At that moment, Major Shmuel Askarov, the deputy commander of the 53rd Tank Battalion, was in his office at the Hushniya base of the 188th Barak Brigade. His Shot Cal was parked outside his door with the crew within hailing distance. As he had indicated to General Moshe Dayan ten days earlier, he was certain that war was imminent. Throughout the night, the command elements of the brigade had been in conference revising plans and preparations. The commander of the 188th Barak Brigade was the Turkish-born Colonel Yitzhak Ben-Shoham. The brigade was composed of just two battalions with the 74th Tank Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Yair Nafshi deployed in the north from the slopes of Mount Hermon to near Mutzva 109 to the south of Kuneitra and the 53rd Tank Battalion
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The anti-tank defences along the Purple Line proved crucial in stalling the Syrian offensive for sufficient time to allow the reserve units to reach the Golan. The anti-tank ditch was five metres across and three metres deep with the spoil heaped up on the Israeli side to make bridgelaying operations more difficult. Anti-tank mines were laid on each side of the ditch and a maintenance road ran along the Israeli side. Such an obstacle is only effective if covered by fire and the IDF constructed a series of firing ramps on higher ground some 1,500 to 2,000 metres to the west of the ditch. From these dominating positions, the Shot Cals were in hull-down positions with just their gun and turret tops showing that made them extremely difficult targets from the front. They in turn were able to engage and destroy Syrian tanks out to a distance of 3,000 metres, such as these ones with a group of T-62As and BTR-152 APCs in the foreground, a T-54A in the ditch and a T-55A(M) toppled off the bridge of an MTU-20. Note how the ditch has been levelled by Caterpillar bulldozers that breached the anti-tank ditch under the cover of darkness. This part of the Purple Line was in the northern sector of the 7th Armored Brigade. (IGPO)
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Oded Erez from Mutzva 109 southwards. There were just 69 Shot Cals scattered along some 43 miles of front bordering the Purple Line giving an average of one and a half tanks per mile of front. Nevertheless, Ben- Shoham had received no indication from Generals Hofi or Eitan that the Syrians were likely to launch anything besides another ‘battle day’. The radio net of the brigade was designated ‘Toffee’ and it immediately despatched the codeword – ‘Capital’. It was the signal for the tanks of the brigade to move to their assigned positions on the firing ramps beside the various Mutzavim. Major Askarov was in his tank within moments and heading eastwards at high speed through the heavy artillery barrage to Mutzav 111 overlooking the Kudne Gap. As his Shot Cal mounted the firing ramp he could see nothing but churning clouds of dust due to the intensive shelling. Eventually, there was a lull and the dust settled momentarily. He was dumbfounded when he saw hundreds of Syrian T-54 and T-55 tanks emerging from the dust cloud in dense columns spearheaded by specialized bridge-laying and mine-clearing variants.
All along the Purple Line, the tank platoons of the Barak Brigade were under fire as they manoeuvred into their pre-assigned firing positions. In the northern sector, the 74th Tank Battalion was deployed with Company Het under the command of Captain Eyal Shaham with its three platoons guarding Mutzavim 104, 105 and 107 with the company commander and two tanks at Mas’adeh. Company Alef under the command of Major Zvi Rak was stationed in and around Kuneitra as it was thought to be a Syrian priority objective for a ‘battle day’. Company Bet under the command of Major Avner Landau was held in reserve at Wasset Junction, while the battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Nafshi stationed himself on the commanding heights of Booster Ridge overlooking the Kuneitra Gap. At 1415 hours, an observation post on Hermonit reported the advance of an armoured force of T-54/55s proceeded by bridging and mine-clearing tanks but Nafshi immediately implemented a coordinated fire plan of tanks and artillery that stopped the enemy before they reached the anti- tank ditch. But the pressure was mounting by the minute. The Syrian 68th Infantry Brigade with an attached tank battalion of T-54/55s launched an assault between Mutzavim 104 and 105 but Nafshi promptly despatched Company Bet to the threatened area and caught the enemy in the flank as the MTU-20s were trying to deploy their bridges over the anti-tank ditch. A further attack by the Syrian 85th Infantry Brigade to the north and south of Mutzav 107 was similarly halted by the 74th as was an attack by the Syrian 52nd Infantry Brigade to the north of Mutzav 109. The Shot Cals on the firing ramps were exacting a fearful toll of the swarming enemy T-54s and T-55s while the few mobile reserves moved from one threatened point of penetration to another. The general feeling at the outset was that this was just another ‘battle day’ but now the frontline units were reporting that yet more tanks were approaching. Equally serious was that the Shot Cals were running short of ammunition. Even now they were obliged to retire so that the crews could access the rounds hidden in the bowels of the tanks.
South of Mutzav 109, the 53rd Tank Battalion was under even more intense pressure as the 5th and 9th Infantry Divisions mounted the main Syrian attacks
through the Kudne and Rafid Gaps. Company Zayin under the command of Captain 55
Uri Avika was deployed from Mutzav 110 to 114, together with Major Askarov, covering the Kudne line. Immediately to their south was Company Gimmel under the command of Captain Uzi Arieli, although three tanks of his tanks were detached to protect brigade HQ. The company’s task was to guard the Tapline Road with a platoon of tanks at Juhader close to Mutzavim 114 and 115. The Trans Arabian Pipeline or Tapline extended some 1,200 miles from Arabia to the Mediterranean coast in Lebanon and ran diagonally across the Golan. It was to prove crucial in the campaign. As soon as the attack began, reports came in of a Syrian probe along the road bordering the Tapline and Captain Arieli despatched a platoon as reinforcements commanded by Lieutenant Oded Beckman. On arrival at Mutzav 115, his defending force numbered just five Shot Cals. To his front was a Syrian tank battalion of 41 T-54/55s of the 112nd Infantry Brigade giving a ratio of 1:8. Although his limbs seemed to be shaking uncontrollably, Beckman’s mind was crystal clear. He noticed an MTU-20 bridgelayer at the head of the column and allowed it to lay its bridge across the anti- tank ditch and withdraw. Only when a T-54 gun tank manoeuvred on to the bridge did he open fire when it was halfway across. He destroyed a second T-54 as it tried to push aside the first one, effectively blocking the crossing site entirely. He then engaged a second MTU-20 before it reached the anti-tank ditch, stalling the whole Syrian attack. All along the Purple Line, the specialized T-54/55 variants of the MTU-20 bridgelayer and the mineclearing PT-54s fitted with mine-rollers were the priority targets to Israeli gunners since their primary role was to breach the anti-tank ditch and the minefields. Standard operating procedure dictated that these vehicles were engaged at the maximum effective range of 2,500 metres.
Finally, there was Company Vav under the command of Captain Avi Ronis with five tanks near Tel Juhader, a platoon at Mutzav 114 and a platoon under the command of Lieutenant Yoav Yakir at Mutzav 116, the most southern post on the Purple Line. Its role was to block both the Tapline Road and the South Road to El Al. In the more open rolling terrain of the southern Golan Plateau, this was an impossible task for so few tanks.