ISRAEL
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I've been reading about Israel's wars.
The first book I read was the Six Days War and now I am reading about the Yom Kippur War.
Anyone here has any interesting insights to share?[/i] -
i have this book called The Armored Fist - the new face of war by Time Life books which was given to me during one of my birthdays.
in it has all the israelis conflicts and how the conflicts started. its a very nice book with lots of war pics.
i quote from the book, pg 63
david halevy said "lesson #1 of the yom kippur war is the vitality of the combined unit made of tanks, apcs, artillery, and even reconnaissance elements."
he further concluded that "a war is won by destroying the main bulk of the enemy's fighting elements or surrounding them and by concentrating your forces at the Schwerpunkt to reach the key strategic positions in the enemy rear."
"that's the whole idea of the tank. just ask guderian."
Captain david halevy is a commander during the sinai campaign. his unit consisted of captured t-55s from the 3rd egyptian army. after the war, he commanded an israeli regiment that was composed entirely of captured t-55s.
edited : grammatical errors. -
well 1 of the books i read on the 6 day war was interesting.How during the lead up to the 6 day war, when israel was slowly MOBing it's forces, men just sat around the radio waiting for his code word to be annouced.How some unit managed to get 110% strength because some old discharged soldiers came back. 1 old man was told by the commanding officer that he could only return if he could provide a car and he came back 2 hrs later with a rented car hah.
Interesting to say th least -
Israel was saved by the timely warning of impending war by a Mossad spy, who was none other than Nasser’s son-in –law. His info led to the mobilization of reservists and deployment of armored units to the Golan Heights. And it was these reservists who beat back the massive Syrian tank forces. Without the reservists, the Arabs would have broken into Galilee, and Israel would have had to use nuclear weapons as a last line of defence.
The role of this spy remains largely unknown and controversial to this day.
See details : http://hnn.us/readcomment.php?id=17131 -
originally posted by tiggersgd:
I got a copy of that book too
i have this book called The Armored Fist - the new face of war by Time Life books which was given to me during one of my birthdays.
One of my favourite book on Armour -
yeah, really inspired me to be a better tanker.Originally posted by teddy123:I got a copy of that book too
One of my favourite book on Armour -
for the authoritive book on the Yom Kippur war, do not miss out on
The War of Atonement by Chaim Herzog ...
it was only after i finished reading the book, did i realise the author was also the very same president who came to spore in the 80s, and which our northern neighbours made alot noise abt....
back to the book....(btw, i borrowed it from the National Library branch@ orchard )
i wld advise anyone reading up on it, to keep a constant comparison to how the Israeli army functions, and how the Singapore army functions....
i guess we shldnt be surprised how similar we are , considering that they helped us set up our Army from scratch basically....
BUT...alot of the problems they eventually encountered during that war, are things that cld happen to the Spore Army....
-egs like the reservist turning up during their mobilsation, and finding out that the equipement are not ready....
-or reservist not being able to get to the mob centres due to certain problems...
-underestimating the enemy....
a first class book..bypeople who have actually done it...
one thing that stands out...is the way the israelis fought....outstanding...
do read the book
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Some of the books I have read on Israel -
General -
1) Arab-Israeli Wars - Chaim Herzog.
Contents - the war of indepence (194, the sinai campaign 1956, the six day war (1967), the war of attrition, yom kippur war (1973), entebbe, operation peace for galilee (1982).
2) The Sword and the Olive - Critical History of the IDF - Martin Van Creveld.
Contents - the surge (1907-1949), the years of greatness (1949-1973), running out of steam (1974-1997).
(I like this book the best - good and bad stuff about the IDF)
Others -
3) Yom Kippur war - Walter J Boyne.
4) Six Days of War - Michael B. Oren.
On Mossad -
5) Gideon's spies - Gordon Thomas
6) By way of deception - Victor Ostrovsky
7) Vengeance - George Jonas
(Note all the internal politics within Mossad)
On IDF Special Operations - Secret Soldier - Col. Muki Betser.
Very good book. About his own experiences in IDF's special ops. Everything from conventional wars, hostage rescue, entebbe, etc -
Six Day War was when the Israelis humbled the Arabs.
Yom Kippur is when the Arabs turned the tables on the Israelis. At least at thhe beginning. It's really gripping stuff. I have not finshed the book yet. This one is written by an Israeli journalist who covered the war and because this is a recent book, a lot of declassified info is included.
This writer served in the US army so he knows about combat and how to report it.
Yom Kippur is what could happen if a country becomes to compacent and look down on its enemies' fighting will. The Arabs in Yom Kippur War mostly fought well and bravely, much to the surprise of the Israelis.
This war is also a very good account of tank vs anti-tank weapons wielded infantry, which accounted for a great loss of Israeli tanks.
This book is also about the Israeli completely fcuking up the whole business of defence, intel, operations etc at the beginning of the war. -
Yom Kippur war : God's help?
The best Syrian Special Forces landed on the Golan Heights exactly where Israeli
SAS (Sayeret_Matkal) were located by pure bad luck.
Needless to say the Syrians were wiped out, except for their CO.
Isn't this Divine providence? Had the Syrian commandos met normal troops, the Syrians would have won...............
Info on Israeli SAS type unit :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayeret_Matkal -
just to side step a bit...
in some parts of the book, there are cases where tanks and ppl went towards some approaching vehicle at nite...and they turn out to be enemy vehicles!!!
if wld have been funny, if not for the fact that during exercises during my NS time...there have been the same exact cases happening......!!!!
i wonder if theres anyway to avoid it?
but i guess even with all the latest techno stuff,(short of some fren or foe device), theres no way a computer system can do if theres human error, like if the VC horlans....
i remember one atec when i heard over the comms(our abulance m113 vc was practising bad radio comms, keep asking for directions...)...that he droved straight to into the agressor camp, and actually came out to ask for directions........he was captured of course..hahaha....
ps:i been looking for the Armoured Fist(someone above me mentioned abt the book)...does anyone know where one can buy.borrow it?
tks !! -
In the Yom Kippur book, the author usually neglect to mention the type of tank or APC the Israeli side was using. On the few occasions that he did, he mentioned mostly the Sherman and the Centurion.
I know that the Sherman was upgrgaded to 105mm gun. Though the Sherman was easy to be destroyed, it did a pretty good job even against Russian T-55 and T-62. The other tank the Arabs were using was the T-34.
After reading about both the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars, I have not come across any mention of the AMX-13's performance in IDF. Does any one know of IDF experience with the AMX-13? I understand theirs were converted to 105mm gun. -
i guess the fact that the war lasted only 6 days is because of the superior isreali air force..
without control of the air, the war will have lasted longer....