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After Action Reports => Tabletop AARs => Topic started by: MengJiao on June 28, 2024, 07:19:57 AM

Title: Back to the Canal. October 6, 1973
Post by: MengJiao on June 28, 2024, 07:19:57 AM
  Welp, having failed for the tenth time to Rommelize North Afrika, maybe its time for another desert war.
I'll play a very modified version of Test of Faith...in the Sinai -- no politics only fluctuating supply and only simple objectives.

  I've been reading Egyptian accounts (on Wikipedia) and they show things going very wrong from day one.  Apparently the IAF really did knock out half of their bridges and in the 3rd army area bridging didn't go well even without being bombed.

  So we'll see.  The Egyptians get extra commandos and the Israelis get extra supply and bridges.

Could be a long war,
Title: Re: Back to the Canal. October 6, 1973
Post by: MengJiao on June 29, 2024, 02:25:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 28, 2024, 07:19:57 AMWelp, having failed for the tenth time to Rommelize North Afrika, maybe its time for another desert war.
I'll play a very modified version of Test of Faith...in the Sinai -- no politics only fluctuating supply and only simple objectives.

  I've been reading Egyptian accounts (on Wikipedia) and they show things going very wrong from day one.  Apparently the IAF really did knock out half of their bridges and in the 3rd army area bridging didn't go well even without being bombed.

  So we'll see.  The Egyptians get extra commandos and the Israelis get extra supply and bridges.

Could be a long war,

  So, I says to myself...without the "political" side of this war...what are Egypt's chances really?
The Israelis control the whole of Sinai.  The Egyptians stand (at best) with their backs to the canal.
A terrible position even if you are loaded with Saggers and SAMs.  So what is the non-political point?
Zero.  There must be some other explanation and it looks like it was a war orchestrated badly
(like the one in 1967) by the Russians.  It sounds weird but the evidence is pretty convincing as the
506 pages of this here book definitely show:

ISABELLA GINOR and GIDEON REMEZ The Soviet–Israeli War, 1967–1973 The USSR's Military Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict
Oxford University Press. 2017
Title: Re: Back to the Canal. October 6, 1973
Post by: Redwolf on June 29, 2024, 03:00:13 PM
There is a very good book about the buildup to thw 1973 war from the Egyptian perspective.

The road to Ramadan Hardcover – January 1, 1975
by Muhammad Heikal

https://www.amazon.com/road-Ramadan-Muh%CC%A3ammad-H%CC%A3asanayn-Haykal/dp/0812905679
Title: Re: Back to the Canal. October 6, 1973
Post by: MengJiao on June 29, 2024, 03:47:26 PM
Quote from: Redwolf on June 29, 2024, 03:00:13 PMThere is a very good book about the buildup to thw 1973 war from the Egyptian perspective.

The road to Ramadan Hardcover – January 1, 1975
by Muhammad Heikal

https://www.amazon.com/road-Ramadan-Muh%CC%A3ammad-H%CC%A3asanayn-Haykal/dp/0812905679

In The Soviet–Israeli War, 1967–1973 The USSR's Military Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict
Heikal is rated as good a source as Kissinger -- ie both are a bit misleading, especially about the Soviets, but here the apolitical Egyptians are advancing on Oct 8 -- with supply and the IAF elsewhere and the Israelis barely in supply: