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Egypt War of Attrition and the October 1973 War
After conquering Sinai, the Israelis constructed the Bar-Lev
Line, a series of thirty-three small, heavily fortified observation
posts atop sand ramparts eight to ten meters high along the east
bank of the Suez Canal. They built a second sand embankment several
kilometers behind the first one. Both embankments had firing ramps
for roving armored patrols. In January 1969, Egypt began the War of
Attrition with an intensive eighty-day bombardment along the whole
canal. Israeli positions along the Bar-Lev Line survived the attack
but suffered heavy damage. Egypt followed the attack with commando
raids on the line itself and against Israeli patrols and rear
installations. Israel launched a severe reprisal that included
bombing raids against military and strategic targets deep in the
interior of Egypt. The relative ineffectiveness of Egypt's Soviet
SA-2 high-altitude surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) against the
Israeli raids necessitated the introduction of low-level SA-3 SAMs,
manned mostly by Soviet technicians. Egypt reinforced the new
missiles with more than 100 MiG-21 aircraft flown by Soviet pilots.
Egypt's revitalized air defense system succeeded in destroying a
considerable number of Israeli aircraft. Still, in the only major
battle between Israeli and Soviet fighters, the Israeli air force
quickly prevailed. In August 1970, a cease-fire negotiated by the
United States with Soviet support ended the fighting between Israel
and Egypt.
Sadat, who succeeded Nasser in September 1970, assumed the
responsibility of managing the international and domestic pressures
that were impelling Egypt and the Middle East toward another war.
Although the Soviets had replaced the enormous amounts of arms and
equipment lost during the June 1967 War, Sadat and other Egyptian
military leaders had become wary of the Soviet military's
increasing influence on national affairs. In mid-1972 Sadat
dismissed most of the Soviet advisers as part of his preparations
for recovering Sinai. In January 1973, Egypt began planning a topsecret project known as Operation Badr in conjunction with Syria.
Early in the afternoon of October 6, 1973, Egypt launched the
operation with a massive artillery barrage against Israeli
positions on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. Water cannons
mounted on pontoons sliced gaps in the high sandbank of the Bar-Lev
Line, permitting armored vehicles to cross on assault craft. By
midnight ten bridges and fifty ferries had carried 80,000 Egyptian
troops across the waterway and one kilometer beyond the embankment.
Almost all of the armor of the Egyptian Second Army and Third Army
crossed the following day. By October 9, the Egyptian bridgeheads
were seven to ten kilometers east of the canal. The Soviet-supplied
antitank missiles and rockets repulsed the initial Israeli
counterattacks. The newer Soviet SAMs protected Egyptian forces
from Israeli air attacks, but as Egyptian troops advanced beyond
the missile defenses, they were exposed to punishing air attacks.
On October 14, Egyptian armored columns took the offensive to
try to seize the main routes leading to Tasa and the Giddi and
Mitla passes. In the largest tank battle since World War II, the
Egyptian attack failed when Israeli gunnery proved superior, and
the Israelis' defensive positions gave them an added advantage.
Mounting a strong counterattack, the Israelis thrust toward the
canal and narrowly succeeded in crossing it just north of Great
Bitter Lake. Egyptian forces on the east bank heavily contested
Israel's weak link to the canal bridgehead, but by October 19, the
Israelis succeeded in breaking out west of the canal. Stubborn
Egyptian defenses prevented the loss of the cities of Ismailia (Al
Ismailiyah) and Suez at the southern end of the canal until a UN
cease-fire took effect on October 24, 1973. Before the cease-fire,
however, the Israelis had isolated the Egyptian Third Army on the
east bank of the canal.
Under a disengagement agreement reached on January 17, 1974,
Israel withdrew its forces from west of the canal while Egyptian
forces withdrew from the east bank to a depth of about eight
kilometers. The agreement also provided for a United Nations
Emergency Force (UNEF) to occupy a north-south buffer strip about
eight kilometers wide and allowed a limited number of Israeli
troops to occupy a similar zone to the east of the UNEF.
Although Egypt's armed forces suffered severely in the October
1973 War, the losses were not nearly as heavy as they had been in
1967. Of the combined strength of 200,000 in Egypt's Second and
Third armies, approximately 8,000 men were killed in combat. Egypt
also lost more than 200 aircraft, 1,100 tanks, and large quantities
of other weapons, vehicles, and equipment. Despite these losses,
the effect of the war on the armed forces was as exhilarating as
the defeat in 1967 had been debilitating. Although they had not
recovered Sinai, their initial successes in securing the east bank
of the canal had an important positive psychological impact on the
armed forces. The war enabled Egypt to negotiate from strength
rather than from the abject weakness of the post-1967 period. At
the same time, Egypt had proved that it was capable of successful
military planning and of inflicting painful losses on Israel.
Data as of December 1990
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