page_title: Egyptian Army
section_title: Six-Day War
hierarchical_section_title: Egyptian Army / History / After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 / Six-Day War
caption_attribution_description: English: Ground force dispositions of the United Arab Republic (Egypt) as of 1 January 1967 prepared by Defense Intelligence Agency (DIAAP).
context_page_description: The Egyptian Army or Egyptian Ground Forces is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces. The modern army was established during the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha, widely considered to be the "founder of modern Egypt". Its most significant engagements in the 20th century were in Egypt's five wars with the State of Israel, one of which, the Suez Crisis of 1956, also saw it do combat with the armies of Britain, and France. The Egyptian army was also engaged heavily in the protracted North Yemen Civil War, and the brief Libyan-Egyptian War in July 1977. Its last major engagement was Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991, in which the Egyptian army constituted the second-largest contingent of the allied forces.
  As of 2020, the army has an estimated strength of 340,000 of which, approximately 120,000-200,000 are professionals with the rest being conscripts, as well as 438,000 reservists.
context_section_description: Before the June 1967 War, the army divided its personnel into four regional commands (Suez, Sinai, Nile Delta, and Nile Valley up to the Sudan). The remainder of Egypt's territory, over 75%, was the sole responsibility of the Frontier Corps.
  In May 1967, Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to passage of Israeli ships. On 26 May Nasser declared, "The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel". Israel considered the closure of the Straits of Tiran a casus belli. The Egyptian army then comprised two armoured and five infantry divisions, all deployed in the Sinai.
  In the weeks before the Six-Day War began, Egypt made several significant changes to its military organisation. Field Marshal Amer created a new command interposed between the general staff and the Eastern Military District commander, Lieutenant General Salah ad-Din Muhsin. This new Sinai Front Command was placed under General Abdel Mohsin Murtagi, who had returned from Yemen in May 1967. Six of the seven divisions in the Sinai (with the exception of the 20th Infantry 'Palestinian' Division) had their commanders and chiefs of staff replaced. What fragmentary information is available suggests to authors such as Pollack that Amer was trying to improve the competence of the force, replacing political appointees with veterans of the Yemen war.
  After the war began on 5 June 1967, Israel attacked Egypt and occupied the Sinai Peninsula. The forward Egyptian forces were shattered in three places by the attacking Israelis, including at the Battle of Abu-Ageila (1967), and a retreat to the mountain passes fifty miles east of the canal was ordered. This developed into a rout as the Israelis harried the retreating troops from the ground and from the air.
caption: DIA estimate of Egyptian Army dispositions as of 1 January 1967. Comparison with Dupuy 1978 reveals some errors, such as the location of the 6th Mechanised Division, which was in the Sinai.
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