This led to the construction of the fabled Bar Lev Line. It was just one element in an increasingly sophisticated defence strategy that had all the hallmarks of a complex three-dimensional chess game, albeit a contest that frequently resulted in the deaths of soldiers and airmen in the ever-shifting sands of the Sinai Desert and of sailors in the waters that defined the Sinai Peninsula.
To extend the chess analogy further, the static Bar Lev Line represented the line of pawns on the board of battle. Behind them, the artillery acted as rooks capable of rapid linear movement along the front and providing heavy firepower at every point of contact. M Browning as a Sikorsky S helicopter comes in to land.
Such basic positions provided scant protection against Egyptian artillery fire and as the casualties rose the Sikorsky S helicopters were Widely used in the medical evacuation role. But as the weeks of ceasefire turned into months, the Bar Lev Line diminished in importance within the IDF high command as they were now fighting a new enemy of fedayeen inside the occupied territories and terrorists across Europe, exemplified by the Munich massacre at the Olympic Games of For three years all was quiet on the Egyptian front, during which time several fortifications were shut down along the Suez Canal and others were allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.
With economic prosperity growing in Israel, complacency grew in the political and military establishment. The first field fortifications along the Suez Canal were rudimentary and comprised little more than a sandbagged weapons pit and an underground bunker beneath.
Both were vulnerable to a direct hit from artillery fire. Of particular interest, this soldier has an M16 rifle suggesting that he is a paratrooper since this weapon was a rare commodity in the IDF in the late s. It was pol icy to replace reservist troops stationed on the Bar Lev Line with seasoned regulars such as paratroopers during times of tension or impending conflict. However, this was not to be in October With their ability to attack from unexpected directions, the Special Forces in their helicopters or frogmen's Zodiacs were the knights, striking swiftly and without warning deep inside enemy territory.
The queen on this particular battlefield was undoubtedly the lAP. Highly trained and motivated, the IAF was Israel's most potent strike force and the guardian of the skies over Israel. At the outset of the War of Attrition that was fought from July until August , the IAF was employed for combat air defence and tactical close air support against an increasingly sophisticated Egyptian missile air defence system. In a testament to its professionalism, the IAF made the complex transition frbm a French inventory of aircraft to an American one during a conflict, with the newfound capacity to undertake strategic bombing deep in the hinterland of Egypt.
Throughout the war the Bar Lev Line had proved its worth in reducing the casualty rate of Israeli front-line troops. Following the War of Attrition, it was repaired and strengthened. The sand rampart was heightened to 18m and was extended along the length of the waterway. Another line of fortifications and sand barriers was created further inland to protect artillery and infantry formations lying in support of the Bar Lev Line.
The network of roads and supply depots was extended to allow them enhanced mobility across the harsh 6 30 October Israeli commandos attack targets deep in Egypt causing Nasser to cease hostilities for a few months while fortifications around hundreds of important targets are built. Simultaneously, Israel begins construction of the Bar Lev Line. The IDF retaliates with deep raids into Egyptian territory, causing severe damage.
The aerial offensive continues until December and degrades the Egyptian air defence system significantly. It reduces the intensity of the artillery bombardment against the Bar Lev Line but shelling with lighter weapons, particularly mortars, continues.
It calls for Egyptian 'commitment to peace' in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Both countries reject the plan. Soon after the ceasefire, Egypt begins moving SAM batteries into the zone even though the agreement explicitly forbids new military installations. By October, there are approximately SAM sites in the zone. Sadat agrees to end the War of Attrition and almost immediately begins planning for the next conflict which would take place three years later in October a period of 'No War, No Peace'.
Within days the Bar Lev Line has fallen. Skirmishes were commonplace as Egyptian troops made night-time incursions into the Sinai Desert and Egyptian artillery periodically fired on Israeli positions along the waterline. At the outset these were rudimentary comprising a couple of half-tracks and a sandbagged weapons pit. The first Israeli fatality to hostile action following the war was recorded on 15 June At this time, a single armoured brigade reinforced with additional infantry held the Suez front.
On 19 June , the Israeli Cabinet met to discuss the aftermath of the war and voted for the evacuation of almost the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights on the understanding that both would be demilitarized and with two further fundamental conditions.
These 8 were the freedom of passage by sea and air through the Straits of Tiran into the Red Sea and no further attempts by the Syrians to divert the sources of the Jordan River, both of which were the principal casus belli of the conflict.
However the West Bank and the Holy City of Jerusalem were deemed to be vital to Israeli security and indeed part of Eretz Yisrael, or the real Israel of biblical precedence to include both Judea and Samaria.
In the event, the Cabinet decision was academic in face of the resolution passed at the Arab League conference in Khartoum on 29 August when the delegates declared a policy of 'No recognition. No negotiations. DE Als Download kaufen. Jetzt verschenken. Sie sind bereits eingeloggt. Devastated by their defeat, the Egyptian army bombarded Israeli positions, causing many casualties. Each position was surrounded by barbed wire and minefields and virtually immune to strikes by artillery shells and even kg bombs.
On 6 October , Yom Kippur, the positions were manned by just reservists when the Egyptian Second and Third Armies launched a massive offensive along the Suez Canal. The positions were quickly cut off from the supporting elements, and the Israeli defenders paid a high price with a casualty rate of almost 50 per cent.
Despite these losses, it was not the Bar Lev Line that failed but Israel's military and political establishment, which realised Arab intentions too late. Although the F-4 was never intended as a dog-fighter to tangle with light, nimble, gun-armed MiGs it was responsible for destroying MiGs in aerial combat.
At the end of their careers many of the survivors from the 3, 'land-based' Phantoms were converted into target drones for training purposes. New aircraft were also built for West Germany, Iran and Israel. From to it flew endless sorties against Egyptian forces in the War of Attrition. Then, during the Yom Kippur War, five squadrons of A-4s saw combat and 50 planes were lost as they battled against the Arab armored onslaught.
Israel counterattacked and recaptured the Golan Heights. A cease-fire went into effect on 25 October AIM 2. The aim of this paper is to discuss the Arab-Israeli War of with a view to draw lessons. Accessed on The Arab-Israeli War, p. The conflict between Arabs and Israelis can be traced back to the Arab-Jewish struggle of the early s for the control of Palestine, which is claimed by both Arabs and Israelis as their home.
The state of Palestine then consisted of the present day Israel and the areas in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. It was therefore a question of time for the deep-rooted animosity between these nations to culminate into major armed conflicts. To date, 4 major wars have been recorded. These are the , , and Wars. Although Israel's independence on May 14, , triggered the first full-scale war, armed conflicts between Jews and Arabs had been frequent since Great Britain received the League of Nations mandate for Palestine in From to Zionists waged guerrilla war against British troops and Palestinian Arabs and they had made substantial gains by After a period of relative calm, border incidents between Israel and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan increased during the early s, with Palestinian guerrilla groups actively supported by Syria.
In May, , President Nasser, his prestige much eroded through his inaction in the face of Israeli raids, requested the withdrawal of UN forces from Egyptian territory, mobilised units in the Sinai, and closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israel. The escalation of threats and provocations continued until June 5, , when Israel launched a massive air assault that crippled Arab air capability. With air superiority protecting its ground forces, Israel controlled the Sinai peninsula within three days and then concentrated on the Jordanian front, capturing Jerusalem's Old City subsequently annexed , and on the Syrian border, gaining the strategic Golan Heights.
This war, which ended on June 10, is known as the Six-Day War. The end of active conventional fighting was followed by frequent artillery bombardments and clashes between Israelis and Palestinian guerrillas. When Anwar EL-SADAT became president of Egypt in , he found himself leader of an economically troubled nation that could ill afford to continue its endless crusade against Israel. So Sadat conceived of a daring plan to attack Israel again, which, even if unsuccessful, might convince the Israelis that peace with Egypt was necessary6.
He formed a new alliance with Syria, and a concerted attack on Israel was planned. To put the October War in proper perspective, it is necessary to look at the key personalities that played prominent roles in the war.
The leadership, command and control comprised some of the following factors: a. In the wake of the war, Israel believed that Arabs could not soon regain their territory by directly attacking her. However, for the Arab coalition, the "Ramadan War" had its origins at least Six years earlier. Strategically, the two sides held diametrically opposed objectives.
In the Israeli mind, any conflicts with the Arab nations very clearly raised the issue of national survival. For the Arabian coalition, destruction of the "Third Temple" was an often stated goal.
In preparing for the offensive, Egypt and the Arab coalition sought and obtained increased assistance from the Soviet Union in the form of Surface to Air Missiles SAMs and additional Soviet fighter aircraft with Soviet pilots to fly them.
The Arab forces employed an elaborate deception plan that convinced senior Israeli officers, including Major General Eliyahu Zeira, the Chief of Israel intelligence that Egypt and Syria would not attack and were only conducting routine defensive training near the western bank of the Suez Canal.
Spreading rumours and misinformation at every opportunity, the Egyptian forces sought to deceive the IDF at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. On 27 September, Egypt mobilized a large number of reserves. This was the twenty-third 7 Hassan El Badri. The Ramadan War. Dupuy Associates, Inc. On 30 September, they mobilized another large group, and to maintain their deception plan, announced demobilization of the 27 September call up although only a small number were actually released.
The Arabs attacked Israel on two 02 fronts at the opposite ends of its occupied territories. Israel's concept of security, based on defensible borders dissolved quickly under the weight of Arab advances in the north and south. Unable to mobilize in time, Israeli forces in the Northern and Southern Commands were left to battle armies at great numerical disadvantage.
In the north, the ratio of Syrian tanks to Israeli tanks was as much as in some battles The Syrians operated with great speed, throwing mass against the qualitatively superior, but smaller, Israeli forces. The Syrians also conducted night operations, utilising night vision equipment supplied by the Soviets.
Israeli aircraft, attempting close air support for the beleaguered ground forces were quickly shot down by the Syrian surface to air missile batteries. For forty-eight hours from the time of the launching the offensive, the Israelis slipped closer and closer to defeat in the Golan. In the South, the Egyptians stormed across the full length of the Suez Canal. As a result the Israeli forces were outnumbered and were unable to identify and attack the Egyptian centre of gravity.
The Israeli "Bar-Lev Line", made up of 30 forts, each manned by fifty men, was quickly over-run. Israeli armour was outnumbered two to one The Israeli forces were quickly overcome and called for assistance from the reserve troops still in Israel.
Also in support of the Egyptian infantry was a massive artillery barrage, 11 David T. By H-hour, hrs on 6 October, 10, shells fell on the Israeli positions at the rate of shells per second By the morning hours of 7 October the Israeli Theatre Commanders were close to defeat. The defensively positioned soldiers of the Northern and Southern Commands were heavily outnumbered and taking heavy casualties.
Significant assistance would not come from the mobilized reserve forces until the next day. On the 8th of October, the IDF had been operationally defeated.
Strategically, the Nation still survived but its armed forces were badly degraded. Great distances separated the two fronts and movement of reserves, once mobilized, was slow. However, Israeli's advantage was the relative security of internal lines of support and reinforcement. Men and equipment brought to the front lines were protected from direct enemy attack. The Arabian forces advancing into enemy territory had to weigh the advantages that came with each victory.
With every yard gained in the Sinai and Golan Heights came the need to defend the territory they had just left. Once faced with the full weight of Israeli reserve mobilization, defence of a logistical pipeline weakened their strength of advance. Israeli commanders were faced with a difficult choice. They needed to decide, in rapid order, which battle front would need the most direct and intense air support. In selecting the Northern Command, the deciding factor was its relative proximity to Israeli centres of population.
In this decision, National leaders translated a strategic goal defence of the Homeland into the operational deployment of a military asset the IDF Air Force. The forces in the Southern Command would be left to fight an attrition battle until the war in the North could be won or lost. Despite these additional burdens, Hofi and his Northern Command transitioned to the offensive, utilizing armour and air power to destroy of Syrian tanks on Israeli territory Israelis claim kill ratio of in their favour.
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