The Syrian forces consisted in total of roughly 1500 tanks and 1000 artillery pieces. It was therefore vital for Israel not to allow this area to fall into enemy hands.ĭefending the region was the Israeli 188th Armored Brigade (also known as the Barak (lightning) Brigade – an honorary name it received in 1956), consisting of roughly 60 Israeli Centurion and Isherman tanks (although this force was bolstered by the 7th Armored Brigade with 110 more tanks, increasing the count to approximately 170 tanks and 100 artillery pieces).Īt 2PM on 6th of October, 1973, Syrian forces (consisting of 2 infantry divisions and 1 armored division with elements from another one) crossed the borders and began their assault on Israel. Its importance was and still is mostly strategic – the mountains allow the forces that control the region to build excellent defensive positions and – even more important back then – to get within artillery range of some of the Israeli cities in the north. The Golan Heights (the northern part of Israel) had been captured by Israel six years earlier during the Six Day War in 1967 and one of the main Syrian goals was to capture the region back. The backbone of the Arab forces consisted of Egyptian and Syrian troops and it was the Syrian armies that attacked the Golan Heights region from the north. By 1973, Israel already participated in three major conflicts and it had come out ahead every time, but the scale of the Yom Kippur assault was something entirely new. The Yom Kippur War (also known as the October War) was perhaps the deadliest conflict involving the state of Israel. But even Wittman's exploits of that day pale in comparison with the heroic struggle of one of the best ever tank commanders, Lieutenant Zvika Greengold, a man of iron will who single handedly held off an entire Syrian brigade. The reputation of certain WW2 German tank commanders has today reached nearly mythical levels with the infamous Waffen SS officer Michael Wittman and his Villers-Bocage rampage in first place. Whenever tank aces are mentioned, most of the names that come to mind are either Soviet or German.
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