LIFE MATTERS
The Miracle of the 1973 War
On Oct 6, 1973 – Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – Egypt and Syria opened a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The equivalent of the total forces of NATO in Europe was mobilized on Israel's borders. On the Golan Heights, approximately 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, fewer than 500 Israeli defenders with only three tanks were attacked by 600,000 Egyptian soldiers, backed by 2,000 tanks and 550 aircraft.
Moshe Dayan with wounded Ariel Sharon
500 Israelis with three tanks were attacked by 600,000 Egyptian soldiers, 2,000 tanks and 550 aircraft.
At least nine Arab states, including four non-Middle Eastern nations (Libya, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco), actively aided the Egyptian-Syrian war effort. A few months before the Yom Kippur War, Iraq transferred a squadron of Hunter jets to Egypt. During the war, an Iraqi division of some 18,000 men and several hundred tanks was deployed in the central Golan and participated in the October 16 attack against Israeli positions. Iraqi MiGs began operating over the Golan Heights as early as October 8, the third day of the war.
Besides serving as financial underwriters, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait committed men to battle. A Saudi brigade of approximately 3,000 troops was dispatched to Syria, where it participated in fighting along the approaches to Damascus. Also, violating Paris' ban on the transfer of French-made weapons, Libya sent Mirage fighters to Egypt. (From 1971 to 1973, Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi gave Cairo more than $1 billion in aid to re-arm Egypt and to pay the Soviets for weapons delivered.)
Other North African countries responded to Arab and Soviet calls to aid the front-line states. Algeria sent three aircraft squadrons of fighters and bombers, an armored brigade, and 150 tanks. Approximately 1,000-2,000 Tunisian soldiers were positioned in the Nile Delta. Sudan stationed 3,500 troops in southern Egypt, and Morocco sent three brigades to the front lines, including 2,500 men to Syria.
Lebanese radar units were used by Syrian air defense forces. Lebanon also allowed Palestinian terrorists to shell Israeli civilian settlements from its territory. Palestinians fought on the Southern Front with the Egyptians and Kuwaitis. The least enthusiastic Arab participant in the October fighting was Jordan's King Hussein, who apparently hadn't been informed of Egyptian and Syrian war plans. He chose not to fight this round, correctly calculating that his forces were vastly inferior to the Israelis'. Hussein's decision was crucial to Israel's defense because it freed up forces that would otherwise have had to fight on a third front.
Still, Arab brotherhood required that Hussein contribute to the cause, so he sent two of his best units – the 40th and 60th Armored Brigades – to Syria. This force took positions in the southern sector, defending the main Amman-Damascus route and attacking Israeli positions along the Kuneitra-Sassa road on October 16. Three Jordanian artillery batteries also participated in the assault, carried out by nearly 100 tanks.
Thrown onto the defensive during the first two days of fighting, Israel mobilized its reserves and began to counterattack. In the south, Israeli forces were having little success in stopping the Egyptian onslaught. Still, the Sinai Desert offered a large buffer zone between the fighting and the heart of Israel.
The situation was different in the north, where the Syrians had swept across the Golan and could, in short order, threaten Israel's population centers.
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt monitoring
the war which he lost
Consequently, most reserves meant for the Egyptian front were shifted to the Golan. The replenished Israeli forces stopped the Syrian advance, forced a retreat, and began their own march forward toward Damascus.
In the greatest tank battle since the Germans and Russians fought at Kursk in World War Two, roughly 1,000 Israeli and Egyptian tanks massed in the western Sinai, October 12-14. On the 14th, Israeli forces destroyed 250 Egyptian tanks in the first two hours of fighting. By the late afternoon, the Israeli forces had routed the enemy, accomplishing a feat equal to Montgomery's victory over Rommel in World War Two.
Meanwhile, Israeli general Ariel Sharon had been chomping at the bit to cross the Suez Canal but had been ordered not to do so until after the main Egyptian force had been defeated in the Sinai. Once that was done, Israeli paratroopers snuck across the Canal and established a bridgehead. By October 18, Israeli forces were marching with little opposition toward Cairo. For the Israelis, the crossing was a great psychological boost, but it was a humiliation for the Egyptians.
About the same time, Israeli troops were on the outskirts of Damascus, easily within artillery range of the Syrian capital. Prime Minister Golda Meir did not want to attack Damascus, so the IDF stopped its advance and focused its activities on recapturing Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the region and a key Israeli radar and observation post that had fallen to the Syrians early in the fighting. On October 22, Israel once again controlled the Golan Heights.
Rescue of Israeli hostages from Uganda
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