First Arab - Israeli War 1948 - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY

in one of our previous videos on modern warfare we covered the six day war between israel and the arab states surrounding it but this wasn't the first time the adversaries had clashed in the aftermath of world war ii british withdrawal from its mandate in palestine split open a power vacuum into which palestinian and jewish interests flowed this eventually resulted in the dawn of jewish statehood in the middle east and the first arab-israeli war welcome to our series on modern warfare if you're interested in the history of this era don't forget to check out our second channel the cold war the link is in the top right corner the videos in full 3d are extremely difficult expensive and time consuming to make so when wargaming came to us with an offer to try out world of tanks and sponsor this video we happily agreed since the topic of the video and the genre of the game have so many similarities world of tanks is a free to play team-based game featuring over 550 historically accurate tanks and more than 150 million players worldwide although it is free to play it is very different from mobile titles and is a legitimate pc game with regular updates and new features the game rewards skillful gameplay and allows you to master hundreds of historically accurate mid 20th century tanks of five diverse vehicle types including light medium and heavy tanks as well as tank destroyers and artillery it has a vast online presence with a dedicated community and clan daily missions in-game activities and the steady tech tree progression will make you come back to the game for more start playing the game today to support our channel new players who register to the game via the link in the description will get 250 gold three premium plus days and the premium m22 locust light tank tensions between arab palestinian and jewish communities in the british mandate of palestine had been increasing ever since the end of the first world war heightened with broken imperial promises to both sides this state of affairs finally exploded into civil war following the un vote for a partition of palestine into jewish and arab states on november 29 1947 a solution which the palestinians and the arab league refused as small-scale skirmishes gradually escalated throughout late 1947 and early 1948 the palestinian arab group the arab liberation army proved incapable of defeating their better organized opponents due to the chaos tens of thousands of palestinian refugees fled into neighboring arab states further inflaming the public of those countries to demand war a full-scale conflict was prevented until may of 1948 as the area was still a british mandate but this state of affairs was set to expire on the 15th at 4 pm on the afternoon of may 14 1948 eight hours before british sovereignty dissolved david ben-gurion proclaimed the establishment of the state of israel becoming its first prime minister that night armies of five arab nations surrounding israel attacked the newly created state starting the first arab israeli war while it has been popular to tout the phrase one army against seven to describe the military situation it gives off an impression which is incorrect that the combined arab nations drastically outnumbered their enemy a breakdown instead shows a total strength of about 23 500 soldiers 10 000 of which were from the egyptian army egypt possessed the most extensive military establishment in the region which had also been supplied and trained by britain their ground forces were organized into three infantry brigades one tank brigade comprised of 50 tanks and three artillery battalions armed with 65 howitzer artillery pieces in the air egypt could field five squadrons of 18 fighting aircraft each and one transport squadron iraq appeared similarly powerful on the surface but only sent three thousand men in the initial attack the bulk of iraqi ground forces were structured in three divisions two infantry and one training division supported by an armored battalion of 15 to 20 tanks and 70 to 80 artillery pieces the iraqi air force consisted of 80 aircraft overall but only half of these were fully operational and combat ready in addition the relatively elite arab legion of transjordan supplied 4 500 well-trained british-led soldiers 3 000 more came from lebanon 3000 from syria and a token contingent from saudi arabia in comparison to the efforts of their arab enemies the israelis had mobilized almost their entire resource base and able-bodied population for the conflict having according to ben gurion's diary 29 677 troops at the outbreak of the war israel had only three sherman tanks at the start of the conflict the southern front egyptian forces launched thrusts across the border from eastern sinai in a three-pronged assault the egyptian command under the authority of general ahmed ali al-mawawi believed it's necessary to capture a number of strong points in order to secure the rear lines to this end forces were committed to assault and capture a number of jewish communities in the northern negev region known plurally as kibbutzim the first target was kfadaram a religious site 10 kilometers to the south of gaza this settlement had already withstood an attack by fighters of the muslim brothers group and now it came under attack from the egyptian army after an initial artillery barrage eight tanks followed by infantry approached fardaram which retreated in short order after suffering repeated direct hits from the settlements only piat projector and being pelted with molotov cocktails similar stiff resistance was faced at the neighboring kibbutz of nirim where around 40 entrenched israeli defenders managed to repel sustained assaults from a thousand egyptian troops supported by artillery and mortar fire both settlements were eventually bypassed for fear of stalling the main thrust as these initial ground attacks were going on airfields around tel aviv were attacked by egyptian spitfires causing heavy economic and morale damage however the fortune of egypt's pilots soon turned due to improving israeli air defense and an accidental strike on the british held ramat david airfield which led to heavy losses at the hands of british fighter aircraft by the end of may almost all of the spitfire squadrons planes and a significant number of its best pilots were lost on land a meticulously planned offensive was launched against the kibbutz of yad mordecai which was situated atop a hill which held a dominating position over the main coastal road its defenders held out for five days and inflicted heavy casualties before falling back the advancing egyptian column aiming for tel aviv came to a halt around 30 kilometers south of the city at a place called isd where it dug in just before sunset on may 29th the newly formed israeli defense forces launched operation plecet beginning with an air attack by a squadron of four recently imported czech avia s199s they strafed isd in an assault which while being ineffective conventionally had a drastic impact on morale the israelis were elated that they now had air capability while the egyptians were extremely unnerved by the threat of future attacks from above the next blow was struck on the ground israel feared that the egyptians would resume their advance on tel aviv and ordered the giveatti and negev brigades to assault and destroy the enemy vanguard two thousand israelis fought a 2 500 strong force of entrenched egyptian troops suffering heavy casualties after only making slight gains nevertheless operation flechette panicked the egyptian command with general aomowawi informing cairo that he could not advance one step further without risking total disaster any plans of advancing on tel aviv were cancelled and the southern front was bogged down [Music] on the jordanian front the edzioni palmer harrell and alexandroni brigades each responsible for defending different areas were facing the arab legion the legion's push into the west bank was initially relatively unopposed with many left behind legion units in palestine facilitating easy progress while the first brigade advanced towards nablus and fanned out around the town the third brigade headed north from jericho and then west deploying around ramallah two days later the third brigade's fourth regiment was ordered to the critical fort of latrine located right on top of the western approach to jerusalem this key point had switched hands between arab forces and jews multiple times just before the mandate expired which was occupied by the fourth regiment without any trouble so on may 18th the road from the coastal plain to jerusalem was severed preventing the israelis from reinforcing or resupplying their troops in besieged jerusalem around the city itself to the north and south fighting was extremely fierce jewish forces successfully repels jordanian assaults as the notre dame cathedral on the northern approaches while a combined arab force assisted by an egyptian contingent of several hundred attacks the ramit rakul kibbutz from the south on may 21st the settlement was taken and retaken until it was eventually secured by the defenders on may 25th while jewish jerusalem held its ground against the persistent legion attacks the jewish quarter of the old city surrendered on may 28 with only 36 of its 300 fighters still capable of fighting under the terms of surrender civilians were allowed to leave for israeli held west jerusalem while soldiers and men of fighting age would become prisoners of war the professional legionnaires protected them against the locals even using lethal force escorting their defeated foe to safety realizing the situation in the holy city was worsening prime minister ben gurion ordered israeli forces to assault the legion garrisoned letran fort and break through to jerusalem on may 25th may 30th and june 9th the idf launched ultimately disastrous assaults often by untrained troops against entrenched jordanian fighters by june 10th an alternative route to west jerusalem had been opened which was dubbed the burma road nicknamed after the british world war ii supply route against the japanese in galilee the first phase of the war saw iraqi syrian and lebanese forces launching attacks into the former mandate after suffering some heavy casualties advancing through the upper jordan valley an iraqi army of one armoured and two infantry brigades set up in the samaria region between the towns of nablus jenin and tokam this force launched an assault towards netanya from these positions on may 25th which ended in defeat but the prospect that an iraqi breakthrough could slice the jewish state in two worried high command so much that it ordered a counter-attack on may 29th aimed at occupying strong defensive positions opposite the iraqis in the battle of jenin israeli forces occupied the city but were subsequently dislodged after three days of heavy fighting similarly to their egyptian allies this pyrrhic victory panicked the iraqi forces and dissuaded them from attacking again even further north a syrian force comprised of an infantry brigade a mechanized battalion an artillery regiment and a company of tanks crossed into israel on may 15 seeking to storm a cluster of kibbutzim around the sea of galilee before pushing into the jewish heartland the kibbutzin resisted far longer than anticipated and the syrians captured zimac only on the 18th despite this success the syrians failed to occupy dignia and this setback eventually forced a withdrawal from zemac they subsequently redeployed in the hills to the east finally lebanese forces crossed the border and captured malkia on may 15th lost it on the 18th and then finally recaptured it on june 6 only four days before the first truce began the four-week un-backed truce that started on june 11 was beneficial for both sides which began to break the terms immediately the arab armies were in desperate need of reorganization and replenishment but their efforts in bolstering the war effort were nothing compared to that of the israelis what had previously been the semi-legal hagana concluded its transformation from an underground militia into a fully fledged army during the truce in terms of command and control capacity manpower potential and weaponry the idf doubled its numbers from around 35 000 to 65 000 more crucial however were the massive quantities of badly needed armaments which reached israeli shores 25 000 rifles 5000 machine guns and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition came from czechoslovakia in addition to heavier equipment such as tanks heavy artillery and armored cars because of this transformation the army facing the arabs after the truce was massively different from the force they had met on may 15th one british official stated that the arabs lost the initiative in palestine during the four weeks and the jews were able to re-equip themselves this fact allowed the idf to subsequently seize the initiative as the first truce ended [Music] the day before hostilities were due to resume egyptian forces in the south launched a series of attacks to solidify their stranglehold on the negev region however they were quickly counter-attacked by the idf and spent the subsequent eight days in heavy fighting for the region just before the second truce on the 18th the israeli forces managed to break through egyptian lines tenuously linking the isolated jewish negev settlements with the heartland nevertheless attacks on jewish convoys were quite frequent in the north israeli armies launched an assault on syrian positions near mishma hayadan in an attempt to push the enemy back over the jordan river on the 9th this failed but a subsequent offensive dubbed operation decal brought lower galilee under control from haifa bay to the sea of galilee the main idf offensive known as operation danny was directed against the arab legion on the jordanian front israeli forces led by general yigal alon launched a pincer maneuver from south west and north west occupying lidar then ramla and the springs at russia line when the second un organized truce went into effect on july 18th the idf had gained 1 000 square kilometers of territory and arab pressure on jerusalem had been reduced [Music] after un attempts at negotiating a peace settlement during the first truce failed the war entered its most intense phase on october 15th despite egyptian weakness and over extension on the southern front prime minister ben gurion realized that he needed to seize the sparsely populated negev region if his jewish state was to be secure in the long term as things stood the front line was far too close to israel's core on the mediterranean coast under the command of general yiga lalon operation yov was planned involving three infantry brigades with artillery and air support facing them was a 15 000 strong well-fortified egyptian army which possessed heavy firepower nevertheless despite its good position their lack of defensive depth was a vulnerability at 6 00 pm on the 15th the israeli air force of four czech avia s199s seven spitfires and three b-17 bombers hit the egyptian airfield at elerish and key targets in gaza and magdalene from above this air attack achieved complete surprise and the iaf superior airmen would subsequently ensure superiority in the skies through the operation unfortunately some of the bombing runs were off target and many refugees were accidentally killed at the village of aldura one of many occasions civilians would become unintentional casualties during this war the ground attack of yourev began in the evening with multiple thrusts into egyptian lives fighting continued for around a week and by the time it was over on the 22nd the israelis had driven the egyptians from their coastal positions from istad to gaza and expelled them from the judean and hebron hills their extended line of defense had been shattered and the capital of negev bisheba fell to the idf to make the egyptian situation worse an entire 4 000 strong brigade had been trapped in what would come to be known as the fallujah pocket they would stay trapped for the remainder of the war on the seas minor battles took place between israeli and egyptian corvettes near majdal however a more significant operation on the 22nd saw an idf commando group use explosive packed boats to ram the egyptian flagship emmy sinking it and damaging its minesweeper escort buoyed by their successors in the south operation hiram was launched in galilee by four infantry brigades layered by general mosho carmel in some 60 hours of fighting 800 arab fighters were taken prisoner israeli troops managed to expel the ala and a syrian battalion from upper galilee and also drove all lebanese soldiers out of israel they subsequently thrust five miles into lebanon capturing numerous border villages and reaching as far as the latane river before coming to a halt when yet another un ceasefire came into effect the fronts largely quietened down at this point as the two sides once again stopped to catch their breath in operations hiram and joev the idf had expanded israel's holdings demolished the ala badly blasted apart the egyptians and had linked the negev settlements with the jewish heartland it was a positive turn but there was still work to do [Music] the strains of extensive israeli mobilization were becoming economically untenable the war had to be ended but the status quo especially on the southern front was still unacceptable to the jewish leaders egypt remained in control of the gaza strip and fallujah pocket areas of mandatory palestine fortified in a chain of strong points between aoja al-hafir and bias look just south of beersheba however its army was on the verge of claps and realistically had to either withdraw from palestine completely or conclude a peace with israel neither of these methods succeeded due to political pressures so hoping to push the arab enemy off the soil israel viewed as its own operation horef began on december 22nd it was initiated by air and artillery strikes on positions along the mediterranean coast and gaza strip followed by initial ground attacks on the northern part of the front fighting at these locations such as hill 86 and amazon was inconclusive due to strong egyptian defenses but it didn't matter these attacks were a diversion egyptian commanders had concentrated their forces just where the idf wanted them to israel's main thrust was to be made against fortifications at bieter miller and out al-hafir despite initial problems due to inclement weather the highly mobile eighth and negev brigades penetrated thin egyptian lines with relative ease aiming to execute a vast encirclement maneuver which would either trap the enemy armies or force them to retreat idf units pushed towards elirish and launched raids deep into the sinai peninsula this was a stunning success and egypt's defeated army was made to retreat into their own lands as far as abu agala in the centre and ellarish in the north or else it risked being cut off however diplomatic pressure from britain forced a withdrawal from egyptian territory after one final attack against rafa bottling the egyptian army inside the gaza strip and capturing the high ground around the town by now the egyptian government had realized the threat its forces faced and on the 6th of january announced its intention to enter peace negotiations on the following day the guns on israel's southern front fell silent on february 24th israel signed a treaty ending hostilities granting egypt the gaza strip and israel the negev region now the largest arab nation had come to the table the others soon followed negotiations with lebanon began on march 3rd and were successfully concluded in three weeks the international border was respected and israel would withdraw from any occupied lebanese territory jordanian talks concluded on april 3rd with king abdullah retaining control of the west bank and east jerusalem finally after some difficulties due to internal strife syria signed an armistice on july 20th this peace was tenuous and the israeli victory made future conflict in the region inevitable we are planning to cover more modern conflicts both on the kings and generals channel and our second channel the cold war the link to which you can find in the description or in the top right corner so make sure you are subscribed to both we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise by the link in the description this is the kings and generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 1,789,237

Rating: 4.8380942 out of 5

Keywords: six day war, kings and generals, full documentary, history lesson, documentary film, animated documentary, world history, extra credits history, war - topic, decisive battles, epic history tv, 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Israeli War of Independence, First Arab–Israeli War, Palestine, Israel, Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, October War, Levi Eshkol, Moshe Dayan, Ariel Sharon, gaza, jerusalem, US, america, USSR, cold war, Third Arab–Israeli War, DOCUMENTARY, strategy

Id: CaIi-3huRLE

Length: 23min 48sec (1428 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 31 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Was sure someone gonna post this here.