page_title: Tanks of the Israel Defense Forces
section_title: Yom Kippur War
hierarchical_section_title: Tanks of the Israel Defense Forces / History / Yom Kippur War
caption_attribution_description: Description: Magach 6 - an Israeli upgraded M60A1 Patton with Blazer ERA in Yad la-Shiryon Museum, Israel. 2005. Source: Photo by me, User:Bukvoed.
context_section_description: Egyptian president Anwar Sadat had signaled soon after he Nasser's death that, in return for a total withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, he was ready to recognize Israel as an independent state but this did not lead to any agreement with Israel, so Sadat felt he had only the military option. The Yom Kippur war was a conflict between the Arab world and Israel that lasted from October 6, 1973 to October 25, 1973. The Yom Kippur War began when a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur which happens to be the Jewish day of atonement and the holiest day for people of the Judaic faith.
  The Arab coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israeli positions in the Israeli-occupied territories on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which occurred that year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights
  Anticipating a swift Israeli armored counterattack by three armored divisions, the Egyptians had armed their assault force with large numbers of man-portable anti-tank weapons—rocket-propelled grenades and the less numerous but more advanced Sagger guided missiles, which proved devastating to the first Israeli armored counterattacks. Each of the five infantry divisions that was to cross the canal had been equipped with RPG-7 rockets and RPG-43 grenades, and reinforced with an anti-tank guided missile battalion.
  The Israelis who have begun to receive quantities of the US M60 Patton tanks and use in their armoured forces, counterattacked the Egyptians with the 162nd Armored Division composed of three brigades totaling 183 tanks and the Israeli 143rd Armoured Division, which was led by General Ariel Sharon, who had been reinstated as a division commander at the outset of the war and Egyptian armored attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. Then the Israeli forces detected a gap between the Egyptian Second and Third armies and as these armies attacked eastward in six simultaneous thrusts over a broad front, they left behind five infantry divisions to hold the bridgeheads over the Suez canal crossings. The attacking Egyptian forces consisted of 800-1,000 tanks with artillery support. They were up against 700-750 Israeli tanks. The Egyptian armored thrust suffered heavy losses as Egyptian units launched head-on-attacks against the waiting Israeli defenses.
  The Israelis repulsed the armoured thrust and followed up with counterattack through the gap between the Egyptian 2nd and 3rd Armies and established bridgeheads on the east and west banks of the canal. The Israeli Armored Divisions then crossed through the breach to the west bank of the canal and swung southward, encircling the 3rd Army. The Israeli forces on the west bank launched an offensive with an armoured thrust toward Ismailia and toward Suez City while other Israeli forces pushed west toward Cairo and south toward Adabiya. By the end of the war, the Israelis had advanced to positions some 101 kilometres from Egypt's capital, Cairo, and occupied 1,600 square kilometres west of the Suez Canal. They had also cut the Cairo-Suez road and encircled the bulk of Egypt's Third Army.
  One of the greatest tank battles in history, the Battle of Golan Heights, took place during the Yom Kippur War. In the Golan Heights, the Syrians attacked two Israeli brigades and eleven artillery batteries with five divisions (the 7th, 9th and 5th, with the 1st and 3rd in reserve) and 188 batteries. They began their attack with an airstrike by about 100 aircraft and a 50-minute artillery barrage. The forward brigades of three divisions then penetrated the cease-fire lines and bypassed United Nations observer posts, followed by the main assault force, which was covered by mobile anti-aircraft batteries, bulldozers to penetrate anti-tank ditches, bridge-layers to overcome obstacles, and mine-clearance vehicles.
  The engineering vehicles were priority targets for Israeli gunners and took heavy losses, but Syrian infantrymen, braving intense fire, advanced forward and used thei
caption: Israeli Magach 6B tank in the Yad La-Shiryon Armored Corps Memorial and Museum, Latrun.
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