Bar Lev Line The Bar Lev Line ( , " Kav Bar Lev " ; , " " ) was a chain of fortifications built by Israel along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal after it captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt during the 1967 Six - Day War . History . The Bar Lev Line evolved from a group of rudimentary fortifications placed along the canal line . In response to Egyptian artillery bombardments during the War of Attrition , Israel developed the fortifications into an elaborate defense system spanning along Suez Canal , with the exception of the Great Bitter Lake ( where a canal crossing was unlikely due to the width of the lake ) . The Bar Lev Line was designed to defend against any major Egyptian assault across the canal , and was expected to function as a " graveyard for Egyptian troops " . The line , costing around $ 300 million in 1973 , was named after Israeli Chief of Staff Haim Bar - Lev . The line was built at the Suez Canal , a unique water barrier that Moshe Dayan described as " one of the best anti - tank ditches in the world . " The line incorporated a massive , continuous sand wall lining the entire canal , and was supported by a concrete wall . The sand wall , which varied in height from , was inclined at an angle of 45 – 65 degrees . The sand wall and its concrete support prevented any armored or amphibious units from landing on the east bank of the Suez Canal without prior engineering preparations . Israeli planners estimated it would take at least 24 hours , probably a full 48 hours for the Egyptians to breach the sand wall and establish a bridge across the canal . Immediately behind this sand wall , was the front line of Israeli fortifications . After the War of Attrition , there were 22 forts , which incorporated 35 strongpoints . The forts were designed to be manned by a platoon . The strongpoints , which were built several stories into the sand , were on average situated less than from each other , but at likely crossing points they were less than apart . The strongpoints incorporated trenches , minefields , barbed wire and a sand embankment . Major strongpoints had up to 26 bunkers with medium and heavy machineguns , 24 troop shelters , six mortar positions , four bunkers housing anti - aircraft weapons , and three firing positions for tanks . The strongpoints were surrounded by nearly fifteen circles of barbed wire and minefields to a depth of . A strongpoint ' s perimeter averaged . The bunkers and shelters provided protection against anything less than a 1 , 000 pound bomb , and offered luxuries to the defenders such as air conditioning . Between behind the canal , there were prepared firing positions designed to be occupied by tanks assigned to the support of the strongpoints . Some of the names of the strongpoints were Tasa , Maftzach , Milano , Mezach , Chizayon , Mifreket , Orcal , Budapest ( the largest ) , Nisan , Lituf , Chashiva . In addition , there were eleven strongholds located behind the canal , which were built along sandy hills . Each stronghold was designed to hold a company of troops . To take advantage of the water obstacle , the Israelis installed an underwater pipe system to pump flammable crude oil into the Suez Canal , thereby creating a sheet of flame . Some Israeli sources claim the system was unreliable and only a few of the taps were operational . Nevertheless , the Egyptians took this threat seriously and , on the eve of the war , during the late evening of 5 October , teams of Egyptian frogmen blocked the underwater openings with concrete . Defensive plans . To support the Bar Lev Line , Israel built an elaborate system of roads . Three main roads ran north - south . The first was the Lexicon Road ( Infantry Road ) , running along the canal , which allowed the Israelis to move between the fortifications and conduct patrols . The second was the Artillery Road , around from the canal . Its name came from the twenty artillery and air defense positions located on it : it also linked armored concentration areas and logistical bases . The Lateral Road ( Supply Road ) , from the canal , was meant to allow the concentration of Israeli operational reserves which , in case of an Egyptian offensive , would counterattack the main Egyptian assault . A number of other roads running east to west , Quantara Road , Hemingway Road , and Jerusalem Road , were designed to facilitate the movement of Israeli troops towards the canal . The defense of the Sinai depended upon two plans , Dovecote ( שׁוֹבָךְ יוֹנִים / Shovakh Yonim ) and Rock ( סֶלַע / Sela ) . In both plans , the Israeli General Staff expected the Bar - Lev Line to serve as a " stop line " or " kav atzira " — a defensive line that had to be held at all cost . As noted by an Israeli colonel shortly after the War of Attrition , " The line was created to provide military answers to two basic needs : first , to prevent the possibility of a major Egyptian assault on Sinai with the consequent creation of a bridgehead which could lead to all - out war ; and , second , to reduce as much as possible the casualties among the defending troops . " Israeli planning was based on a 48 - hour advance warning by intelligence services of an impending Egyptian attack . During these 48 - hours , the Israeli Air Force would assault enemy air defense systems , while Israeli forces deployed as planned . The Israelis expected an Egyptian attack would be defeated by armored brigades supported by the superior Israeli Air Force . Dovecote tasked a regular armored division to the defense of the Sinai . The division was supported by an additional tank battalion , twelve infantry companies and seventeen artillery batteries . This gave a total of over 300 tanks , 70 artillery guns , and 18 , 000 troops . These forces , which represented the Sinai garrison , were tasked with the mission of defeating an Egyptian crossing at or near the canal line . It called for around 800 soldiers to man the forward fortifications on the canal line . Meanwhile , along Artillery Road , a brigade of 110 tanks was stationed with the objective of advancing and occupying the firing positions and tanks ramparts along the canal in case of an Egyptian attack . There were two additional armored brigades , one to reinforce the forward brigade , and the other to counterattack the main Egyptian attack . Should the regular armored division prove incapable of repulsing an Egyptian attack , the Israeli army would activate Rock , mobilizing two reserve armored divisions with support elements ; implementation of Rock signified a major war . Breach . During the October 1973 War , the Egyptian army , led by Egyptian Chief of staff , Saad El Shazly , overran the Bar Lev Line in less than two hours due to the element of surprise and overwhelming firepower . To deal with the massive earthen ramparts , the Egyptians used water cannons fashioned from hoses attached to dredging pumps in the canal . Other methods involving explosives , artillery , and bulldozers were too costly in time and required nearly ideal working conditions . In 1971 , a young Egyptian officer , Baki Zaki Yousef , suggested a small , light , petrol - fueled pump as the answer to the crossing dilemma . The Egyptian military purchased 300 British - made pumps , five of which could blast 1 , 500 cubic meters of sand in three hours . In 1972 , it acquired 150 more powerful German pumps driven by small gas turbines . A combination of two German or three British pumps would cut the breaching time down to two hours . These cannons pumped out powerful jets of water , creating 81 breaches in the line and removing three million cubic metres of packed dirt on the first day of the war . The Egyptians assaulted the Bar - Lev Line with two field armies and forces from Port Sa ' id and the Red Sea Military District . The Second Field Army covered the area from north of Qantara to south of Deversoir , while the Third Field Army was responsible for the area from Bitter Lakes to south of Port Tawfiq . The Egyptians began their simultaneous air and artillery attacks by flying 250 Egyptian planes , MiG - 21s , MiG - 19s , and MiG - 17s , attacking their assigned targets in the Sinai . Meanwhile , 2 , 000 artillery pieces opened fire against all the strongpoints along the Bar - Lev Line , a barrage that lasted 53 minutes and dropped 10 , 500 shells in the first minute alone , or 175 shells per second . Within the first hour of the war , the Egyptian engineering corps tackled the sand barrier . Seventy engineer groups , each one responsible for opening a single passage , worked from wooden boats . With hoses attached to water pumps , they began attacking the sand obstacle . Many breaches occurred within two to three hours of the onset of operations — according to schedule ; however , engineers at several places experienced unexpected problems . The sand from the breached openings in the barrier was reduced to mud , which was one meter deep in some areas . This problem required that the engineers emplace floors of wood , rails , stone , sandbags , steel plates , or metal nets for the passage of heavy vehicles . The Third Army , in particular , had difficulty in its sector . There , the clay proved resistant to high - water pressure and , consequently , the engineers experienced delays in their breaching . Engineers in the Second Army completed the erection of their bridges and ferries within nine hours , whereas the Third Army needed more than sixteen hours . In his book " The Yom Kippur War : The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East " , historian Abraham Rabinovich posits that the Bar - Lev line was a blunder — too lightly manned to be an effective defensive line and too heavily manned to be an expendable tripwire . Moreover , it can be argued that the concept of the line was counter - intuitive to the strengths of Israeli battle tactics , which , at their core , relied on agile mobile forces moving rapidly through the battlefield rather than utilizing a heavy reliance on fixed defenses .