Battle of Suez
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Battle of Suez | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Yom Kippur War | |||||||
Map of the Sinai campaign. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Egypt | Israel | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Youssef Afifi Adel Islam (garrison commandant) |
Avraham Adan Yossi Yoffe Nahum Zaken | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Anti-tank teams Numerous army units with light weapons Local police forces and militia |
1 armored brigade 1 infantry battalion | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Minimal[4] |
At least 80 killed and 120 wounded 40 tanks destroyed[5] |
The Battle of Suez was fought on October 24–25, 1973 between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the Egyptian town of Suez. It was the last major battle of the Yom Kippur War, before a ceasefire took effect.
On October 23, with the imminent arrival of UN observers to the front, Israel decided to capture Suez, assuming it would be poorly defended. An armored brigade and an infantry battalion from the
The armored column was ambushed and severely hit, while the paratroopers came under heavy fire and many of them became trapped inside a local building. The armored column and part of the infantry force were evacuated during the day, while the main contingent of the paratrooper force eventually managed to dash out of the city and make their way back to Israeli lines.
Background
At 4:00 pm on Tuesday, October 23, the
The town of Suez had about 260,000 residents before the
Prelude
At 2:00 am, General
An armored brigade, under the command of Colonel Aryeh Keren, had set up its headquarters west of Suez. Keren was in charge of the attack and ordered Yossi Yoffe to lead the attack with his reserve paratroopers using nine captured Soviet APCs, and drive up the main street of the town. He said the confidence based on which he was being sent was groundless. He said he had only one small map and had seen no air photos and asked for time to draw a plan. Adan pressured Keren to capture Suez before the arrival of the observers, and Keren told Yoffe that "in the armored corps, we take our orders while we're on the move", and gave thirty minutes to organize. A tank battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Nahum Zaken was to lead the attack with its own infantry detachment, while Yoffe was to follow and leave platoons to secure the intersections.[15]
Battle
Ambush
At 10:50 Zaken's column, stretched for over a mile, started moving up the main street, an extension of the Cairo-Suez highway. His battalion was divided into three groups, each containing eight tanks, each tank followed by an APC or halftrack. Zaken had three miles to go before reaching a large square on the bank of the Gulf of Suez. Along the way, he saw Egyptian soldiers, mostly unarmed, and some of them raised their hands in surrender when they saw the Israeli column. All the Israeli tank and APC commanders were standing in their turrets.[10][16]
Meeting no resistance, the column reached the second intersection at the Al-Arba'een square. A member of the militia, Mahmoud 'Awad, fired two RPG rounds at the lead tank. One round caused superficial damage, and the other missed. Further ahead, the militia had set up another ambush. Ibrahim Suleiman, positioned in a hideout between Cinema Royal and Cinema Egypt, heard the explosions, and asked his comrade, Mohamed Sarhan, to prepare an RPG round. At a range of 12 meters, Suleiman fired his RPG, hitting the turret ring. The tank blew up, and its cannon tilted to the ground. Moments later, Sarhan fired an RPG round against the APC trailing the lead tank. The APC, carrying paratroopers inside, caught fire. At this point, masses of civilians and soldiers began moving towards the square from the adjacent buildings and from roads leading to the square. The column came to a halt, and began receiving heavy small arms fire, also coming under attack by hand grenades. Within minutes, twenty out of the twenty-four Israeli tank commanders were hit.[17] The Israelis panicked, and began disembarking their vehicles and taking cover in nearby buildings. One group of soldiers tried to enter Cinema Royal, but were repulsed at the entrance. One of the APCs that were hit was carrying the brigade's intelligence group. The group abandoned the APC, and all nine men entered a nearby building, where they were presumably killed.[18] The remainder of the battalion turned around to retreat, which was disorderly. The retreating forces came under attack by small arms, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Four tanks came up behind Sidi Al-Arba'een Mosque, but were ambushed by soldiers from the 19th Division, forcing the tanks to retreat.[19]
Zaken, in the second tank, tried to reach his company commanders on the radio, but got no reply. He called the crewmen and told and learned that many of the commanders were either dead or wounded. He told them to keep moving to get out of the ambush and fire all weapons. The battalion made it to the square at the end of the streets and lined up facing the sources of fire. One tank commander Captain Menashe Goldblatt, who had been hit in the shoulder and lost his consciousness, recovered and was asked by Zaken to go from tank to tank and talk to the crews. He found that many of the commanders were either dead or wounded, and that many of the men were in shock. He appointed gunners and loaders as tank commanders, assigned them fire sectors and told them to switch their radio frequency from the company frequency to the battalion frequency so that they could speak directly to Zaken. One tank commander was not wounded but refused to take his head out of the turret and Goldblatt warned him that he would personally fire a shell at him if he didn't start functioning.[20]
The casualties were transferred to an APC which surprised the Egyptians as it drove back up the main street, and managed to make it through. The APC crew left the casualties at an aid station and tried to drive back and rejoin the battalion. Halfway through the APC was hit by an RPG, which killed one man and wounded almost all the others, but the driver managed to get out of the city again. A second APC carrying dead and wounded tried to make a dash out of the city and was stopped by heavy fire, but the driver heard on the radio that the paratroopers were on their way.[21]
Trap
The paratroopers started going down the avenue and came under fire. They could not distinguish where the enemy fire was coming from.[17] Yoffe's APC was hit by an RPG, killing four of his men and wounding him as well as others. The vehicles pulled over and the soldiers took cover in adjacent buildings, most of them entering Al-Arba'een Police Station, a two-story building surrounded by a tall brick wall. In a very brief firefight the paratroopers wounded two and captured eight policemen. Ten minutes later the second floor was cleared. Lieutenant David Amit, the ranking unwounded officer, organized the defenses of the fifty paratroopers inside. He posted men at windows and behind the brick wall in the front of the building to block the entrance. A room was used as an aid station. Five men positioned themselves on the roof an adjacent building and began firing on the surrounding Egyptians. The policemen launched two attempts to break into the police station and rescue those held inside. In one of the attempts, the Egyptians broke into the building from a side entrance and advanced toward the aid station, and the battalion doctor and his medics opened fire on them. Yoffe's leg had been badly ripped but he refused morphine in order to stay alert. When the Egyptian fire stopped, he told his men that the Egyptians were preparing for an attack. The building was then attacked by RPGs and grenades, and the second floor caught fire. Yoffe told the doctor to burn the maps and papers that might help the Egyptian intelligence. Having lost much blood, he kept losing consciousness. The fire was eventually doused and the attack repulsed. Both attempts failed had cost the Egyptians another eight policemen killed.[22][23]
Outside the police station, both sides were still firing on each other. A few wounded Israelis who were unable to take cover in the nearby buildings lay stranded on the streets. The Egyptians concentrated their fire against the paratroopers in the building. The Israelis decided to release a police officer to inform the Egyptians of their desire to surrender, provided the Egyptians guaranteed they would not be harmed. The police officer left the building and told Sarhan that the Israelis wanted to surrender. Sarhan took the officer to Colonel Fathy 'Abbas, head of intelligence in the southern sector of the canal. 'Abbas met both men before noon that day, and was enthusiastic to accept the Israeli surrender and end the fighting, especially considering the potential intelligence gains. 'Abbas asked both men to go back to the police station and negotiate terms of surrender with the Israelis. They were unable to enter the building however, as the shooting would not stop and there was no overall commander in control of the militia surrounding the police station. The police officer, an old man, lost his nerve and would not come near the building. Consequently, no negotiations took place and there would be no Israeli surrender.[24]
The armored forces made several failed attempts to break through to the building.[17] When one force approached, they threw furniture out the window to signal their location, but the vehicles' hatches were closed and drove pass the building, all the while under small arms fire.[25] The armored force noticed another paratroop group, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Yaakov Hisdai, with eighty men, most of them wounded, which followed Yoffe's battalion. All but sixty men were rescued.[22]
At around 4:00 pm, Ibrahim Suleiman and three others tried to break into the building. Suleiman went around the building and climbed a pole, hoping to take the Israelis by surprise. However, he was spotted and killed. Two others were killed while trying to break in from the front, after coming under massive fire from the paratroopers in the second floor. A few Egyptians climbed up to the rooftop adjacent to the police station where five paratroopers positioned themselves. The rooftop was cleared and all five Israelis were killed after vicious
Mahmoud 'Awad, fearing the Israelis might try to recover their abandoned armor, resolved to completely destroy the fifteen tanks and APCs, all damaged or destroyed, that lined the streets leading to the square. At midnight, he poured considerable amounts of gasoline on them and set them on fire.[27]
Escape
As darkness fell, Adan ordered the armored forces out of the city. They were evacuated along the gulf shore, which had been cleared. Adan learned that another force was also meeting stiff resistance in the green belt north of the town, and could spare only one battalion, in addition to another battalion from near Shalufa.
Yoffe's troops were over two miles into the city and after dark others also joined him in the police station, totaling ninety men, twenty-three of them wounded. They made several dashes to their vehicles to bring ammunition, medical supplies and water. Keren tried to convince Amit to lead the men out, but Amit preferred to wait until morning. Eventually, he agreed to send the men in small groups. Keren objected, saying that they must move in one group in order to be able to carry the wounded and defend themselves if attacked. Hisdai also asked Amit to move. Gonen also spoke to Amit and, having heard his explanation, told Keren to make a rescue attempt in the morning. Keren called Adan, who called Gonen and told him that a rescue attempt would be too costly. Gonen then called Amit back and told him to leave on foot.[30] The exchange went on for four hours. After Amit was convinced, Gonen found the location on an enlarged air photo of Suez and planned an artillery box in the center of which Amit could move.[31] He asked Amit to take out a pen and paper, looked at the air photo and dictated to him the route out. Halfway through, Amit stopped writing, deciding that the route would be tough even by day and with a map, and that the area south of the building, through which Gonen's route was to pass, was filled with Egyptian troops. Despite that, he kept answering "Yes sir", and asked for artillery bombardment around the police station, although not in the rest of the city, where Amit preferred to move quietly. He organized his men into squads so that each squad would carry three wounded men.[32] The squads were ordered to keep distance but not lose eye contact. As they were getting ready to move, lookouts reported activity in the nearby buildings and said Egyptian troops had taken positions down the street. Amit ordered all his men back into the building.[30]
The paratroopers concluded that they would not be rescued, and that the Egyptians would not take prisoners. Some of them contemplated committing suicide before the Egyptians broke in. At 2:00 am, Gonen called, asked for Amit, and ordered him "Move out. Report implementation in ten minutes. Out". Amit woke Yoffe up and Yoffe agreed that moving out would be the best solution. Yoffe got up and tried to make a few steps before saying "I can't walk". Other wounded men got up to see if they could. Amit ordered his men out, two of whom had to be carried out on stretchers, while some had to be supported by others. They came out under artillery cover, with the leading squad not carrying any wounded. They did not follow Gonen's route, instead opting to go north across the broad avenue and then turn left on a parallel side street. They could not move quietly because of broken glass and other debris. Egyptian soldiers passed by several times, occasionally passing through gaps in the column, but did not challenge them, perhaps believing they were Egyptians. After almost two hours, they reached the
Aftermath
The IDF casualties in the battle were 80 dead and 120 wounded.
References
- ^ [1] Archived 2020-01-26 at the Wayback Machine "The experience represents one of the most humiliating failures in israeli modern history .. Analysis reveals there were three main factors that led to this stunning defeat."
- ^ [2] Archived 2020-01-10 at the Wayback Machine "Israeli losses included from eighty to one hundred and twenty-five men and twenty-eight armored vehicles. Egyptian losses were minimal. The fight for Suez City finally terminated on 28 October with the town still firmly under Egyptian control. Israeli intelligence proved poor. The anticipated armored assault on weak forces became a hasty attack against alert defenders in well prepared defensive positions. Combined with the lack of accurate intelligence, the ineffective use of Israeli infantry caused the assault to fail."
- ^ [3] Archived 2020-02-07 at the Wayback Machine "Both countries generally perceive of the Suez City battle as having been an Egyptian victory and an Israeli defeat in spite of the IDF encirclement of the Egyptian Army, completed after the ceasefire was to have taken effect."
- ^ [4] Archived 2020-01-10 at the Wayback Machine"Israeli losses included from eighty to one hundred and twenty-five men and twenty-eight armored vehicles. Egyptian losses were minimal. The fight for Suez City finally terminated on 28 October with the town still firmly under Egyptian control."
- ^ Gawrych (2000), p.230
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), p. 466
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), p. 468
- ^ Dupuy (2002), p. 539
- ^ a b Dupuy (2002), p. 540
- ^ a b Rabinovich (2005), p. 470
- ^ Hammad, 492-493
- ^ Hammad, 495-496
- ^ a b Pollack (2002), p. 123
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), p. 466-467
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), p. 468-470
- ^ Hammad (2002), p. 498
- ^ a b c Herzog (1975), p. 249
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.498-499, 504
- ^ Hammad (2002), p. 499
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), pp. 470–471
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), pp. 471–472
- ^ a b Rabinovich (2005), p. 472
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.500 & 505
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.500-501
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.505
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.501
- ^ Hammad (2002), p.502
- ^ a b Dupuy (2002), p. 542
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), p. 473
- ^ a b Rabinovich (2005), p. 474
- ^ Herzog (1975), pp. 249-250
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), pp. 473-474
- ^ Rabinovich (2005), pp. 474-475
- ^ a b Rabinovich (2005), p. 475
- ^ Shazly (2003), p. 285
- ^ Herzog (1975), p. 250
Bibliography
- Dupuy, Trevor N. (2002). Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947–1974. Military Book Club. ISBN 0-9654428-0-2.
- Gawrych, George (2000). The Albatross of Decisive Victory: War and Policy Between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 281. ISBN 0-313-31302-4.
- Hammad, Gamal (2002). Military Battles on the Egyptian Front (in Arabic) (First ed.). Dār al-Shurūq. p. 903. ISBN 977-09-0866-5.
- Herzog, Chaim (1975). The War of Atonement. Steimatzky.
- Pollack, Kenneth M (2002). Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948–1991. Studies in war, society, and the military. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. p. 698. ISBN 0-8032-3733-2.
- Rabinovich, Abraham (2005-10-04). The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East. Schocken. p. 592. ISBN 0-8052-1124-1.
- Shazly, Lieutenant General Saad el (October 2003). The Crossing of the Suez, Revised Edition (Revised ed.). American Mideast Research. p. 368. ISBN 0-9604562-2-8.