#shazly

Forty years ago today, October 14, 1973, the center of the action in the Yom Kippur War shifted from the north in the Golan region to the Sinai. For both the Egyptians and the Israelis, it was a day anticipated and hoped for.

Two days earlier, Sadat had killed the proposed cease-fire. His Soviet patrons, seeing the successes that the Egyptian army had accomplished already in the war, backed him and the resolution died in the Security Council. His army had crossed the canal, conquered the Bar Lev line and then sent the IDF retreating back into the Sinai when their tanks had tried to drive them back across the canal. Sadat believed his army was poised to

The Chief of Staff for the Egyptian Army, General Saad el-Shazly, had protested the order. He had flown back to Cairo to plead the case to not attack. He urged that if anything, the Egyptian Army should continue its current plan, forgoing a general attack for small advances. To attack the Israeli position near the passes, the Egyptian Army would have to advance out of the protective shell of their SAM batteries.They would be exposed to Israeli fighter-bombers, he warned. Sadat ignored him. The order stood.

On the Israeli side, the intelligence reports that Sadat was ordering an advance had ended talk of accepting a cease-fire, for now. Meir, Dayan, and Elazar were all willing to risk the future of their nation by betting that their soldiers, in an open field fight away from the protective SAM bubble along the Suez Canal, could defeat any Arab army.

In the Sinai, the IDF waited. Sharon, commanding one of the armor division, was straining at the leash. From where he stood, his men were not beaten. He would tell ministers who he pestered for permission to attack that the men were ready to go. He told the former head of the IAF that he felt like the commanders in Tel Aviv and the ministers in Jerusalem felt like it was the last days of the Warsaw Ghetto, while his men were chomping at the bit ready to get back into the fight.

Shazly was delaying the attack as much possible. Not to make a poor showing of it. He probably still hoped that Sadat would come to his senses and call off the attack. During the two days since the his protest was denied, he’d been moving as many of the reserve tanks from the west side of the Canal to the east. If Egypt was going to attack, they were going to attack with as many tanks as they could.

Although Shazly wanted to strike with as much force and violence as possible, he also recognized that in the desert of Sinai, it was possible to get around his forces as they attacked and captured the passes. To guard against this, he left one brigade of armor which had not been brought over the canal to to defend against an Israeli incursion. Combined with the strategic reserve that would remain, there would be 350 tanks on the west side of the Suez Canal. That left Shazly’s divisons east of the canal with almost 500 tanks for their attack.

When the IDF had pulled back following the disastrous battles the previous week, they had pulled back to high ground before the passes through the Sinai. Since all the reserves had been brought down from Israel proper, combined with the damaged tanks returned to service, and Southern Command had 700 tanks.

Shazly’s plan was to have commandos dropped behind Israeli lines to create diversions, delay reinforcements, and generally disrupt the Israeli lines. A few hours later, this would be followed by six attacks along the Israeli line.

The Egyptian plan started to go wrong almost from the beginning. Although the Egyptian helicopters managed to make it past Israel anti-aircraft defenses and patrolling fighters, they landed near an IDF reconnaissance unit. The recon unit was quickly backed up by tanks and the entire 100-man commando team was quickly killed or captured.

At 6 a.m., the main attacks began as 6 columns of Egyptian tanks rolled towards the Israeli defenses. Within an hour, most of the attacks were defeated and the Egyptians sent retreating back towards the Canal. Only in one area did the Israelis lose heavily. A detachment of Egyptian infantry equipped with Saggers infiltrated into the Israeli lines and destroyed twelve IDF tanks before being driven back. The rest of the Israeli units combined did not lose as many tanks during the Egyptian attacks. At a cost of 20 tanks knocked out, the IDF had knocked out between 150 and 250 tanks.

The Egyptian command was severely shaken by the failed attack. The commander of the Second Army had a nervous breakdown and had to be relieved.

On the Israeli side, Bar-Lev and his division commanders were upset. They felt that they had failed by not destroying more of the Egyptian tanks. The fear was that, with so many of the Egyptian tanks escaping, crossing the canal would be too risky. There was a divide in the IDF command as to whether the attack had been true resumption of the Egyptian offensive or whether there was another larger attack that was going to come.

Dayan, however, was ecstatic over the day’s events. His mood, which had been swinging between despair and elation was on the upswing again. Elazar, while determined to make a canal crossing, was more tempered. They would proceed in stages. First they had to break through to the Canal itself. Then they had to cross. Finally they had to cut-off the Egyptian forces from home. Only then would Israel had restored the balance.

Even though Dayan and Elazar were in favor of the plan, they still had to get permission from the rest of the cabinet to attack. Meir, understandably, was concerned. Even though the American airlift would start in earnest the next day with the arrival of the first loads, the war had been costly in both men and material. Already, this was the longest war since the War of Independence. Despite the losses inflicted on the Egyptians today, Egypt still had more men waiting to be dealt with. Other Arab countries were starting to join the war. The Iraqis had arrived, it appeared that other expeditionary forces would soon arrive.

Elazar and Dayan met with Meir and the rest the cabinet. During the meeting, Elazar laid out the plan, code-named “Stouthearted Men” as well as the risks. Meir listened, hearing that there was a chance that a crossing could end up being cut-off and the forces on the Egyptian side being destroyed or captured. Meir quickly approved the plan. She trusted that Elazar would not gamble away the nation, and trusted him that he was offering the right option.

Privately, in speaking with Bar-Lev about the plan, Elazar had concerns. It was a risk. There was a chance they could lose a good part of the IDF in the operation. But still it could work. Elazar told Bar-Lev, "If the history of how we pulled this off is ever written," he said, "it will be seen as the height of hutzpa."

If it were an opposite world, I wish it were true

The higher up, the lower i flew

The colder i got, the hotter i became

If my life was just an unlit flame

A heart that beats yet seems so still

The need to go on, not an iron will

If the sun could freeze and ice could shine

If every cloud could become a withered line

You would see the sorrow in my my smile

To have me walk this endless mile

Listen to me laugh and not see my pain

To hear the sanity of a man insane

I hold you close yet I push you so far

Like wishing upon a climbing star

Time will tell what you won't hear 

The furthest from the truth is never near

The closest to your heart you hide

Like the sands beneath the battered tide

I swim the years of days unspent

I hold the hand of one once lent

I've tasted the lips of forgotten time

I long for what shall not be mine

The anger deep within my soul

Is such that I cannot control

I feel the cold sun on my face

The hold of an empty embrace

The lies that I do not speak true

The truth that I behold is you

Tears that you will never see

A love always Meant for me

I grasp what I cannot hold

The beginning of the end, so I've been told

What I can, I cannot do

My epitome of love, My life is