One of the things I forgot to mention in Part 1 is that Israel mobilized exactly 450,000 soldier in 73 hours and made its Air forces were fully operational in 43 hours after taking the war decision
The war started officially on the 29th of October with paradrop on the Mitla pass in the heart of Sinai , already the passes area in the heart of Sinai are very strategic , as far as I know with my humble military and geographical information about Sinai , who controls those passes , owns Sinai , anyway if you see more carefully the map of Sinai here ,you will be surprised to find that Mitla pass is on the eastern side more , yes it is in
the middle of Sinai ,but it is close to the western shore of the canal ,check it by yourself.It was Moshe Dayan's plan to parachute in to Mitla and from there to move backward to the borders , to aid the ground forces that will come from the eastern borders I guess.of course the parachute brigades needed protection and thus the IAF ordered the take off of pair of air fighters to distract our army from the planned drop zone "clever"
The commander or the leader of the paratroops was a man you already know him Ariel Sharon , but it was n't the first confront between "Arik" and the Egyptian army, in fact in 1955 after the attacks made by the squad troop Sharon led in Gaza strip , Sharon made a daring attack on an Egyptian military base killing 35 Egyptian officer and soldier , of course I did know that Egyptians will be amazed by this little massacre , as I never had heard about it before just like you , I don't know why the Egyptian regime hided , it is contradicting to the propaganda the coup of July regime was spreading . It seems to me that despite the Israeli propaganda about the hostility of the Egyptian regime than ,yet the Egyptian regime was trying not to go to war with the Israelis despite all the provokes ,I mean attacking an army base and killing your soldiers are acts of war .
Between October 29 and November 1, 1956, Israel, using fast armored divisions, outflanked, surrounded, and routed the Egyptian forces in Sinai. Israel's air force neutralized more than 90 armored vehicles that vainly tried to shore up Egypt's defenses. Using paratroops, Israel took Egypt's airfields in the Sinai and Israeli forces quickly advanced unopposed toward the Suez Canal.
A battle plan for the operation had been adopted in early October 1956, but was revised following Israel's secret agreement with Britain and France. Under the agreement, Israel would transfer the focus of action as close to the Suez
Canal as possible. However, the Israeli government also drew up a course of action allowing it to convert the operation into a brief raid, should the British and French, contrary to the secret agreement, not intervene. In a new plan, adopted on October 25, it was decided to launch the operation with a paratroop landing, and to hold the Armored Corps back until October 31. At 17:00 on October 29, Israeli units parachuted into the eastern approaches of the Mitla Pass near the Canal - a political rather than tactical or strategic objective. The action provided the pretext for a French and British ultimatum to Israel and Egypt, calling on both sides to cease hostilities and withdraw from the Canal area. For diversionary reasons, Israeli forces also advanced on southern and central axes.On October 31 Britain and France issued their ultimatum ordering both forces to keep all fighting at least 10 miles from the Canal Zone. Israel halted in compliance with the ultimatum, but, as expected, the Egyptians ignored the Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw since they, the "victims," were being asked to retreat from the Sinai to the west bank of the Canal while the Israelis were permitted to stay just 10 miles east of the Canal.
On October 30, the United States sponsored a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, but England and France vetoed it. The following day, the two allies launched air operations, bombing Egyptian airfields near Suez.
Given the pretext to continue fighting, the Israeli forces routed the Egyptians. Israel surrounded Gaza and wiped out the Egyptian fortifications there. The IDF's armored corps swept across the desert, capturing virtually the entire Sinai. The Egyptian garrison at Sharm el-Sheikh was overwhelmed on November 5, ending the Sinai Campaign. The Arab world was stunned. In eight days Israel had taken all of the Sinai Desert with its touted fortifications.
I copied this part to say the truth from this site , you will know why below
Really I can't find many information about how the battles between the Egyptian Army and IDF were except briefly, of course I am not searching in the Egyptian websites ,because there is no much information revealed about the military battles , even the testimonies of the ex-generals are not available in a stupid way , well I am surprised it is the oldest characteristic in any Egyptian regime to hide any military defeat , yes we had a military defeat back then in Sinai ,our land was taken from us in 6- 7 days "6 days too" , for God Sake,it was only the 5 of November when all units entered Sharm Shekih and Ben Geuiron had an interesting meeting with his army leaders ordering them to fasten the operation of "Israelizing Sinai" , sorry I guess I am using a term from my mind ,this term is to turn Sinai from Egyptian to Israel , he wanted that the names of regions and areas across Sinai to be changed from Arabic to Hebrew, no Arabic name should be left that can indicate its real identity before the security council expected order of ceasing fire.
The Israelis by their turn did n't say much ,because they also were defeated ,in fact If I look to it like this,I found that defeat was much worst than ours , you see when you invade another land and you succeed in this easily with the least losses"check it below and don't laugh " than someone comes and orders you to leave it otherwise you will be punished , then it is a great loss
look to what Ben Geuiron said in 1956
"If we had had an army like this in 1948 we could have conquered all the Arab countries,Things have changed. Sinai is in our hands."check what the Zionists are saying here about it
man the Israelis always learn from their mistakes why can't we do the same thing !!??
Israel army in this war was as the following :
Mobilized troops : 450,000
Ground forces :30,000
202 Parachute Brigade
- 1st Battalion
- 2nd Battalion
- 3rd Battalion
9th Regiment
10th Regiment
Air Force
101 Fighter Squadron (Mystere 4, first and only squadron)
116 Fighter Squadron (Mustang, last squadron)
??? Fighter Squadron (Gloster Meteor)
??? Squadron (Mosquito)
Harvard
B-17 (two aircraft)
French Air Force in Israel
2nd Air Regiment [Major St. Martin]
- 199 Fighter Squadron (Ramat David) 18 Israeli Mystere 4/43 pilots
- 201 Fighter Squadron (Ramat David) 18 F-84 Thunderstreak/25 pilots [Pressville]
Noratlas (transport) squadron (Lod AB)
(Israel had 60+ Mystere 4 on order and had received the first four in the spring of 1956. Because of the shortage of trained Israeli pilots, the French Air Force brought in Israeli-designated Mysteres with French pilots, in great secrecy. The large number of Mystere pilots indicates the French were prepared to fly for 101 Squadron as well. The Noratlas squadron transport participated in combat operations; the F-84s flew offensive missions against Egypt from Israel.)
Aircraft Inventory
130 Vampire/Meteor
20 Mystere 4
20 Dakota (at least)
Aircraft losses
Mystere - 1
Mustang - 7
Mosquito - 2
Harvard - 2
Piper Cub - 3
Total - 15
Navy
Eliat (destroyer)
Yafo
Troops losses
Killed in Action = 231
Wounded in Action = 890
Prisoners of war = 4 !!!
I am sorry but I don't feel that I did a good job this part :(
Sooner insh Allah I will start operation Musketeer where the fun begins :)
Sources :
1- Jewish virtual library
2- Wikipedia
@ vwery interesting post. We have to see reality clearly, admit our fallacies and shortcomings in orde to improve.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Nasserite regime hiding the news. Yes it was a military coup. However, it turned into a revolution. It turned upside down the egyptian society, liberated the psyche of 98% of egyptian slaves ( i mean peasants) provided them with pride, rediscovered their great Arabic identity.
in hydraulic societies like Egypt, china and india, a cultural revolution is mandatory in order to change the mind set of people and that's exactly what was nasser doing. Filling the nation with pride, optimism and hope.
He reasserted the univesal role of Egypt by emphathising its pioneering role in its Arabic sphere. Remeber that the egyptians untill 1919 didnt know that they were Egyptians, they viewed themselves as muslims and parts of the muslim caliphate in in the " diyar al masriya"
why on earth would israel had attack Egypt if it hadnt seen clearly the rebirth of the spirit provided by nasserism. Untill 1966 egypt had a 6.5 % econimic growth, illiteyracy was dropping down sharply. Egyptians were exploring hi tech industires like supersonic fighters cairo 300, missiles cars.
By the way am not advocating public sector or sixties socialism in the 21st century. I just want to sy that those measures were right for the time. Stalin dragger russia from a rural medival stae into a modern, developed industralised nation by blood and iron...........
during Saddam Hussien's time illetracy in iraq dropped from 75 % to less than 10% the baath intelligence was insuring that everyone goes to school. No children were allowed to stay in the strets they were draggd to schools Illetrate parents were dragged to reading and writing classes. Sadam used to give peasants modern equipmnt free consultations and free TV sets to open up their dark minds.
Most of the iraqi scientific and technical elite prefered to stay in iraq, as they were filled with pride and belief in their arabism.
And the atmosphere in scientific institutes in iraq was very encouraging for progress and research, which resulted in an iraqi renaissaince in technology and sciense that made thw mose advanced arab country that according to U.N development reports was expected to reach the level of western Europe.
The iraqi space projects in al anbar and the devlopment of long range missiles was terrifying for israel. Iraq needed 5 years to go nuclear. iraqi industry was very mopdern and competetive.
The pan arabist baathist ideoplogy was the glue keeping the society intact and healthy.
It was the eighties version of the Nassrite experience, taking into account the ffference in character and psyche between iraquis and egyptians. Also defeating and humilating the bg iranian army and bringing khomini on his knees, filled iraq with pride and hope for the future. Just like the Nasser's speeches, free education ,defiance of the imperial power, suppoert of the Algerian revolution.......etc, the growing influence and admiration for Egypt among the Arabs were doing to the Egyptians what the victory against iran sustained by the baathist ideaology was doing in iraq
Egyptian army needed time to absorb the eastern weapns and tactics before responding to the israeli incursions in gaza and with the socio-påolitical context of the time , hiding the truth was the right thing.
Appart of Amer and the corruption of shams badran and his men. The Egyptian army in 1967 was better equipped than israel and some units were very weel trained and ready for battle.
The problm from my point view is basically cultural, many commanders of the army especially the men of the clown Amer just didnt believe in the principals of the revolution. As result they were not serious in their work and full of "fahwlawa" magda3a wa shatara
Furthermore, the illetrate, rabbit fearing peasant reservists massed in sinai were no match for the modern, motivated highly trasined IAf where most of the men realky believe in the JEWISH STATE AND RESURRECTING THE HEBREW SPIRIT
@amr ,I may agree or disagree , look things was n't that good before the revolution in some levels , but not that bad either , so this 98% of slaves is somehow overestimating Egyptians were not beggers in the time of kingdom ,by the way I am somehow don't hate the Mohamed Ali family as I consider Mohamed Ali ,the real founder of not only modern Egypt ,but modern pan arabism ,it is enough that he succeeded in making the first united Arabic nation , and threatened the turkish empire and western empires that they all stood against him
ReplyDeleteit is also enough that in his the Arabic identity talk began to appear on surface in Lebanon and Syria
I won't go for the cons , and please so do so , because I am ready to mention thousands of cons about Nasser regime , one thing I will tell about My grand father as a journalist before the revolution had attacked many ministers and cabinets ,but after the revolution in the mid 1960s my grand mother swears that he would search their house to find any tapping device planted here or there, it was forbidden to talk in politics in home , by the way you can consider my grand dad as a nasserite because he believed in pan arabism but did n't cancel the previous eras or disrespected ,on the contrary
anyway about the Egyptian -Israeli military conflict
look for the surprises I found and I decided to write about later is the lie that Nasser made about how king Farouk was weak and didn't stand against Israel to the rest of this silly talk including the "old weaponary lie" which Mohamed Hassanien Haikal himself denied in his show on Al-jazeera,himself ,after decades of promoting it
it turned out the Egyptian kingdom took many steps against the hebrew state and the Israelis could n't take it anymore but decided to wait till it built its army , in 1948 our royal air forces bombed Tel Aviv ,in 1949 to the 1951 it was hard to any Israeli ship to cross the red sea without inspection of the royal navy
It is not about the free spirit you are talking about ,look they are not romantic as us
they put a plan ,Ben Geurion wanted to take Sinai as the grand Israel , he found an opportunity ,he didn't care who is in the chair Nasser Farouk Mr. X , whoever ,they would start their holy war
anyway I am afraid this spirit in two wars didn't stop them from taking Sinai
Amr I am afraid one of the cons of Nasser is that he is a big talker especially on the military side , Ben Geurion chose the youngest leader Shimon Peres because he was excellent planner , Nasser sent us to hell when he insisted on Amar and ended by war between them caused us to suffer till now
man you are opening big wound :(
Zenobia i definetly see your points. I have never been a nasserite untill recently. I grew up in house where the scorn of Nasser is our favorite topic.
ReplyDeleteBesides i dont say that Nasser was perfect and i dont deny that Mohamed ali and Ibrahim pasha were the founders of modern Egypt and during their time the seeds of Arab nationaslism was laid.
History is a continious evolotinary process.
The dawn of Nasserism came out during the liberal era, Nasser grew up during that era, became angry and full of hope for his nation, so whether he likes it or not he one way or another an extension of the royal era during which Egypt was gradually evoloving but not at the right pace. the country needed a socio-cultural revolution . Nasser is full of mistake but he remains a very very CLEAN MAN, who believed in his country and nation and worked his best without ever laying aside his principals to create a new modern proud Arab world. And he paid his precious life for it. Remeber that Nasser started his modernisation project with Castro and Nihro. TRhey all succeded India is a young and promising world power. Cuba has zero illtracy and best health care service in the 3rd worl, so if it hadnt been for the American siege, definetly it would have been prosperous.
Nasser and his project of modern Arab nationalism threatened to tilt the global strategic balance, as it threatened the oil resources which are lthe ivelihood of the entire west.
we lost the match, Egypt and nasserism were harpooned in 1967 in favor of radical backward Arab forces (Saudi Arabia). Terrorism and militant islam started to step in to fill the gap. Ironically enough the saudi american sponsoring of putting forward radical wahabism as a substitute for the socialist Arab natinalism sponsored by the USSR backfired against the evil Saudis and uncle sam. Contemplate at what is happening in 2006
what is the name of your grand father ? please dont be embarassed if you think that you dont want to answer for whatever reasons :)))))))) i fully undrstand
ReplyDelete@amr , look I am sorry for now to keep my Grand dad's name to myself at least for now and I guess you can understand why , all my grand dad could be considered from the opposition
ReplyDeleteabout Nasser , well I can't say he wasn't clean , despite the fact that his children now are not clean
And yes 1967 was the end of his dream , yet the problem ya Amr , his era was the prisons era ,I won't speak about the economical mistakes that happened in his era and we still suffer from ,I am talking about the fear legacy ,the prisons for political activitists legacy
I am afraid people trusted Nasser yet he wasn't on the same standard of the responsbility
look I am not of the type who speak about Nasser who nationalize the rich and sent the king away
anyway to say the truth I don't find one reason why Nasser didn't change that playboy Hakim in 1956 ,in fact he didn't ,he made his deputy in Syria and Hakim was another indirect reason for the failure of the union
Amr if you know that enemies are everywhere you must be ready of it ,not by talk , Nasser talked too much ,but where is the act , that's what I saying ,you got Israelis who have as you a certain project ,a holy one
They made it but till now Pan arabism "I don't like to call after Nasser ,because it was there before him and it is there after him" we can't achieve it
not because the Saudis and Iranian plots but because we agree not to agree , we are people of talk
hey Amr, just a small comment... I heard the word "Culture Revoultion" as you were comparing between Egypt and China revolutions, please check out first what was the chinese BLOODY culture revolution before you compare it with 52, the only thing i can say is that they are trying to forget what happened during that time in China! please check before you compare! :)
ReplyDeleteCheers!
The Egyptian coup of 1952 that turned in to a revolution by the people's acceptance then which no one can deny was white but it turned red in the 1960s with jails and secret services scandals
ReplyDelete