Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-23
Egypt Army Struggling
To Master New Arms
Continued From First Pax

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Continued From First Pag
style Centurion tanks. held Il
reserve.
The Egyptian air force In
cluded one squadron each of tn
following British-made planes q
squadron is normally IL to Il
aircraft: Meteors, Vampire
tboth late model jet fighters IL
service in BRITAIN, Dakota, Hal
Ilifax and Lancaster bomhers
ISpitfire and Hawker-Fury pro-
Ipeller driven fighters and Com
Imando troop transports.
The navy included two British
type destroyers. four frigates
two corvettes, seven minesweep'
lers and six torpedo boats.
Today, thanks presumably t.
British deliveries since the lift.
ling of the arms embargo, Egypt
tank strength is estimated o.
between 200 and 300 Shermans
In addition, 80 new Centurions
originally ordered from Britain
lin 1949, have been delivered anc
another 80 are on order.
On the other side of the fence
the Israeli army is formed into
three brigade groups. expand
able to Is on mobilization. A
brigade group is a somewhat in
definite unit consisting of al
least three infantry battalions
of 1000 men each. plus support
ing artillery and armor. The
total mobilizable military man.
power of Israel is estimated al
close to 100000.
Mauser Is Standard
Israeli firepower, like the
Egyptian. features the we'll
proven British 25-pounder. II
also includes 76-mm. Krupp FIELD
guns, multiple rocket launchers
and homemade mortars up tc
100 INNS. Automatic weapons
consist Of 7.92-mm. light ma
chine guns and Vega medium
machine guns. The standard In.
Ifantry weapon is the Mausel
rifle.
For tanks, the Israelis rely or
an undetermined number Of re-
conditioned American Shermans
They have also received a few
French AMX-l3 tank destroyers
equipped with 75-mm. high
velocity rifles.
So far as is known. the Israeli
air forces only jet fighters con-
sist Of q single squadron of Brit
iish Meteors and a number OF
French Ouragans. French-built
MYSTERIES have been on order foi
months. but no deliveries have
been made.
In addition. the Israelis have
two. squadrons Of Mosquito light
bombers-one operational ano
one training squadron. They
have three American Bit Fly.
ing Fortresses. three Catalina
flying boats and some wartime
German fighter planes.
Egypt's Premier Nasser ha.
charged Britain with supplying
Israel with so Mustangs, l0t
Sherman and is Churchill tanks
The British fatty deny this. TIL,
word here is that Israel ordered
80 Centurion tanks. The British
agreed to supply six. and sub
Isequently Cancelled the order.
Such was the lineup before thu
Czech arms deal.
Hard to Make Case
If these figures are even ap-
Iproximately accurate. it is hard
ito make much of a case fol
IIsrael's superiority in terms oil
equipment. But here lies the
joker. Even conceding for the
sake of discussion the accuracy
of these figures. virtually every
military expert in the Middle
East supports the Egyptian ar
gument that the Israeli army
today is better than the Egyptian
army.
The great difference lies in
the fact that in Israel, almost
all able-bodied men and women
over the age of 10 are trained
soldiers. Mobilization plans are
in such a state Of perfection that
the country can convert to q
full wartime footing almost
overnight. Everyone knows his
post and his job-many already
have their basic weapons as
signed to them.
The organization of Israel into
"a system of self-contained forth
fed settlements represents an
important defensive asset. Each
outlying kibbuts near the frontier
plays a military role. Many are
under command of active army
Officers and equipped to hold out
against attack until reinforce
tmentS can arrive.
Apart from this tremendous
edge in organization. the morale
advantage lies unquestionably
with the Israeli forces. Based or
his previous combat experience
with the Arabs, the Israeli SOL
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