Base on account by general Shazly, Chief of Staff of the egyptian army in the 1973 war.
if Arab leaders at that time have half the brain and less of senseless pride, they might score more points against the israel. the same problem with all the dictators, they tend to mess up well laid plans and thinking they can bring down a fighters by their voice.
source http://www.el-shazly.com/en/ereviews.phpIt was a victory, the most outstanding feat of Arab arms in modern times and the most audacious stroke by any army since the American invasion of Inchon in 1950. On October 6, 1972, the Egyptian army boiled across the Suez Canal, took the Israelis by surprise, broke through the seemingly impregnable earthworks on the far bank, overvwhelmed their defenders and marched into Sinai, Bristling with anti-tank weapons and under a protective cover of anti-aircraft missiles, the Egyptian divisions pushed ahead on a broad front, virtually the entire length of the canal, dug in and waited. As expected the Israelis threw their tanks and aircraft into battle and broke them on the Arabs’ ring of steel.
The story of how all this was planned, prepared and carried out is only part of the story General Shazly has to tell. As chief of staff of the Egyptian armed forces during the rebuilding phase after the shattering defeat in 1967 and through the attack itself, he was caught, as many chiefs of staff eventually are, between the demands of his political masters and the needs of his subordinates. Drawing on documents still in his possession which he claims can prove everything he says, General Shazly blasts away at President Sadat.
He details the president’s errors of judgment in convincing detail: throwing the Russians out in 1972, refusing to confide in them even when some of them came back to help in 1973 and, most controversial of all, insisting that the Egyptian army advance on the Giddi and Mitla passes without the protection of the anti-aircraft Sams. In ordering this advance, according to General Shazly, President Sadat countermanded the plan for a limited advance and diluted the reserve that had been hoarded on the west bank to smash the Israeli counter-attack that everyone expected. The Israelis, generously supplied with equipment and provided with vital intelligence by the United States - this is the first account that pinpoints the date that the first high-flying American SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft flew down the canal and explains the importance of its photographs - then broke through at Deversoir, mopped up the Sams and won the war.
if Arab leaders at that time have half the brain and less of senseless pride, they might score more points against the israel. the same problem with all the dictators, they tend to mess up well laid plans and thinking they can bring down a fighters by their voice.