Lebanon '82

Stroock's First Rule of military history: The Israelis only fight interesting conflicts.

Of great interest is 1982's Operation Peace for Galilee, the invasion of Lebanon.

In 1982 South Lebanon was occupied by Yassir Arafat's Fatah. From here Arafat launched terror attacks and rockets at northern Israeli. As Lebanon had been in a Civil War since 1975 it was divided into several factions. Taking advantage of the chaos, Syria invaded Lebanon and occupied the Bekaa Valley. Several Syrian brigades were in the valley and on the Beirut/Damascus Highway. Nineteen SAM batteries were in the Valley as well. These were of great concern to the IDF and defence minister Aerial Sharon.

When the IDF rolled into Lebanon it fought two kinds of battles, an anti-terror guerrilla campaign in the west and a conventional ground war in the Bekaa Valley. In the air the IAF defeated the Syrian air force 86-0 while on the ground the Israeli army pushed the Syrians out of the Bekaa and off the Beirut-Damascus Highway. In the west the Israelis cleared out Fatah and eventually entered Beirut.

Going into Beirut was a step too far but otherwise Operation Peace for Galilee was highly successful. The Syrians were out of the Bekaa and Fatah out of Lebanon.

Here's an excerpt of our own write up of Operation Peace For Galilee available in Israel at War, and Her Enemies.

The Israelis had never gathered a mightier army.  Division 91(three mechanized brigades and six infantry brigades) assembled on the coast for drive up to Sidon and beyond and a link up with Phalangist militia somewhere east of Beirut. In the center, Division 36 (the Golani Brigade plus two armored brigades and an artillery brigade) stood poised to cross the border, take the castle at Beaufort and drive north to cut the Beirut Damascus highway while Division 162 (A tank brigade, an infantry brigade and an artillery brigade) would cover their right flank. In the east, Division 90 (three tank brigades and an artillery brigade), Division 252 (two tank brigades, one infantry brigade and an artillery brigade) , and an ad-hoc formation of two brigades called Vardi Force would drive north toward the Bekaa Valley. Division 96 (the Paratroopers brigade plus a tank brigade and an artillery brigade) would make an amphibious landing somewhere in the vicinity of Sidon.

The Army Matrix Pool

Being something of a wargammer, I've designed three, you know.

[Why does it say 'Designer: Eric Harvey'-Ed]

Because Eric Harvey took the game the designed, made a few changes and called it his own.

 Anyhoo, I tend to look at world order of battle tables and think, now how can I get them into the fight.

The World War:1990 series has seen many temptations in that regard.

In Castro's Folly (this week people), we're throwing the interesting and complex South African Defense Force into the fight.

In Pacific Storm, the ANZACs are mobilizing, and what's the point of the Japanese having that fine navy if the author ain't gonna write about it. I mean just look at all those high tech (for 1990) destroyers and frigates, and don't get me started on that force of 200+ F-15Js.

Man, are there ever some orbat temptations in this universe.

I mean, here we have the South Korean Armed forces, the Israelis of Asia. What about Taiwan? There's another fine military. Why I bet their just begging to get into action.

Then there's the big cheese, the Sub-continent. India and Pakistan. I suppose I should call it 'the big samosa.  Both nations have large, well appointed armed forces (and nukes to boot).  And they hate one another. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

Why not fight?

Of course, in any Indo-Pak war taking place in 1990, the U.S. would be much more inclined to help Pakistan.

We learn from out mistakes people and I guess that was a big one. Of course, the Pakis were helping us supply the Afghan Muj....still looking for an upside on this one.

Oh the temptations. As the reader will see soon, we succumbed to them in Castro's Follyh.