The October War: Egypt's Tank Offensive For Sinai | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

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very rude awakening two mighty tank forces clash in an epic 18-day battle a battle that will determine the fate of the entire middle east there is no regret we have only one alternative victory so [Music] the sinai peninsula a vast desert in western egypt separating israel and the egyptian heartland it is one of the most lonely and desolate places on the planet but in 1967 this was the stage for one of the swiftest and most dramatic victories in the history of warfare [Music] june 5th 1967. israel launches a preemptive strike against egyptian forces massing along its border and catches them completely off guard [Music] in less than a week israeli forces seize the entire sinai peninsula and they dig in building fortifications all along the suez canal for the egyptians it is a humiliating blow someone came to my house take half of it can you live with someone in your house bother you every day and tell you what you're going to do about it and this is the day when we decide to do something about it as soon as the 1967 war ends egyptian president gamal abdel nasser begins completely rebuilding his battered army it took egypt a good six years of training of straight hard training restructuring of all the system in the army by the fall of 1973 it is a force of over 300 000 well-trained men 2 000 artillery pieces and 2400 tanks but it will take more than just men and machines to beat the battle-hardened israelis egyptians know that they need to catch israel by surprise the egyptians develop a plan they develop one of the most remarkable deception campaigns of the last hundred years they practice forming up their units driving to the canal and then they practice the canal crossing itself and they do it over and over and over again so over the course of time the israelis just come to expect it it just becomes a part of the scenery beyond that the israelis have grown complacent in their defensive positions and believe the egyptians pose no serious threat this is the sixth day war after such a famous victory the israeli army became to be too arrogant they believed something that wasn't true they believe that the egyptian doesn't know how to fight or the arab doesn't know how to fight and will never fight successfully in october 1973 all the israeli defense force has to defend its 200 kilometer sinai front are 18 000 men 100 artillery pieces and less than 300 tanks a tiny defensive force woefully ill-prepared for battle and on october 6 1973 egypt and their syrian allies launched an immense two-front offensive against israel [Music] in the opening hours of the attack israeli forces are quickly routed on the northern front masses of syrian armor steadily advance into the golan heights and on the sinai front the situation for the israelis is even more desperate my brigade was the only brigade along the south carolina responsible for a front of 200 kilometers [Music] egyptian aircraft were bombing [Music] 2200 artillery gun were firing ammunition the feeding mode is the desert is moving like earthquake i had 88 tanks and 850 egyptian tanks were causing the swords come up the tanks bearing down by the hundreds on rachel and his men are soviet-designed t-55s at 36 tons the t-55 is relatively small but it can move at up to 50 kilometers per hour and is armed with a 100 millimeter main cannon providing a perfect balance of speed and deadly firepower [Music] immediately we had our first casualties over there we tried to avoid them from crossing but the ratio between their forces and our forces were unthinkable [Music] in response the israelis send their elite air force to smash the advancing egyptian invaders the israeli they always depend on their quick and effective airstrike [Music] so the first lesson the egyptian uh consider is the how to alienate the israeli airstrike by surface-to-air missile by creating what we call the wall a rocket wall in the first two days as our ali air force lost more than one-third of its airplanes so they decided to stop any airstrike at all [Music] with the israeli air force neutralized the egyptians can begin the most difficult and dangerous phase of their operation the crossing of the suez canal the minute you just see the canal you can just have tears because it was just a great feeling that you get this piece of land back the egyptian crossing of suez is an absolutely brilliant military operation [Music] they have figured out every aspect of the canal crossing they know that the israelis are reliant on these huge sand barriers to try to keep the egyptians away and they develop high-powered water hoses that allow them to effectively just spray holes using water to erode the sand and cut passages through these israeli sand firms the egyptian operation has gone like clockwork and in the first 18 hours of the attack they send 90 000 men and 850 tanks across the sewers canal by the end of the day the egyptians have advanced almost eight kilometers into the sinai now all that stands between the egyptian invasion force and the israeli heartland are a couple of hundred tanks most of which are just arriving on the battlefield as part of the idf's armored reserves the israeli armored reserves in sinai immediately do what they have been trained taught ordered to do counter-attack this time they're in for a very rude awakening [Music] october 6 1973 after a massive artillery barrage and wave after wave of air strikes hundreds of egyptian tanks surge across the suez canal and storm into the israeli-occupied sinai desert the feeding mode is the desert is moving like earthquake the handful of israelis defending the 200 kilometer front are caught off guard and quickly overwhelmed and by the end of the day the egyptians have advanced eight kilometers into the sinai desperate to starch the egyptian invasion israel calls up its armored reserves and by october 8th they are ready to strike back the israeli armored reserves in sinai immediately do what they have been trained taught ordered to do counter-attack the israeli plan calls for the lead elements of their reserve forces 100 tanks strong to attack straight into egyptian positions break up their formations and force them back across the canal leading the 217th preserve army brigade against egyptian positions near the ferdinand bridge is colonel natke near the next day on the 8th i received an order to move southward and to attack will it go on my left another country was supposed to attack but when i got my orders to attack towards the ferdan there were no forces on my left when we approached to about 600 meters from the direction of the canal we encountered an inferno of shelling a tongue division and an infantry division with tanks will already be on our side of the canal [Music] they set on our syndrome parts on our side of the canal and hunted us [Music] we started the attack without artillery [Music] without air support and the whole attack depended on tanks it was the first time we understood that the egyptians were equipped with thousands of sagar missiles the at3 sagger is a soviet designed portable anti-tank guided missile fitted with a 2.6 kilogram warhead the sagger can penetrate 200 millimeters of armor at ranges up to 3 kilometers but its most deadly feature is a wire guidance system which allows the operator to steer the missile all the way to the target the operator has an optical sight and he concentrates on the target fires the missile and using a joystick literally direct the missile onto the target at distance it's effective and it allows egyptian saga operators to fire volleys of missiles with a fairly good hit rate [Music] so that the small numbers of israeli tanks that are charging at them wind up suffering heavy casualties much heavier than they had ever expected faced mainly sagir missiles they did a jump on [Music] i gave an order to retreat this is the only time in my life that i gave such an order out of the approximately 22 tanks six got out and the rest were all destroyed [Music] this was a different army this was not the same army i fought against in the six day war [Music] they crashed the israeli counter attack on october 8th crashed completely this is an unbelievable victory by the egyptians something that they have never achieved beforehand and it is a stunning reversal for the israelis by nightfall on october 8th egyptian forces have widened their bridge head almost 10 kilometers into the sinai the ferocity and magnitude of the attack has forced most of the israelis back but a few remain trapped deep behind egyptian lines we came to the conclusion that we have to try to evacuate the people from this position when the swords come out the problem was that between this position and us there were fights enforced infantry division with about 1500 tanks we moved my tank was the left one shower was next to me when we entered in the egyptian opened fire i saw sagas moving towards my tank so you see a kind of fireball moving towards you [Applause] and when i saw a missile coming to me i was breaking my direction and they missed my tank and on my tank there were some cables of the sagging after two three minutes i saw a group of 30 people on one of the dunes and when i came to the range of 100 meters or so i realized that they were egyptian and then i had my my own personal fight because it was either them or me i used my machine gun grenades and then i had to go over them with my tank and i killed all these 20 people then i realized that i was by myself i took my binocular watching and i saw a monster moving a gun and something undefined [Music] and then i realized that there were soldiers on a tank xiaol took all the 33 of them on his tank and moved out with their front-line soldiers rescued the israelis fall back to defensive positions near the strategically important passes through the sinai mountains from the ninth a new phase begins in which we are on the defensive without any offensive intentions as the israelis pause to regroup the egyptians prepare for an enormous armored offensive one they hope will drive their enemy out of the sinai for good october 14 1973 in just over a week egyptian forces have pushed 10 kilometers deep into the side and easily repel every israeli attempted counter-attack on the southern front of the october war the egyptians are doing well their cross canal operation has worked they've pushed into sinai but they have a problem their ally syria syria is not experiencing the same degree of success syrian forces have not only failed to secure their objectives on the golan but the israelis are now smashing them hoping to draw israeli forces away from their syrian allies the egyptians launch a massive armored offensive in the sinai their plan attack with two armored divisions in a gigantic pincer movement aimed at smashing the israeli forces guarding the passes through the sinai mountains at first light on october 14th one thousand egyptian tanks advanced towards israeli lines when the egyptians renew their offensive on october 14th the attack that they launch is the absolute antithesis of the attacks that they had launched on october 6 7 8 9. this time around they don't have that same plan the egyptians simply lumber forward in the kind of clumsy frontal assaults that they had been famous for in 67 and this time around the israelis are waiting we received an alert that on the 14th the 21st egyptian armored division will cross the canal and try to advance and capture territory very early in the morning we were under a terrible artillery fire when the smoke cleared the first tanks of the brigade that were opposite us were already upon us first of all we knew they were coming we waited for them i saw hundreds of tanks moving forward tsunami a huge wave moving towards you and i said oh god how can i stop them the first to draw stays alive moved into fire position and we fired on one thing after the other every tank was behind camouflage on a hill and only the guns were sticking out from the start in such a situation when they are in motion and we choose the firing positions that gives us a huge advantage here is the case where our quality gander equality is important one of the israeli's main battle tanks is a modified version of the american m48 patent known as the magog it is well protected with 120 millimeters of frontal armor and has a 105 millimeter cannon that can accurately hit targets at ranges of up to three and a half kilometers the superb guns on the tanks that the israelis are deploying in sinai allow them to begin hitting and killing the egyptian tanks long before the egyptians are able to start destroying israeli tanks israelis have become expert at long-range gunners we're fighting very accurately aiming and destroying tank by tank all the egyptian things were in the area which was dominated without bayern were destroyed [Music] within simply a matter of hours the entire egyptian attack has been completely unhinged [Music] and they lost in this one day around 250 tanks we felt the first time that we can make it for the egyptians the promise of victory now gives way to the reality of defeat and sadat orders his battered armored divisions to fall back to defensive positions but these positions are vulnerable when originally formed the egyptians left a dangerous gap between their second army and the great bitter lake israel is now ready to grab the initiative and go back on the offensive and they use this piece of information this gap this scene to plan their counter offense the israeli plan is get to the canal cross over it to get behind the egyptian formations and to be able to tear them up from the inside out october 14 1973 in an effort to finally achieve victory in the sinai egyptian forces launch a massive armored assault over 1 000 tanks strong against the israeli defenders but in less than a day the israelis destroy 260 enemy tanks forcing the egyptians to pull back towards the suez canal but the egyptians have left a gap in their lines giving the israelis an opening to advance to the canal the israeli plan is get to the canal cross over it to get behind the egyptian formations and to be able to tear them up from the inside out before the israelis can cross the canal they must secure their flank against the egyptian second army positioned a few kilometers north in a small agricultural area called the chinese farm we didn't know exactly where the enemy position were located [Music] when i entered into the area which was north to the chinese farm i realized that i am in the hell [Music] the israelis perhaps have bit off more than they could show because they're in the midst of not only a heavily reinforced egyptian infantry division they're also in the middle of an egyptian armored division hundreds of egyptian soldiers were firing the world tanks anti-tank gun a lot of action i was fighting against to division the ratio was unthinkable so i was firing with my machine gun grenades with my cannon i realized that i am in hell all these hours under such pressure of egyptian tanks infantry everything [Music] we could see wave of tanks trying to recapture the positions that we already captured after about half an hour i saw five tanks in the range of 50 meters when they came to the range of 30 meters i realized that they are egyptian tanks we fired five very high speed rounds backpack pack pack pack we destroyed all the five tanks we fought all the night with egyptian units and tanks the range between the egyptian tanks and my tent was sometimes half a meter meter fire darkness blood there is no better description like the real hell i lost 121 soldiers and a lot of commanders in their terrible night the battle of chinese farm will go on to last another three days and when it's finally over hundreds of destroyed israeli and egyptian tanks litter the battlefield [Music] the heavy price paid by the israelis clears the way for a task force to advance to the canal [Music] and they immediately begin work on building a bridge but the egyptians quickly react the egyptians finally found the bleach head and that's when the inferno began the bridgehead went up in flames everything was burning it has been 11 days since egypt launched a massive offensive into the israeli-occupied sinai after hundreds of tanks are destroyed and thousands of men killed [Music] on october 17th the israelis are finally ready for their attack into egypt their plan using temporary bridges send three armored divisions across the suez canal and into central egypt where they can attack egyptian forces from the rear and even threaten the capital of cairo i understood that if brand division will not cross the canal and we will not be in the other side of the canal in africa or egypt we will lose the world all what we have done again by 4 pm i told everyone the bridge is ready go ahead the egyptians at this stage were in complete shock and the egyptian started to understand it was raised the egyptians finally found the bridgehead and that's when the inferno began hail started and the devil started to walk in this operation where we lost more than 100 people it was every under every fire on the way [Music] from the heavy shelling people were buried alive there was very heavy fire egyptian helicopters dropped barrels full of explosives people were dying he were injured and that was a real hell it was the longest night ever in my life i was not afraid to die i was afraid if this mission will not be accomplished and we succeed [Music] the egyptian response to israeli tanks on the western banks of the canal is both immediate and lethal their plan attack from the south with a massive armored column aimed at cutting off and trapping the israelis the israeli they have to go between the two egyptian armies for a long distance for like 50 or 60 kilometers and became very vulnerable to any egyptian attack for the attack the egyptians send their elite 25th armored brigade 100 of their most modern soviet-designed tanks straight into the vulnerable rear of the israeli bridgehead october 17th 1973 after 11 days of bloody fighting israeli forces finally fight their way across the suez canal and begin their invasion of egypt desperate to stem the flow of israeli tanks across the canal egypt counterattacks with its elite 25th armored brigade their plan is to push north in a massive armored column and destroy the israeli rear guard cutting off israeli forces west of the canal a brand new brigade armed with with the most advanced soviet t-62 tanks is now pushing northwards along the great bitter lake brene dan turns southward and hustles down with his division puts them in place in an l-shaped ambush i thank him the first position of our tanks was about three kilometers from the canal they were camouflaged so the egyptians couldn't see them advancing straight into the ambush are 100 soviet-designed t-62 tanks in 1973 the t-62 is considered one of the best tanks in the world it is well protected with over 100 millimeters of frontal armor and carries a 115 millimeter smoothbore cannon a powerful and deadly accurate main gun that can easily destroy an israeli tank especially at close range but i don't want our men to move i don't want the egyptians to feel anything i want them to enter enter enter the zone of destruction once the entire egyptian brigade entered the ambush area i gave the order to fire hold up not to accept their tanks on fire one after the other the egyptians i can see the battle the egyptians tried to counter-attack from the top to bottom they didn't have a chance they tried to fire several shots but listen the ambush was little after two hours there were a few tanks left that tried to escape but it was a big mess some of them drove back towards the bitter lake and they ran into a minefield in two hours we destroyed the egyptian 25th predator almost all of it five tanks was able to escape back [Music] after we finished this ambush i told my division commander to erase the egyptian 25th brigade from the enemy territory [Music] with the destruction of the 25th brigade the egyptians lose any hope of stopping the israeli advance into the egyptian heartland by the next morning the israelis have elements of two armored divisions almost 200 tanks west of the suez canal by october 24th the israelis have advanced to within 100 kilometers of cairo and have encircled the third egyptian army [Music] the israelis have done what they need to do they have the third army trapped and they know that that is the most important bargaining tool that they need to bring the war to an end on their terms and so they agreed to a ceasefire it would take another five years of negotiations before israel finally returns the sinai to egypt for the egyptians it is a great victory the anniversary is a moment to remember our dignity that was retrieved in 73. honor the people who worked hard for six or seven years to make this victory happen onward sadat gets everything that he wanted the sinai is returned to egypt and anwar sadat is seen by the egyptian people as the great victor of october of the october war the man who regained sinai for egypt but egypt is not alone in declaring victory as israel has its own cause to celebrate they attacked us and we won in the most difficult possible conditions the egyptian army was crushed the fight that israel underwent in 1973 is a great victory for israel but it is a traumatic experience [Music] there's no israel after 1973 who wants to go through that again and that convinces israel too that the best answer to their situation with egypt is to simply make peace [Music] [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 303,895

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, tank war, october war, valley of tears, yom kippur war, october 1973, tank battles, tank war egypt, israel tank war, israel 1973

Id: FLK9GRBWYq4

Length: 44min 10sec (2650 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 19 2021