Yom Kippur by Peter Baxter

Author:Peter Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

Yom Kippur War. Israeli Aluf Arik Sharon and Chief of Southern Command Aluf Shmuel Gonen, far right, at an IDF outpost in the Sinai. (Courtesy of GPO, Israel)

These shock tactics, however, were not configured to cope with a dispersed assault in equal strength along a 100km front. The commander of the Sinai Division, Major General Mandler, having been forewarned of the Egyptian attack expected at 6.00pm, ordered an armoured advance on the canal. In accordance with Dovecote, this had to be concluded no earlier than 4.00pm, and no later than 5.00pm. However, with the opening of the assault at 2.00pm, four hours earlier than anticipated, the three tank battalions were taken unaware, and their deployment, therefore, was somewhat hurried and ill considered.

The three armoured brigades of the Sinai Division – under the respective commands of colonels Gaby Amir to the north, Amnon Reshef at the centre, and Dan Shomron farther south – were deployed to the east of the Lateral Road, one of three Israeli military roads that ran north to south and broadly parallel with the canal. The first of these roads was the Canal Road, running more or less along the east bank of the canal, and linking the fortified positions of the Bar Lev Line. The second was the the Artillery Road, about 10km farther inland. The third, the Lateral Road, or Supply Road, was 20km farther inland still. These roads had been either built or improved as part of the Bar Lev complex, providing a medium for the rapid movement and deployment of land forces on the western edge of the Sinai. These roads were intersected by four east–west lateral roads, the first in the north, which plied open desert, and three farther to the south, utilising passes through the mountainous mass of the south–central Sinai. Lying 10km or so back from the canal, and spaced out along the whole front, were six fortified Israeli command posts – camouflaged and well protected, each controlling their respective areas. The main military installation in the Sinai was situated about 50km from the canal, at Bir Gifgafa, known by the Israelis as Refidim, where a large military complex contained the HQ of Southern Command.

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