The Decisiveness of Israeli Small-Unit Leadership On the Golan Heights In the 1973 Yom Kippur War by Major Oakland McCulloch

Author:Major Oakland McCulloch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786251374
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

The Initiative Starts to Shift

In the north, the Syrians prepared the 81st Tank Brigade from the General Headquarters Reserve to continue the attack At 2200 hours, the 81st Tank Brigade crossed through the widened breach lanes in the Israeli tank ditch and dashed uphill into the awaiting tanks of the 77th Armored Battalion. In the darkness, the Israeli’s heard the tanks coming but could not engage them with long-range fire. When the enemy tanks were finally close enough to shoot, there were simply too many to destroy before they overran the defense. In the confusion, a Syrian tank battalion was able to penetrate the defense unhindered, and sped towards the rear of the Israeli positions.{104} Though the remnants of the 74th and 77th Armored Battalions continued to fight, a marauding enemy tank battalion in the Israeli rear made collapse of the defense seem imminent.

Colonel Ben-Gal had patiently waited to commit his reserve tank company until the crucial moment when it looked as if his defense might collapse. When he transferred the 82nd Armored Battalion to the Barak Brigade before the battle began, he wisely retained control of one of the tank companies, which he used to constitute his reserve. Colonel Ben-Gal specifically chose this company from among those of his brigade because of the reputation of the company commander, Captain Meir “Tiger” Zamir.{105} At age twenty-six Captain Zamir was widely regarded as the best and fiercest tank commander in the brigade and would live up to that standing during the next thirty-six hours of fighting.

Colonel Ben-Gal gave Captain Zamir broad guidance to destroy enemy forces that had broken through the defense. He realized that his company of nine Centurions would confront a battalion of thirty to thirty-five T-55s in the dark, giving the Syrians a tremendous edge. Thus, instead of rushing headlong into the battle against an enemy force that had the advantage of night vision equipment, Captain Zamir wisely decided to let the Syrian tanks come to him where the Israeli tanks could even the odds by picking concealed positions. He decided to position his company in an ambush over watching the Dan Road, assuming that the Syrians would choose this high-speed avenue of approach. One group of four tanks under the command of his executive officer would illuminate the Syrian tanks with searchlights once they entered the ambush. The remaining five tanks under his direct control would then open fire.{106} With the ambush in position. Captain Zamir directed his company to shut off its engines and wait in absolute silence for the arrival of the Syrian tank battalion.

The long column of Syrian tanks drove down the road exactly as expected, but there were more Syrian tanks than the ambush line could cover. Captain Zamir decided to let the first part of the column pass and engage the last half first. He patiently waited until the last tank of the column entered the kill zone before giving the order to initiate fire. He was keenly aware that to trigger the ambush early would allow tanks not yet in the kill zone to maneuver on his positions.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.