflict still unresolved, Israel and Egypt begin to mobilize their armies once again since the end of the war of Israeli independence in 1948, Israelis and Arabs had been constantly pushing each other by 1967, all of this comes to a head, crisis spirals out of control Egyptian forces increase rhetoric on both sides intensifies set up and train a series of events that ultimately make the war unstoppable as battle lines are drawn along Israel's southern border in the Sinai Egypt can boast not only a numerical advantage but also the backing of the superpower of the soviet union in june 1967 the sinai bristles with egyptian manpower and weapons 100,000 men 1,000 artillery and more than 900 tanks the role of tanks was extremely important in an open area like cyan to counter a tank you need a tank, so which has to be a tank versus that Egyptian armor is overwhelmingly made up of the t-55 medium tank, it has good armor, a good gun, good mobility and is very tough in terms of being able to operate in the harsh climate.

From the desert the Soviet T-55 weighs less than 40 tons, is light and carries a lethal 100 millimeter cannon and its wide tracks make it ideal for the soft sands of the Sinai. When you put it all together, the T-55 is, in short, a tank much better than the one the Israelis had, the Israeli armored force is a hodgepodge reflecting the fact that in 1967 Israel does not have much power, since the Israeli forces are using relics from the second world war that they have collected from the scrapyards. from europe they still have centurions they still have some of the old sherman tanks but now there are American made habitats the patented m48 medium tank armed with a 90 millimeter main gun is more powerful than the sherman more reliable than the centurion and the best tank that the Israelis can deploy the only drawback is that the crisis comes to a head in June '67 the Israelis have very few of them mobilizing along their southern border the Israelis can only muster 700 tanks 70,000 soldiers and less than 200 artillery Outnumbered and outgunned and on the brink of war Israel's only hope is to attack first and hit hard out of nowhere on June 5th that is precisely what they do it is fair to say that the Israelis did their homework very well and the Egyptians were sleeping and not ready in less than three hours, the Israelis destroyed almost 300 aircraft on the ground, almost destroying the Egyptian air force.

The Israelis have been training for this attack for almost 10 years, especially the airstrike on Israeli tankers. The dye is already cast. and at eight o'clock they launched their ground defensive plan, a three-pronged attack bombing the sinai, the northern arm under the command of general israel tau aims to break through the first line of egyptian defenses at khan yunus and rafa and reach el arish in the north. The gateway to Sinai Tao was the order that no matter how many casualties we have on the first day of the war, whether we can communicate or not, we advance, we shoot and we charge, the fate of the war is in our hands, I have decided. cross the border and when I crossed the border I realized that we are in the world, we were driving through trees and we couldn't move left or right and all the fire was right in my face after maybe a kilometer two kilometers.

I lost my tank, I jumped to the second one and after a few kilometers I lost the second tank and after that I was the first Israeli tank in Hanoi and they shot at my tank from everywhere, they shot at every house every many soldiers everywhere, they tried. To stop my attack because I was the first Israeli tanker behind me, no one could protect me, support me, I found myself, I tried to protect myself, but it was almost a possible mission, I used my main gun, I shot at some houses and I saw that many soldiers were waiting for me over there.

Let's order before that not to shoot with the main gun at the houses at this time I said: forget about it, to survive I had no experience and even my soldiers and I were a young lieutenant officer running all the time first hour first tank everything time this was my mission at 10 o'clock cannes eunice has fallen driven by the urgency of its commander the israeli tankers barely pause to breathe their next target i had the feeling that no one could stop us a normal man is afraid even i was I was afraid that I didn't see anyone at the first moment, but suddenly I saw a black line, a kilometer in front of me and I didn't know what that black line was.

I crawled in and saw, thank you for this. The moment I realized that we are in the middle of our division and this is my mission now, to attack them, of course, on June 5, 1967, the first day, the Israeli armored division of the six-day war He attacked first and crashed into the Egyptian defenses in the Sinai. In the north, General Tal's division assaults Khan Eunice and non-stop rushes towards the Egyptian fixed defensive lines at Rafael, so they realize that if they can move faster, think faster and make decisions faster than the Egyptians, can constantly catch the Egyptians at a disadvantage.

It happened suddenly in about a day, so it was a big surprise to realize that we are in the middle of our division and this is my mission now, to attack them, of course, in Rafael, I put all the tanks next to my tanks and It was the first time I used them all together we couldn't stop because we go, go, go, all the time people support each other, you know, some tanks stop for a moment and other tanks move forward and cover each other. Egyptian forces demonstrate a real ability to fight from fixed defensive positions.

It's what they are best at. They are willing to stay there. They are willing to confront the Israelis if you put them in a position where they feel comfortable. I feel like they can fight back, they will fight back hard, they build special places like a firing position, they cover themselves with the dune with their sand and just uh, the top of the third one we saw, I remember one of them, a metal in the front of My tank and I saw it and of course we moved the gun and shot it. The enemy may be shocked when you don't stop, even if you lose some tanks, don't stop, move and move and move and stay behind him. we run so fast when you stop you're a good target when they realize they can't stop us they jump out of the tunnel and start running away from us and they took off their shoes and threw away their rifles and start running towards the ocean at noon the advanced defensive line in rafael has been decisively broken reeling from the explosive speed of the israeli advance the egyptian high command is in a state of denial the fog of war descends heavily on the egyptian forces it is humiliating for the arabs the commanders admit that the israelis, that the Jews are beating them and therefore, instead of admitting that they are losing, they claim exactly the opposite, they claim that they are succeeding, they claim that they are defeating the Israelis, and so when those Israeli formations that have now penetrated the lines From the Egyptian front they begin to advance towards the deeper Egyptian positions;

The Egyptians further back are not fully prepared for them. In the early afternoon, the first Israeli units reached the Jaradi Gorge, a heavily fortified choke point on the road to El Arish, where they took the Egyptians under guard. low. I approached the Girardi, it is a narrow passage like the route to Jerusalem, this terrain is very difficult with soft dunes and land mines, so I decided to return to the technique of moving in column with three tanks firing forward. The Egyptians began to shoot at us from the left we returned fire we saw some tanks on fire during this event the first israeli tanks crossed the jarati at breakneck speed but for those behind the element of surprise was lost and as a result when the main body of the israeli force reached the jarati pass Unlike their vanguard, they now face an Egyptian enemy who is entrenched, armed and waiting for them.

I didn't know that a few hours before two companies crossed the Girardi, I didn't know that no one told me that suddenly I saw two soldiers on the side of the road, I looked at their faces, he was so blonde and scared and he said something like be careful, you have a lot of tanks here, suddenly there was a big bomb on the tanks on June 5, 1967, the Israeli tanks crushed Rafael. and they charge towards the northern Sinai, the lightning speed of their attack catches the Egyptians off guard and the leading tanks of General Tal's armored division break through the Jaradi Gorge, but when the main body arrives, the Egyptians are ready and waiting for them, suddenly I saw two soldiers on the side of the road and he said something like be careful, they have a lot of tanks here and I decided to move the main gun and put it in the direction in which my gunner would try to identify them and I went down to talk to him and give them, the direction at this moment suddenly there was a big bomb in the tank at this moment I said goodbye to the world shalom to the world and then I started screaming my whole body was on fire two of my crew were killed by the officer I was in their tank and the charger who would kill both of them outnumbered them from the start.

The Israelis cannot afford casualties and by mid-afternoon of the first day their losses increase alarmingly and I said to myself when I saw this high price for the first battle. what will be next my feeling after this battle was not fair but water if the wall continues like this we will not be able to continue with so many wanted they found a real war in all aspects of the world and they have to fight and they have to suffer and they lost many of their men and their armored forces in the 7th Armored Brigade the elite of the Israeli army suffer their

greatest

losses during that combat at the Gerardi Pass they only have to fight meter by meter pushing the Egyptians back and one of the fiercest fights in the entire six day war, we organize and have the mission to advance and conquer the jurassic, we take control of the dominant terrain and begin to attack the egyptians who were sitting in the geradi from behind when a defense force sits in shelters in positions and bunkers it was very difficult for them to change direction we attacked tanks, cannons and bunkers from the railing that is what really broke them and then they started to flee and that was the collapse of the giradi division tal advances through the jaradi toward the arish, but his momentum is so fast and so furious that his position is now dangerously overloaded.

The Egyptians send their elite 4th Armored Division north to hit the Israelis hard on the flank but running across the desert. to stop them where they least expect it is the second arm of the israeli offensive under the command of general abraham yaffi south of the coastal roads the egyptians believe that the roadless desert is impassable for armored vehicles and impenetrable for tanks but not for the general yafi our move was especially surprising because they did not expect that we would come from a direction they thought impassable. There were heavy dunes on the right side and heavy dunes on the left side and we moved along that path.

Now the road is difficult and many Israeli tanks manage to advance. stuck and it is difficult to get the forces through there when joffee's forces reach the other side they are hanging they are slowly getting a little healthy and their task now is to intercept the Egyptian 4th armored division that is advancing with hundreds of deadly main battle tanks t-55, this was a tank battle that was perhaps one of the largest since the second world war, but yes, on june 6 in northern sinai, the general towel divisions broke the egyptian front line, But now their flank is dangerously exposed Tanks from General Yaffi's division race across the desert in a race to prevent a massive Egyptian counterattack at Beer Lafaye The two sides come face to face 200 Soviet tanks from the elite 4th Armored Division Egyptian against only 100 Israeli centurions.

The IsraelisThey have become experts in long-range shooting. The centurion's magnificent cannons allow the Israelis to engage the Egyptian forces at much longer ranges than the Egyptians. Realistically, can we open fire at a range of 1,500 to 2,000 yards? The 52-ton British Centurion in service since 1945 has been upgraded by the Israelis with a 105-millimeter gun giving it more firepower and a longer attack range than the Egyptian T-55. If you have better cannons and a good fire control system and if you are well trained, then of course if you can attack from a greater distance than the enemy, it gives you a huge advantage.

The Israelis have learned that the best way to kill tanks is not just to shoot them from the front, but to get close to their flanks, hit them in the side, hit them from the front. In the rear there is a saying in armored call that the best tank is the tank that has the best call. Sometimes the call is more important than the tank. The combat itself is a swirling tank fight that takes advantage of all of Egypt's disadvantages and all of Israel's. Advantages if you have tanks that weigh less to maneuver slowly and counterattack with faster tanks. or more maneuvers you stayed in the back lane under the sun the Israeli tankers maneuver constantly they launch from firing position to firing position they go out to the Egyptian flanks Egyptians advance clumsily in large formations that are very difficult for them to maneuver General Yafi The centurions destroy up to 80 Egyptian tanks, the rest flee, but the Israelis still face their

greatest

challenge further south, at Abu Aguilar.

The third arm of the Israeli offensive under the command of General Ariel Sharon has an even more difficult task: opening the enormous Egyptian fortifications they defend. the main axis of advance towards the central sinai the egyptians in 1967 are on the defensive they have the advantage of being able to sit behind very well developed fortifications with soviet help lines of trenches deep minefields positions dug in depth interlocking fields of fire pre-registered zones of artillery fire are the heaviest fortifications in the entire Sinai the task of crossing the falls battalion commander Natke Nier Alex told me that he cannot give me artillery because I was too far from him this mission would be in my possession all the trenches have been Built with a Soviet design with cement walls.

How to find places to climb the dunes without sleeping. They also had anti-tank missiles and this was a problem. The first attack was not towards us. We lost many tanks. It was a big mistake for them to believe that the Egyptian does not know how to fight. I reassigned new people. Company commanders. A company commander was killed. Another was injured. Four platoon commanders were killed. I found a place where I would be successful in the initial gap. The operation is difficult for the Israelis and cost them a lot of casualties that they suffer throughout the operation, but once they get through those fortified defenses, they are effectively in the clear.

Their mission now surrounds and destroys the Egyptian defensive fortress at Abu Aguilar. In what will become one of the most daring maneuvers in the history of armored warfare in the central Sinai, the tanks of Ariel Sharon's division penetrate the formidable Egyptian fortified defensive line on their mission to wreak havoc on the Egyptian fortress of Abu Aguilar Sharon's plan to deal with the Egyptians The Eagle's defensive system is to hit him from all sides. Push an armored task force battalion across the soft sand dunes north of the Abugila lots. Their main weapon is surprise and maneuvers in the darkness of the night.

Confusion reigns. The Egyptian tanks that were sent against me. they got confused and entered my congo by the sound of their engines we knew they were not centurions we closed them down after hours of treacherous maneuvers in enemy territory they ride towards the unprotected rear of the Egyptian I did not think for a second that tanks or vehicles could cause As we move, I also turned the cannons to the right and the cannons to the left in two columns, I went and machine guns and everything caught fire, they all supplied all their fuel, ammunition, everything that the command headquarters had , that was all. burning everything it exploded the whole place was on fire when we finished a pass we turned around and went back but the close attack has alerted the Egyptian armored reserve which in desperation throws itself into the fray the Egyptian units tend to stay together they will stay together We will fight like units for long periods of time even in very poor, even desperate circumstances, when other formations of other armies could fall apart without knowing where we are, they just moved like mice the moment I felt there was something there, we activated the big projectile for about seconds just for the gunner to set the course on the target you shoot one low one high and destroy the Egyptian 15 meters away from six tanks seven tanks four times they tried to attack us the tanks caught fire we destroyed all these attacks when the tankers jumped they burned like torches from their tanks at the same time many of our projectiles were fired and deactivated the Egyptians fired projectors that were on for too long it was very difficult not to break but thanks to the movement from the railing everything began to collapse with the decisive Israeli victory in abu aguilar The Egyptians face defeat on all three fronts and their command begins to panic.

Cairo realizes that everything is over and at that moment Field Marshal Amr makes one of the worst decisions in military history, simply put. orders all Egyptian forces to withdraw and that they should return to cross the suez canal as quickly as possible, that was a disaster, it was the biggest disaster and they were ordered to withdraw within 24 hours, which is technically impossible a good withdrawal technique should take at least a week should occur overnight withdrawal becomes a route large numbers of egyptian tanks flee westward only to find their escape route blocked by israeli towers sinai june 6 in a space less In more than 36 hours, the Egyptian tank divisions are defeated by the Israelis and flee the battlefield.

One of their main escape routes passes through the Midla Pass, which leads to the Suez Canal and the safety of Egypt beyond, but in a headlong rush, the Israeli 200th Brigade gets the first thing at the mouth of the Midla Pass is a small armored force, no more than a dozen Israeli tanks led by Bren Adam. I gave an order to the 200th brigade to quickly send the battalion to the middle lane and block them. He's basically taken them. As many tanks as he could ran south as fast as he could and every time they started to run out of gas, he pulled out of the tanks to keep as many as he could running to meet the pass. a small force and there they engage in one of the great long-range artillery feats of the modern world using their long-range artillery skills to keep the Egyptians at bay.

They prevent a huge force of Egyptians from passing through the pass until additional reinforcements can finally arrive hours later and seal off the muta completely. Your escape route is blocked. Egyptian armor is now easy prey for the Israeli air force and the Egyptian army is reeling. Israeli tankers move through the Midla Pass towards their final destination. prize beyond the suez canal and complete dominance of the sinai side what surprised me is that the egyptian army was not in a situation of retreat they simply stopped with all the I realized that I have a real enemy in front of me I knew it From the terrain point of view, the maneuvers are going to be very difficult, so I have to use something that is very fundamental on any wall.

This is a surprise. I talked to the 10 commentators and told them look, I'm going to do something that's unusual with open lights and we're going to go towards the source channel, if we face the enemy, we'll shoot, we'll fight, but it might be that the enemy feels it's a trope. Egyptian because otherwise you will not understand about the light, just be prepared. with the weapons on the right on the left the only one who will give you orders to shoot is me and we started to move and you know it was calm nothing happened suddenly when the sun came up we were in the middle of a large deployment of ammunition and infantry and it was a big surprise I stopped the fire I said don't shoot because this army is a defeated army I'm not going to start a massacre because both sides will suffer once they raise their hands we want the battle without even a single shot, it has taken the Israelis only three days Destroy the Egyptian army and reach the Suez Canal.

His conquest of Sinai is absolute. It is fair to say that the military leaders of the Egyptian side were not up to the challenge or the responsibilities at all. The army was not really ready, trained and prepared to fight the war in the same way against the Israelis only to lose it in two three days. , which was a bit humiliating in the course of a short campaign, the Egyptians lost more than 10,000 men and 700 tanks for the Israeli victory also comes at a price with 1,400 casualties and more than 60 tanks destroyed but for their tankers the war of the six days is nothing less than a triumph israel's victory in the six days war is one of the most impressive military achievements of the 20th century a small israeli force faces a larger and better equipped egyptian force entrenched in the locations right of the Sinai Peninsula and not only defeat it but destroy it we knew there was no other option either you win or you die there is no middle way there is nowhere to retreat there is no place to escape outgunned and outnumbered a force of tanks small but highly trained Israeli has proven to be unstoppable tanks the qualities are important but they are not the main problems the same objectives but the man who drives this