|
YOM KIPPUR WAR |
|
|
YOM KIPPUR WAR |
The Yom Kippur War started at noon, October 6, 1973, with a combined assault by Egyptian and Syrian military forces against Israeli positions on the Suez Canal in the south and the Golan Heights in the north, respectively. Other Arab states contributed troops and financial support in their solidarity with the aggressor states against Israel. The attack took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the religious year in Israel. The Arab armies surprised the unprepared Israelis and gained ground with a number of initial victories that inflicted severe losses. The Arab countries had one goal: the destruction of Israel. Israel had to rally and defeat the aggression or Israel would cease to exist.
In the months preceeding the attack, Egyption forces conducted numerous operations designed to condition the Israelis to mobilization, force buildup, and maneuvers along the Suez front without triggering alarm. Although numerous indicators outlined the Arabs intentions, it was only hours before the actual invasion that Israeli Prime Minister Mier agreed to a partial mobilization of the Israeli Defense Forces. As a result of the Egyptian deception efforts, and Israeli overconfidence in the Bar Lev Line along the Suez Canal, Egyptian forces quickly and decisively overwhelmed Israeli forces in the early stages of the Yom Kippur War.
Waves of Egyptian infantrymen crossed the Suez Canal and overran the Israeli defenses. Approximately 70,000 Egyptian troops attacked the 500 Israelis stationed along the Bar Lev Line and it was easily taken. Israeli planes counterattacked but were initially ineffective due to defensive fire from Soviet-made anti-aircraft missiles. Israel's reserve troops, arriving at 4:00PM, were repulsed but took up defensive positions that stopped the Egyptian advance. For the next week Egyptian forces kept trying to break through beyond this position, six miles east of the Suez Canal.
Once assurance of Israel's resupply by the US was obtained, the Israelis went on the offensive, committing reserve forces to the battles. On October 15, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) mounted an operation to push across the Suez Canal and strike at Egyptian forces on the other side. In a daring drive led by General Ariel Sharon, the IDF exploited a gap between the Egyptian 2nd and 3rd Armies, crossing at Deversoir north of the Egyptian crossing, a thrust that eventually enveloped the large Egyptian Third Army and occupied the main Suez highway.
Crossing the Suez was a difficult operation, preceded by heavy fighting to clear the approach lines. The Engineering Corps constructed a bridge across the Canal under fire. By October 19, Israeli troops were well established on the west bank, then pushed south, wiping out Egypt's anti-aircraft missile sites and giving Israel control of the skies. Israeli Air Forces (IAF) planes began attacking convoys, armor and airfields in Egypt and picking away at the Egyptian air force.
In response to surface-to-surface missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, the IAF carried out attacks deep inside enemy territory, destroying important strategic targets that included oil installations, government offices, refineries and radio relay stations. At the end of fighting, the IDF had important parts of the Egyptian Army surrounded, and was close to Cairo, restrained from going further more by diplomatic than by military considerations.
In collusion with Egypt, Syria conducted its own effective deception plan before the Yom Kippur War that caused Israeli intelligence to misread the actual build-up to the initial attacks. Syrian forces confronted the Israeli defenders with 1,100 Syrian tanks against 157 Israeli tanks and quickly reached the outer perimeter of the Golan Heights overlooking the Hula Basin. Syria's artillery shelled Israeli settlements. Despite the huge advantage in numbers, the Syrians were able to sieze only one Israeli fortification, on Mount Hermon, a key IDF intelligence-gathering position. Syrian tanks advanced steadily toward Lake Kinneret, wresting control of a large part of the Golan Heights from Israel.
Giving priority to the Syrian front in the north, on October 8, Israeli armored forces launched a major counteroffensive and, after two days of bitter fighting, pushed Syria back to the 1967 cease-fire lines. Between October 11 and October 14, the IDF pushed the Syrian forces across the cease-fire lines and penetrated Syrian territory. An Iraqi expeditionary force dispatched to reinforce the Syrians was also successfully blocked.
Following Syrian attacks on Israeli population centers such as Migdal-Ha'emek on October 8 and the failure of the IAF to destroy the SAM arrays on the Golan heights (a single battery destroyed with the loss of six jets), the Israeli government decided to strike Syrian strategic and economic centers with the hope of convincing the Syrians that the IAF was ready and able to defeat the SAM barriers and disrupt Syrian operations. The first targets chosen were the Syrian General Command building and the adjoining Syrian Air Force Command, located in the heart of Damascus.
Braving difficult weather, IAF Phantoms appeared over Damascus in complete surprise and, except for a single shoulder launched SAM, no anti-aircraft fire was directed against the incoming bombers until after the first bombs had already hit their targets. The upper floors of the Syrian General Command were damaged as well as the Air Force Command, forcing them to move to alternate locations. A nearby Soviet cultural center was also hit.
Fighters also pounded Syrian field positions, giving the IDF the air cover it needed to advance to within 18 miles of Damascus. Following several unsuccessful infantry assaults, helicopters enabled IDF troops to retake the outpost on Mt. Hermon by landing them on a summit above the site. At the end of fighting, the Syrians had failed to achieve any territorial gain, while the IDF had crossed the 1967 cease-fire lines into Syrian territory, acquiring new vantage points on the Golan Heights. The Syrian Army suffered major losses of manpower and equipment.
Following an Egyptian refusal to accept a cease-fire and a Soviet military airlift to the Arab states, the Nixon Administration sent a United States airlift of weapons and supplies to Israel enabling her to recover from earlier setbacks. Starting on October 14, 1973 US Air Force "Operation Nickel Grass" flew resupply missions to Israel for a full month, until November 14. While estimates of the tonnage vary slightly, Col. Trevor N. Dupuy, US Army (Ret), writes in Elusive Victory: The Arab Israeli Wars 1947-1974 that:
The Arab oil boycott, announced on October 16, 1973, the eleventh day of the war, had an effect on the resupply effort. American transport planes carrying arms to Israel were denied permission to land anywhere in Europe except Portugal.
It was only when it was clear that Egypt was going to lose that the United Nations acted, finally ordering a cease-fire. At that time, Israel held the entire western side of the Suez Canal, coming within 42 miles of Cairo. Israel had pushed Syria back to within 40 miles of Damascus, having destroyed more than 1,100 Syrian tanks.
The war officially ended with a cease-fire on October 22, 1973. On that date, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 338, calling on all parties to begin "implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 in all its parts" through negotiations.
Skirmishes continued and when hostilities finally ended with the intervention of the United States and the Soviet Union on October 25, Israel held an additional 165 square miles of territory from Syria, and was firmly established on the west bank of the Suez Canal. By the time an effective cease-fire was actually implemented, the IDF had completely surrounded Egypt's Third Army and threatened it with annihilation. Egyptian forces held two areas of Israeli territory along the east bank of the canal. Israel, Egypt and Syria all held prisoners of war.
The Yom Kippur War formally ended with the Sinai I and II agreements, negotiated by US Secretary of State Henry Kissenger. An estimated 2,700 Israelis, 3,500 Syrians and 15,000 Egyptians were killed in the fighting, a toll that was much harder for tiny Israel to absorb than for the considerably larger Arab countries.
| MORE ON ISRAEL 1967-1991 |