No Mission Is Impossible by Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal

Author:Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

Shortly before the crossing of the Suez Canal, a meeting of senior IDF commanders in Sinai. From left to right: General Ariel Sharon, Division commander; General Moshe Dayan, Minister of Defense; Colonel Braun. General Adan; one of the authors of this book, Sergeant Michael Bar-Zohar; General Tal; General Tamir; General Gonen. (Uri Dan)

But Sharon’s superiors firmly refused to let Sharon cross. First, they demanded that he lay another bridge over the water and open the roads leading to the canal. They feared an Egyptian move to block the road to the canal and to annihilate the paratrooper bridgehead, as long as the roads were not secured and the bridges not in place. They also ordered Sharon to stay in the Yard and let Adan’s Division 162 cross the canal in order to encircle the Third Army. Sharon’s repeated pleas to let him cross were to no avail. Some commentators insisted that Sharon had been stopped for political reasons.

But in the meantime the Egyptians understood that an Israeli task force had crossed Suez and established a base on the African side. Now a new chapter in the fighting started: desperate efforts by the Egyptian Army to annihilate the bridgehead. From the second day after the crossing and up to the cease-fire, nine days later, Matt’s paratroopers in Africa and Sharon’s other units in the Yard were submitted to nonstop heavy bombardment that caused large numbers of casualties. The Egyptians attacked Sharon’s fighters with artillery and mortars, their jets dived on them with bombs and missiles, their helicopters dropped napalm barrels or fired at them day and night, in the light of parachuted flares. But the crossing continued; the pontoon bridge was completed, the Cylinder Bridge finally reached the canal and was laid between its two banks. Matt’s paratroopers watched, from the top of the ramparts, the never-ending convoys that crossed the bridges on their way to the African side. Arik Sharon enjoyed the enthusiastic admiration of the troops, and when he crossed the canal he was received by shouts of “Arik, King of Israel.”

On October 24 the fire ceased. The Third Army was surrounded; Matt’s paratroopers had occupied the fertile agricultural strip along the canal and advanced northward to Ismailia, a large Egyptian town; the paratroopers also had advanced south, to the city of Suez; the Israeli armor had stopped at the “101st kilometer,” sixty-three miles from Cairo.

Time had come for Israel and Egypt to lay down their weapons and start talking. The talks, held at the 101st kilometer, would result in a separation of forces; five years later the two countries would sign the Camp David Accords, and the following year, a peace treaty.

MOSHE (“BOGIE”) YA’ALON, LATER CHIEF OF STAFF AND DEFENSE MINISTER

“The Yom Kippur War is part of my DNA.

“The announcement of war hit me like thunder on a clear day. I was a civilian, a reserve sergeant, a newlywed. The commanders of the Fiftieth Airborne Battalion had wanted to send me to an officers’ course, but I didn’t want to sign on for permanent service, and I was discharged.

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