Yom Kippur 1973 - Part 2 of 3

and 42 men held out for a week before surrendering through the Red Cross after repeated attacks they ran out of their last grenades and bullets. The Egyptian officer who took control of the port believed that they had hidden the heavy weapons from him. The truth is that they didn't have any. They were transported through the port to choose where the survivors would help their wounded comrades disembark and in captivity among the Israeli reserves advancing along the road to the Sinai on Monday the morale of the 8th was still high their confidence in another easy victory was seen reinforced by its route through the Mitla Pass was still strewn with the remains of the Egyptian defeats in 1956 and 67, but that mood was soon replaced by a much grimmer one when the reality of the situation and the extent of its first Losses became evident in those first days in the Sinai, only the Egyptians had cause for celebration, the Sinai front was 125 miles from the main Israeli cities, but in the north there was no margin for error, the Golan Heights had barely 17 miles wide and from this volcanic rock covered plateau four routes led across the Jordan to the north.

Israel, the Benot Jakov Bridge had the most significant incline from Caneta and the area headquarters at Kevanna Fog, a key Israeli observation point on Mount Hermon, was known as the eyes of Israel as it dominated the entire region. The Syrian plan was to cross the ceasefire line in a massive armored assault, two columns forming a pincer to take the FAC fan on the bridge while others attacked four routes smaller than 1,400 synchronized with the Egyptian attack, a bombardment of 50-minute artillery that paved the way for the Syrian armor that then passed the border post flowed like water one Israeli said: I never knew that there were so many tanks in the whole world that the Israelis had one hundred and eighty tanks and sixty guns to hold the front of 40 miles was the most desperate and heroic fight.

At the end of the war, a young leftist tenant with a handful of tanks held off the main Syrian attack for twenty hours, at one point changing position and attacking again with mobile artillery proved effective in stopping the advance, and was well used to obtain the only Israeli advantage. It was about knowing the terrain, they had practiced on it numerous times measuring ranges and the best angles of fire, but they had not anticipated odds of five to one or sometimes eleven to one and, without mercy, they were forced to retreat as in Rayleigh's ideas of signs.

The air force was launched to slow the advance, but even at low level, meeting the challenge of the Sam batteries proved costly. They lost 40 planes in the first afternoon. Infantry-operated Sam Sevens and anti-aircraft guns joined the white competition. The Sam Sixes crossed the sky to the deadly event, they adapted their tactics quickly, although they flew at low altitude over Jordan to take the Syrians in the flank avoiding many of the batteries of the destroyed Syrian vehicles that lined the route witnessed its effectiveness and in some places the scorched and blackened ground showed that, like the Americans in Vietnam were using napalm on Sunday.

Israeli reserves in the Second World War modified. Sherman tanks were deployed in the southern sector. They opposed the T-55 and even the T-62. The last Russian tank despite the thirty-year technological gap. They destroyed a greater number. of Syrians, but at a cost the two frontline Israeli brigades were virtually annihilated, however, they had bought time for the mobilization of the citizen army that had begun on Saturday many did not wait for their code words, confiscated their equipment, headed to any of the fronts pressing trucks, cars and buses into service a platoon even drove a milk float their base in the Sinai Prime Minister Golda Meir expressed her state of mind since she has only recently been surrounded by enemies she has decided to live and if We have to pay the price of life, we have to pay, this is not a town that can give in.

Arriving little by little, the first reinforcements in the Golan were sent directly to the front. The situation was so desperate that there was no time for a coordinated response in To the south the Syrians were now just a 10-minute tank ride from the Bennett Jakov Bridge on Monday morning, although 36 hours into the war the lines towards the Golan were packed with troops and equipment in civilian and military trucks They were approaching the heights and had to risk artillery fire directed from Mount Hermon by Poland at the Syrian commandos. In the first hours of the war, fully mobilized, the Israeli army began to turn the situation around.

The casualties had been numerous. They lost 250 men in the first two days in the Golan. It was not a price that a small army could continue to pay and starting Monday the number of casualties was limited. a priority now they depend more on artillery to dislodge the Syrians from long distances are the rails the

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-time soldiers seemed confident I think we are going to finish the wall there they kicked the knife and we are there or we should be the end week at home would not demonstrate that the easy Syrian resistance remains stubborn in retreat despite its staggering losses.

The advancing Israelis counted 500 tanks among the wreckage scattered on the heights north of Caneta. The Syrian columns have been constrained by minefields. and the crack The Israeli 7th Armored Division had not wasted that advantage that they called the area the valley of tears. Abandoned among the wreckage were new Soviet aircraft carriers capable of firing six of these latest missiles. The Israeli mechanized infantry cleared pockets of resistance ignored by the advancing armor. and by Wednesday the 10th, the chief of the Israeli General Staff, General Eleazar, could report on Israeli progress. I am glad to tell you that we managed to push almost all the Syrian forces to the ceasefire line, but they did not stop their battles, we continued our counterattack. wish attack and continue tomorrow and we will completely break and destroy all attacking forces.

The Israelis have cleared most of the Golan, but were unable to shift to the Sinai until the Syrian threat was destroyed, so they attacked again in the northern sector using Mount Hermon. as cover for their left flank they crossed the ceasefire line into Syria on the 11th taking the shortest route to Damascus two days later there were 15 miles beyond the ceasefire line just 25 miles from Damascus itself the reserves Syrians faced strong opposition from the prepared defenses and The Israelis had a tough job all the way with their capital threatened by Israeli artillery. President Assad called for an Egyptian attack on the Sinai to relieve pressure.

The Syrian MiGs joined a desperate defense by attacking the columns on the left flank near Mount Hermon, but it was a rare appearance because in the air the Israelis were once again in control, the MiGs could not match them in aerial combat and, Having destroyed most of the Syrian missile system, they were now attacking targets throughout Syria, disrupting the Soviet airlift of military supplies at sea. - they were choking the supply route in the first naval battle with missiles, they practically annihilated the Syrian Navy and the Soviet Union was forced to move its own fleet to keep the Syrian ports open, the Americans responded by reinforcing their 6th fleet, a warning thinly veiled against Greater Soviet involvement, the Arab world also came to Syria's aid, Jordanian forces entered Syria and were heavily involved in action throughout yesterday.

Four thousand men from the Jordanian 40th Brigade fought alongside an Iraqi armored division attacking the southern flank, but coordination between them proved difficult. They suffered greatly at the hands of the Israelis They were the last major armored battles on the Golan Front The Israeli advance continued along the Damascus road until it collided with the main Syrian defense line around Sasser now within artillery range south of Damascus the Israelis were happy. To maintain their ground forces on the Sinai front by October 13, the Egyptians had three bridgeheads on the eastern bank that they had extended laterally along most of the canal, but They were only ten miles deep, but most Egyptians were confident that they had achieved most of their objectives and were well entrenched behind a screen of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

All around them was evidence of the damage they had inflicted on Israeli counterattacks. All they had to do was wait for the ceasefire as planned, but Sadat had changed his mind by express order of the two armored divisions that formed the main reserve in the West Bank began to cross towards the east in response to calls to the President Assad's action after the war, General Shadley claimed that for two days he had opposed this measure for fear that it would leave no protection in the West Bank, but finally Sadat had given him a direct order and he obeyed: the two new divisions They were to lead a wide pincer movement to take the beer axe, forcing the Israelis to concentrate on On their southern front, the Israelis were prepared for them, it was what they expected: tanks and infantry were waiting for them, the latter now equipped with missiles.

American trailer trucks. The further the Egyptians moved from the anti-aircraft shield, the more damage they would suffer on the front. hands of the Israelis at 6:00 a.m. October 14 the largest tank battle since Kursk began in World War II 2000 tanks locked in combat along a hundred mile front by nightfall the Egyptians had lost a total of 264 tanks the Israelis only 10 The tactics Senior Israelis explain some of that disparity, but another surprisingly simple reason was the tanks' suitability for desert terrain. When emerging from the hull-down position behind the dunes, the main Israeli tank, the Centurion, could lower its gun 10 degrees.

The lowest profile Soviet T-55 used by the Egyptians could only lower its barrel four degrees and featured a much larger target.