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Intel - History
Yom Kippur 1973 War

"In God we trust.
All others we monitor."

• Preparation for the war by the Arab nations estimated to have taken three years, says Israeli Major General H. Herzog

• Training, preparation, and equipment provided by Soviet Union

• The weaponry estimated to have been equivalent to all the armories of NATO

• Egyptian troops cross the Suez Canal
• Syrian troops pour over the Golan Heights
• 1400 Syrian tanks spilled over the Golan Heights
• Egypt brilliantly crossed the Suez Canal, with 8,000 infantry in rubber boats

• Egypt's Anwar Sadat realized they could attack in conjunction with Syria's Assad, without the numbers they thought they would need individually

• Iraqi troops join the battle
• Jordanian troops join the battle

• King Hussein of Jordan felt desperate, having lost half of Jordan to Israel, prompting them to proceed with the attack

• Israeli forces initially outnumbered 12:1
• The Egyptian infantry men were armed with anti-tank weapons that could be carried in a suitcase and set up in minutes, with RPG-7 and the Saga Soviet Missile, with 3000 yard range. One unit alone wiped out eight Israeli tanks in the first ten minutes

• Israel had projected the Arab states would not be able to launch a major attack without being able to compete in the air, and this would not be until 1975

Moshe Dayan, Israel's Hero of 1948 Arab-Israeli War Humiliated by 1973 Defeat

• Israel's Moshe Dayan described the Suez Canal as "the best anti-tank ditch in the world"
• Estimated it would take enemy more than 24 hours to cross it, with walls up to sixty feet high in places
• Dayan thought this would give Israel enough time to scramble forces to the Suez Canal area to prevent the tanks from getting over

• In 1971, Israel had tested a way to pour oil onto the Suez Canal from an underground system and ignite it, turning the canal into a river of flames
• Night before the invasion, Egypt blocked access to the Israeli pipes into the Suez Canal for dropping oil onto the canal

• Egyptian Generals had estimated the Israelis would lose 10,000 men in the Suez crossing alone, but in fact the barrage kept most Israelis in their bunkers

• Amphibious operation underway with the Third Army into the Sinai

• Israelis shot down fourteen fully loaded helicopters, the only main Arab losses