GOLAN HEIGHTS

“THE ATTACK WAS PART OF A TWO-PRONGED ASSAULT ON ISRAEL, WITH THE EGYPTIAN ARMY HAVING ATTACKED ACROSS THE SUEZ CANAL ONLY 15 MINUTES BEFORE”

At 14:05 on 6 October 1973, the Syrian Army unleashed a massive assault on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The attack was part of a two pronged assault on Israel, with the Egyptian Army having attacked across the Suez Canal only 15 minutes before. Both countries, plus various other Arab allies, were keen to repay the Israelis for their humiliating defeat during the Six Days War of 1967, and regain both their national pride and lost territory.

In 1967 the Israelis had fought a fast, aggressive war with strong armoured columns and overwhelming air power hammering the Egyptian and Syrian forces, and taking control of both the Sinai Desert and the Golan Heights. The Sinai created a buffer zone to their south, while the Golan Heights created another on their north-eastern border with Syria. The Heights, 20-25 miles in length, dominate north Israel, and their loss to an enemy force would allow them to not only observe but also potentially fire upon large areas of that country. Both sides tried to take lessons away from the Six Days War, each with mixed success.

The Syrian Army had, up to that point, been primarily used for internal policing operations. During the 1967 war they had been an almost entirely infantry force, with little experience or doctrine for fighting other modern armies. After the war, and especially since the rise to power of Hafez al-Assad in 1970, massive investment in Soviet weapons and systems had modernised the army to an incredible extent, with massed armoured formations and considerable battlefield anti-aircraft