The Destruction of the Third Temple

[John B.]

At the foot of the Golan Heights Day Two of the Yom Kippur War. "As Peled would remember it two decades later, a despondent [Moshe] Dayan spoke of the destruction of the Third Temple. Peled placed his hand on Dayan's shoulder only to see tears start to flow from his eyes." The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich.

It's the start of the Arab offensive to regain the Sinai, the Golan, and their self respect lost in the catastrophe of the 1967 Six Days War. I'm in charge of the Arab forces with the computer leading the Israelis. I may not be as circumspect as the Eyptians and I'll advance as far as I can go. As for the Syrians, they are met with a wall to start off with but they can push and maybe get lucky.

Here you can see my opening moves in Sinai. Commandos have cut the roads to the canal and the bridges are across.

[John B.]

In the Golan it's a solid wall of Israeli battalions, not the companies on the Bar Lev Line. The only option is to head on in with guns blazing and see what happens. My commandos have taken Mount Hebron but no one could get on helicopters otherwise I'd have units on the Jordan.

[John B.]

First round of attacks go very well in Sinai. A couple of big holes and a small pocket forming to the north. Casualties are light and we may be able to isolate a couple of Israeli reserve stacks behind the lines.

[John B.]

No such glory in the Golan. I may crank up my Syrian attacks to ignore losses. It's not like the Israeli's are going to get weaker and this is our best shot at cracking this line!

[John B.]

It's the start of the 2nd turn (afternoon of the first day of the war). As you can see, the Egyptian commandos in the north are going to be destroyed, but they have held up some significant Israeli reinforcements. There was an Israeli counterattack in the north, but they are at risk of having the northern part surrounded. In the south, there is not much that stands in my way of significant territorial advances. The IDF launched heavy raids on Egyptian airfields and lost almost 2-1 in terms of planes. That is good, very good. I hope they opt to keep that up!

[John B.]

The Syrians put the pedal to the metal and actually made progress! They lost a lot but they gained the one hex in the south in a real swirling battle. They pushed out the tank battalion holding the hex but the Golani paratroop brigade moved in with a reserve movement. But, it was not fortified and one more push from the tired forces of Assad pushed them back. In the north the Syrians took one hex and then in their last attack ganged up on the Israeli armored battalion that was just south of Mt. Hebron. That Israeli tank battalion disintegrated and that, my friends, is not something you see every day. I'm not sure how long the Syrians can push because they are disorganized. But, they'll keep pushing as long as they can. Certainly in the north but you can see Israeli brigades moving to the fron.

[MikeJ19]

Looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[John B.]

Mike, No problem!

The Syrians ended the first day (turn 2) by pushing into northern Israel and actually taking a fortified hex in the southern Golan. They also surrounded an Israeli armored brigade. But, the Israeli's (those masters of mobile warfare) managed to get two turns in a row and pushed the Syrians out of the fort to the south. But, Israel was unable to relive the brigade that continues to be cut off. Syria will push in the north and also try to kill that brigade that moved out of its protected zone and is cut off.

[John B.]

At the Suez the Egyptians have broken through in the south but the double Israeli turn managed to shore up the position in the north. There is not much in the way in the center, but the Egyptian spearheads are disorganized and out of the fight for at least a turn. The Egyptians did get a commando unit into an Israeli airfield. The air units went away but I don't know if they re-based or if they died. I plan to destroy the paratroop brigade in the south and try to tie down the Israeli armored division in the north while moving reinforcements into the center. There is still lots of room to advance! But, there are no VP for awhile so I'll try to isolate and kill Israeli units.

[John B.]

We are half way through the Arab turn three and things are looking grim for Israel. In the Golan, the armored brigade that was cut off was completely destroyed. And the Syrian army, pushing itself to the limits of exhaustion, have opened a potential hole in the Israeli line that could wind up cutting off nearly an entire division. But, I'm not sure I have any units with enough movement to get into the empty hex. I'm digging in in the southern Golan and the Syrian reserves (such as they are) are in the north. The question is how much more Israel has close to the front to repair this damage. Syrian artillery seems to be out of ammo and the IAF has not been heard from in this turn.

[John B.]

In the Sinai, another military disaster for Israel as one of the paratroop brigades was surrounded and destroyed. The Eygptians are now poised to push at least three divisions through the Mitla pass and on towards Israel proper. But you can see what looks to be an armored division heading in to stem the tide. In the middle the Egyptian forces reorganizing are vulnerable so I pushed two heavy anti-tank units into the front to try and slow the Israeli armored units there. It may turn into a stalemate in the north. He has three brigades and I'm not sure that I'll have the strength to push through that. But, I'm happy to tie down the forces there while the southern front keeps advancing.

Will Syria push through and can Egypt exploit in the south to get close to other VP hexes (which are a very long way off).

[John B.]

The Israeli cabinet met in closed session at lunch today (the second day of the war) to discuss the Syrian breakthrough to the Jordan River. In a full blown frontal assault, three Israeli units were pushed back in disorder by the Syrian armored brigade and the potential encirclement of two divisions looms large in their minds. At the top of the agenda? PM Meier wants to determine at what point the red line will be crossed and Israel will resort to "special measures" to stem the Arab tide. At this point the army believes that it can cut off and destroy the Syrian spearhead that may have overstretched itself. The afternoon will prove to be critical.

[John B.]

The news from the Sinai is only better because Egypt is so far away from Israel's population centers. The situation in the north seems to be somewhat stable while in the South the Egyptian tide may burst out at any momement. The destruction of two Israeli brigades in this morning of the second day has led to the shocking sight of newsreel footage of long lines of Jewish POWs being led to the rear. This is not the six day war!

[John B.]

Israeli counter attacks inflicted heavy losses on Syrian forces eliminating at least two brigades worth of units and seem to have restored some semblance of order in the Golan. But, things are still tricky in the northern Golan with a battalion cut off and some weak infantry units in the way of the Syrian armored reserve. In the southern Golan, however, there is not much in the way of the Israeli armor. Syria is in it to win it so they will push in the north to see how much of the Golan they can clear out and hope that the Iraqi army units show up in time to prevent a drive on Damascus.

Jordan mobilized a few new units and Israel is has sent a very strongly worded not to the King stating "if you join the war and there is a conflagration, there is no guarantee that Amman will be spared." Thus far, Jordan has stayed neutral.

[John B.]

Israel also pushed back the Egyptians in the north and center inflicting some heavy losses. But, Egypt sees an opportunity to swing it's southern breakthrough north to take the central Israeli forces in the rear. I will need to clear out that paratroop brigade.

[John B.]

The Israeli cabinet heaved a sigh of relief at the good news from the Golan. There were heavy casualties, to be sure, and there would be no gloating about innate superiority, but the existential threat to the existence of the state of Israel seemed to have passed by. The Syrian army was pushed back and several Syrian units destroyed in a full day battle. The Syrians seemed to be so punch drunk from their brutal attacks of the past few days that they had not done more than defend for almost 24 hours. Still, several units were stuck with their necks out and could take a pounding from Syrian units that had a chance to pause and refresh themselves even a little bit. Also, news came in that the Soviet Union had initiated an airlift of military supplies to its Arab allies. While this was taken as a sign that they were in bad shape, it also made them more resilient.

[John B.]

The same had happened in Sinai. The Egyptians seemed to pause and were harshly smacked by Israeli counterattacks. In fact, it seemed as if the Egyptians were not expecting Israeli units to appear when they did, especially in at the southern end of the front. In the north and center the Egyptians were pushed back with heavy losses (sometimes to both sides) and a number of Egyptian units were formations in name only and needed time to rest and recover. If the Israelis would give them time. Again, however, a number of Israeli units were vulnerable in their own right and subject to potential attack.

Arab losses to this point were very heavy, just about three days into the war and they had lost almost 33% of the tanks that they had started out with.

[John B.]

Turn 8 and it's turning into a real see saw battle. In turn 7 the Syrians finally, after several attacks killed an Israeli brigade that had penetrated to the north. The Israeli's counter attacked, and, as you can see, have pushed deep into Syria from the Southern Golan. But, their front line troops are not in great shape and the Syrians are beaten up as well. An Iraqi armored brigade has just shown up and it and the other Iraqi forces may be enough to push the Israeli's back.

[John B.]

This has not been cheap for the Arab armies. Here are the infantry casualties to date

[John B.]

And the armor. Lot's and lot's of dead t-55 and t-62s.