Suez-1973

Of all the Arab-Israeli Wars the 1973 Campaign is the most interesting.

That year the Egyptians caught the Israelis off guard, crossed the Suez and overran the worst idea any Israeli general has ever had: the Bar-Lev line. This was a series of bunkers along the east bank of the canal, Maginot style. The Egyptians spent 18 months planning their secret mobilization and rehearsing the crossing the crossing. The Egyptian Army executed the crossing almost perfectly. Within 24 hours they were on the east bank en mass.

The Israelis counterattacked of course, but the Egyptians were waiting for them with anti-tank guns and new wire guided missiles to which the Israelis had no answer. Egyptians also had new SA-2 missiles, which Israeli radars could not detect. They lost dozens of aircraft the first few days.The Egyptians shattered three Israeli brigades the first day and a general counterattack by three Israeli divisions the next. The

This was Egypt's greatest victory since Megiddo in 1457 BC.

General Said al Shazli chronicles the  mobilization planning, which is quite interesting in itself, the operation and everything that went wrong afterwords in his excellent work, Crossing the Suez.

After the Egyptians crossed  the Suez nothing happened. Sadat and the Egyptian general staff hoped Israel would sue for peace, or peace would be imposed by the great powers. In essence the Egyptians did not know what to do. As Syria foundered in the north the Egyptians renewed their attack, outside the range of their SA-2s and were decimated by the Israelis, who crossed the Suez and won a victory even more spectacular than 1967.