New Magazine Article! And Other Posts

So Joe and Kamala went down to Georgia to stump for their voting bill and campaign against the Filibuster. One can debate the wisdom of going to Georgia and comparing people to Jeff Davis, Bull Conner and George Wallace and asking folks whose side they're on. But doing so the day after the Georgia Bulldogs win the college football national championship? Can't these people do anything right? 

And, uh, Joe? Bull Connor, George Wallace, Jeff Davis and the whole lot of segregationists were Democrats. Remember when you used to brag about knowing George Wallace? The Democrats have always been the party of slavery, secession and Jim Crow and work very hard till this day to keep schools segregated. That's whose side you're on Mr. mass-incarceration. 

The Times of Israel reports: 'Life in the opposition is tough. Six months after losing the premiership, Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu is busy fending off challenges to his enduring control of the party.' Bibi is fighting back of course. Bibi, It's time for a heart to heart. It's time to move on. Write your memoirs. Go on a speaking tour in the US. You'll make millions. Pop in on your friend Donald in Mar-a-Lago.  We can't get around to crowning you Israel's greatest PM if you won't leave.

The New York Giants fired coach Joe Judge yesterday. What took them so long? It's now been ten years since the Giants won the Super Bowl. During that time, they've finished above .500 twice and been to the playoffs once with no post-season victories. In the last six years the Giants have had three head coaches. The Giants are now in a period of extended suckitude. Something is wrong.

Our very latest article, in this month's edition of Military History Matters. This one's about the Battle of the Chinese Farm on the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War: 'The Egyptian attack across the Suez Canal on 6 October 1973 caught the Israelis by surprise. Egyptian sapper teams crossed the canal and neutralised Israeli defences on the east bank. At the same time, engineers built dozens of bridges across it. When the inevitable Israeli armoured counter-attack came, the Egyptians met them with teams armed with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and Sagger anti-tank guided missiles. The Egyptians destroyed dozens of Israeli tanks that day. By the end of the second day, the Egyptian Second and Third Armies, numbering a combined five divisions and 80,000 men, were ensconced on the east bank.' Click on through to read the rest...

Below, for no damn reason, a retro-commercial:

We haven't seen that commercial since it aired in the mid-80s. They still look so cool, don't they? We don't think we had one, but we did have the Sky Fighter. 

Atone This

Yom Kippur. The Jewish Day of Atonement. I shouldn't even have made coffee this morning much less opened this computer and begun a post. We are cynical and jaded. As a former British Army officer and Palmach soldier friend of our grandfather's once said at the beginning of a Passover Seder, 'Does anyone believe this crap? let's eat.' Also, I love bacon. I'm a bad Jew. 

Here's a great article from the Times of Israel on the Israeli government reaction to the imminent Arab attack in 1973. The Arabs took the IDF completely by surprise, so much so it is rumored the Israelis pulled their A-bombs out of the bunkers. For Israel the opening day of the Yom Kippur War is 9/11 and Pearl Harbor rolled into one. 

Which has always struck us as odd. Or maybe not. The Jews are, after all, a Mediterranean people. Reader(s) know how excitable they are. All that jibber-jabber and effluent hand-gesturing. The Italian, the Arab and the Jew.....Anyway even with the Israelis being totally 100% surprised, the war ended with Ariel Sharon whipping it out and taking a piss in Suez. 

Our next and one of our last remaining magazine articles to come out, will be about the battle in the Sinai, specifically the Battle of the Chinese Farm. It was a heck of an armored engagement. On a side note, Decision Games is still sitting on articles we sent in 5, 10, 15 years ago and still publishes them despite our not having returned the latest writer's contract. We've no idea how many remain or even the subject matter. We shake our head more in disappointment than anger. 

This incompetence is one of the reasons we don't write history magazine articles anymore. Why bother when we can crank out 800 words for our KGB handler and see it published 12 hours after we send it in. Also, Maxim has never published our work under someone else's byline and stiffed us. When the KGB pays better than you, that's a problem. Decision Games, don't ever change. 

October Days of War

Prime Minister, our armored counterattack of three divisions has completely failed.

The Egyptian Army was waiting for us. Their positions on the east bank of the Suez were lined with anti-tank guns, RPGs and a new Soviet made guided missile. Over the course of the attack we lost hundreds of armored vehicles. 

Our armored counterattack was further hampered by the lack of air support. The Egyptian Army has the Soviet's new SA-7 SAM, and our aircraft cannot detect it, repeat our aircraft cannot detect it. We lost dozens of ground attack aircraft. The casualties were so bad, ground commanders became reluctant to call for air support.

Prime Minister, for the time being we're going to have to accept Egyptian occupation of the east bank of the Suez. 

Prime Minister the Syrians now occupy all of the Golan and can come down into the Galilee at any time...

October Days of War

Prime Minister, the Egyptians have crossed the Suez and breached our defenses. Their crossing operation was well planned and executed. It was as complex as D-Day and the Egyptians pulled it off. 

Since establishing itself on the east bank yesterday the Egyptian Army has ferried tens of thousands of troops across. Intelligence believes upwards of three reinforced infantry divisions are now ensconced on the east bank of the canal.

In the north three IDF brigades are fighting for their lives against a dozen Syrian brigades. We don't believe we can reinforce the Golan in time to prevent Syrian forces from entering the Galilee.

At this point the Egyptian army is fully mobilized while we are scrambling to bring our divisions up to full strength.

In the meantime we shall strike the Egyptian position on the east bank and wipe it out before the Egyptians can reinforce it further.

Our armored forces on the Sinai are moving into position now...

October Days of War

Prime Minister, as you know the Rogers Plan for peace has failed. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat refuses reasonable terms, even after his defeat in the War of Attrition. Since then the Egyptian Army, along with the Syrians, has built up its' capability and planned a war to retake the Sinai Peninsula.

As you know, the Bar-Lev Line of fortifications lines occupies east bank of Suez. These are strong and backed by three armored brigades stationed deep within the Sinai. These can be further reinforced by their parent divisions, giving the IDF nine armored and mechanized brigades on hand, more than enough to defend the Sinai. We need 72 hours to mobilize in case of war.

Prime Minister, this is a war warning.

Unfortunately we over estimated the amount of time we would have to prepare.

Prime Minister, the Egyptians will attack in eight hours...

6-10-73...45

Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

Here Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel.

Fortunately for the Israelis they occupied the Sinai Peninsula in the south and the Golan Heights in the north, so they could absorb the blow.

Frankly, after the biblically epic victory of 1967 the Israelis had become complacent. The Yom Kippur war was a national crisis and shock to the Israeli psyche. It's a huge part of the national memory.

We'll be discussing the war all this week.

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.