Page 15 - Issue 58

Vol. 1 Issue 58 August 2023 ELITE

The sand wall varied in height from 20–25 issue once more. Therefore, after the crossing, Egypt,
meters with inclination of 45–65 degrees. supported by its Arab allies, was able to put pressure to
Behind it, Israel established a defensive line hold negotiations to regain Sinai completely, which
called the “Bar Lev Line,” consisting of 31 Egypt actually succeeded in doing.
fortified defensive points extending from Port
Fouad in the north to Sina south, making it one
of the largest and most difficult defensive lines
in the world.
The enemy’s local reserves, consisting of tank
battalions and mechanized infantry, are
stationed on all axes of approach to enemy
fortified points.
The method of securing the troops and
equipment needed for crossing the canal from He then went on to explain that Egypt would not have
superior enemy artillery fire and aviation, been able to achieve the victories it achieved except by
which were overcome by establishing passive relying on a plan of strategic deception, which was
local defense pits and constructing a missile developed to outperform the technological and
wall. armament progress of the Israeli enemy by concealing
The Major General then went on to talk about the any signs of preparation for war, which was achieved
stages of preparation for the 1973 war and via the following actions:
showed a video of the late Field Marshal Carrying out many military movements under the
“Mohamed Abdel-Ghani Al-Gamsi,” who guise of training, with a constant change in the
previously served as the Minister of War and size of the forces.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and In July 1972, a decision was issued to demobilize
before that he served as Chief of Staff of the 30,000 conscripts since 1967, most of whom were
Egyptian Armed Forces in 1973 to replace outside actual combat formations and in rear
Lieutenant General Saad El-Din El-Shazly after his positions.
dismissal, and before that the position of head of Moving crossing equipment from the back to the
the Armed Forces Operations Authority, who front under the cover of night.
divided the stages leading to the 1973 war into Establishing maintenance workshops on the front
three stages: the defense stage, the active defense and pushing tanks there under the pretext of being
stage, and the war of attrition stage. broken down, which they were not.
Then he moved on to talk about the military Importing equipment necessary for the crossing
strategic goal of the war and explained that it was and rubber boats for the purpose of establishing a
not to completely recover Sinai because that was project on the Nile River, and deliberately placing
not in Egypt’s military capacity, especially with the the vessels and boats in the port for a long period
United States of America’s support for Israel, but of time to suggest neglect and lack of readiness to
the goals of the war were to cause the greatest carry out any missions.
amount of losses for the enemy as well as to cross Camouflaging the attack by raising the army’s
the Suez Canal to seize the eastern bank and secure maximum level of readiness and declaring a state
it at a sufficient enough depth to enable passage of alert at airports and air bases multiple times,
through the Suez Canal, opening it to international which forced Israel to announce an emergency
navigation. More importantly, the war aimed to end military reserve call up in anticipation of any
the state of neither war nor peace and to revive the attack, and then announces that it was just a
14 routine training exercise until October the 6th

came, and Israeli intelligence thought that the
initial Egyptian troop movements were another
iteration of the exercises the Egyptians had
previously undertaken.