The Israeli forces on the Golan Plateau were part of the 36th Armored Division under the command of Major General Rafael ‘Raful’ Eitan, with his headquarters at Nafakh. In the opening days of October, they remained wholly inadequate in face of the threat. On Friday 5 October, the IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General David Elazar ordered a Gimel alert that cancelled all leave and warned staff officers to prepare for the immediate mobilization of reservists. The personnel of the other two tank battalions of the 7th Armored Brigade, the 71st and 83rd, were flown north and rapidly equipped with Shot Cal tanks before joining the 77th on the Golan Heights. The 7th Armored Brigade was the most prestigious armoured formation in the IDF, having been formed during the War of Independence. The brigade was commanded by Colonel Avigdor ‘Yanosh’ Ben-Gal, a lanky 38-year old who had risen through the ranks of the IAC. When his family was killed in the Holocaust, Ben-Gal arrived in Palestine in 1944 from Poland via Siberia, India, Teheran and Egypt: in his own words: ‘I joined the army in 1955. The army was my home. I was born again. My second birth was in a tank.’ Despite his unkempt appearance, he was a consummate professional soldier and a skilled proponent of armoured warfare. His battalion commanders were similarly highly experienced, with Lieutenant Colonel Meshulam Rattes as OC 71st Tank Battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Haim Barak, OC 82nd Tank Battalion. The brigade also included a Sayeret reconnaissance unit mostly mounted in Jeeps and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC). In addition, the 75th Armored Infantry Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Yos Eldar was attached to the brigade with their M-113 APCs and M-3 Half Tracks.
In time of war, the 7th Armored Brigade was part of Southern Command and deputed to lead any counter-offensive across the Suez Canal. To this end, one of its tank companies of the 82nd was assigned the specialized role of towing bridging equipment across the desert to prepared crossing points on the banks of the Suez Canal. But even before Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan had ordered the 77th to the
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A pair of T-55s and a BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicle lie abandoned on the Golan Heights where some 867 Syrian tanks were lost in the fighting out of a total force of 1,400. Many intact T-54/55 tanks were captured by the Israelis and they were modified for service with the Israeli Armored Corps as the Tiran. According to Israeli sources, no BMP-1s managed to cross the Purple Line in the northern sector so this suggests these vehicles were lost to the 188th Barak Brigade. (United Nations)
northern front, Colonel Ben-Gal had had a premonition of the prospect of war on the Golan Heights. On 23 September, he organized a familiarization tour of the Golan Heights for his brigade staff and battalion commanders. Their newfound knowledge of the difficult terrain was to be of inestimable value in the forthcoming battles. Days of frantic preparation followed as the other battalions of the 7th Armored Brigade requisitioned tanks and equipment from the depots of Northern Command before deploying on to the Golan Heights. The Shot Cals were taken out of storage, tested and loaded with ammunition and equipment before the guns were zeroed. Meanwhile, company and platoon commanders were criss-crossing the Golan Heights to familiarize themselves further with the terrain. Throughout the night of Friday 5 October, tank transporters and supply trucks groaned up the escarpment to the Golan Heights including large stocks of ammunition. Northern Command had authorized an extra 200 rounds per tank as well as more 155mm shells for the 11 batteries of M-109 Self-Propelled Howitzers: just 45 guns as against the 930 of the Syrians but it was the only M-109 regiment in service. The 7th Armored Brigade was directed to complete its deployment to its assembly positions on the Golan Heights by noon on 6 October 1973, the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. There were now 177 Shot Cals in place on the Golan Heights: the odds were down to 8:1.
Yom Kippur was the day chosen for the simultaneous offensive by Egypt and Syria against Israel. It is the holiest day in the Judaic calendar but the state of the tides in the Suez Canal and the amount of moonlight were more important to the Egyptians while Syria wished to attack before the winter snows arrived. Egypt was determined to break the diplomatic logjam in order to reclaim the Sinai Peninsula while Syria sought to regain the Golan Heights by force of arms. The Arab armies fielded some 4,480 tanks and AFVs with 4,300 APCs while Israel possessed 2,000 tanks and 4,000 APCs. Almost all were committed to battle in the Sinai Peninsula and on the Golan
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At the forefront of the Syrian offensive at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War were special-purpose variants of the T-55 whose task was to breach the Israeli anti-tank defences along the Purple Line. This T-55 is fitted with a KMT-5 mine-roller and integral mine plough. The system weighs 7.5 tonnes and can be operated at 12–18km/h depending on terrain and soil conditions. Such vehicles were priority targets to Israeli gunners. (United Nations)
Heights. The total number of AFVs was greater than those at the battle of Kursk and they fought in a smaller geographical area than the Kursk salient. With separate but simultaneous attacks from north and south, the parallels between the two offensives were remarkable. At 1345 hours, Israeli observers on Mount Hermon noticed the camouflage netting being removed from the hundreds of Syrian gun positions on the Damascus Plain. At 1356 hours, a thunderous artillery barrage fell upon the Israeli positions on the Golan Plateau that lasted 50 minutes without pause. Simultaneously, MiG-19 ground attack aircraft swooped down to bomb and strafe the headquarters at Nafakh. At that precise moment, Colonel Ben-Gal was giving his last-minute briefing to his battalion commanders and their company commanders at the base. He immediately gave a single, simple order: ‘Everyone to your tanks!’