The population of Israel is 8 million. The population of the countries of the Arab East exceeds 200 million people. This is the hottest region on the planet: nine full-scale wars in less than 70 years. Israel entered its first war the day after declaring its own independence: on May 15, 1948, the armies of five Arab countries invaded the territory of the newly formed state - and were thrown back in disgrace.
The Suez Crisis, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the First and Second Lebanese Wars … classics of armed conflicts of the twentieth century. Modern intifadas are bashfully called "police operations", in which for some reason it is necessary to use military aircraft and thousands of armored vehicles.
Daily alarm. Rocket attacks followed by retaliation in the Palestinian territories. A quarter of the budget is spent on defense. Israel lives on the front lines - the last outpost of the West in the Muslim East.
Invincible and legendary
The Israel Defense Forces always wins. With any, even the most desperate balance of power. In any situation. Any weapon. The only prerequisite is that the enemy must be the armies of the Arab countries.
The pilots of Hal Aavir in three hours destroyed the enemy's air grouping three times their size (Six Day War, 1967). Israeli tankers all night in open terrain held back the onslaught of a nine times superior enemy, whose tanks were equipped with night vision devices (Defense of the Golan Heights, 1973). Israeli sailors defeated a squadron of the Syrian naval forces without loss (battle of Latakia). Israeli special forces blew up an enemy destroyer and stole the latest radar station from Egypt.
Not a single strategic defeat. As a result of all the conflicts, the territory of Israel has doubled. The right to self-determination of the Jewish people was confirmed. The whole world saw what the oath "Never again!" Never again - persecution, never again - gas chambers, never again - sticky fear and humiliation in front of the enemy. Only forward! Only victory!
Monument to the 7th Armored Brigade in the Golan Heights
By the morning of the 105 tanks of the brigade, 98 were destroyed, but the brigade completed the task. The enemy did not pass
Easy and quick victories create an unhealthy aura of victory around the Israel Defense Forces. Many are seriously convinced that the IDF is invincible in principle. The State of Israel possesses the best armed forces today, which have no equal among other armies in the world. Such an categorical statement is backed up by real facts: little Israel in all seriousness won all wars and defeated all opponents.
Israel, without a doubt, has a well-equipped and well-trained army, guided in its actions by common sense, and not someone else's conscience. With its military traditions and perfected tactics of warfare. But the assertion that the IDF is the best army in the world, defeating any enemy with one left, is at least disputable. There are many countries in the world that have no less trained and efficient armed forces.
It should not be forgotten that Israel's victories were won by it with colossal exertion, at the limit of its strength. There were many cases when the Israelis were literally "on the razor's edge." A little more, and the situation could get out of control - with further unpredictable consequences.
Glorious victories hide no less glorious defeats. As a rule, the main reasons for the tactical failures of the Israel Defense Forces are only two: their own miscalculations and the absolute technical superiority of the enemy. Yes, dear reader, half a century ago the IDF looked different - the Israelis did not have the Merkava MBT, drones and other high-tech systems. They had to fight with armored vehicles of the 40s and use other outdated weapons in the hope that the mediocre command and weak training of the enemy would level the technical backwardness of the Israel Defense Forces.
But sometimes I had to deal with a truly unusual weapon, the "technology of tomorrow." The Israelis were clearly not ready to meet with her. This was the sudden sinking of the destroyer Eilat (formerly HMS Zealous, built in 1944) on October 21, 1967. The old ship was helpless in the face of the power of Soviet anti-ship missiles. Egyptian Navy missile boats shot him like a target at a training ground, without loss on their part.
Things were similar in the sky. In May 1971, reconnaissance flights of the MiG-25 over Israel began. The Israeli air defense system and Hal Aavir made desperate attempts to intercept "unbreakable" aircraft, but catching up and shooting down the MiG racing at three speeds of sound turned out to be an impossible task for the Israeli air defense. Fortunately for the residents of Tel Aviv, MiGs from the 63rd Separate Aviation Reconnaissance Detachment of the USSR Air Force did not carry a bomb load and did not show any open aggression towards Israel. Their use was limited only to demonstration and reconnaissance flights over the territory of the country.
To the credit of the Israelis themselves, they promptly responded to the emergence of new threats and quickly created countermeasures. The next naval battle with the use of missile weapons (the battle of Latakia), the Israeli navy won with a clean bill, utterly defeating the Syrian fleet. By this time, Israel had created its own anti-ship missiles "Gabriel" and effective means of electronic suppression of the seeker of enemy missiles.
The fact that the USSR was in no hurry to present modern weapons to the Arab world, often limiting itself to outdated models and export modifications with "cut-down" performance characteristics, also helped.
Minor tactical defeats (sinking of "Eilat" and other incidents) generally did not affect the strategic situation in the region. But there have been episodes when Israel was close to disaster. An example of this is the Yom Kippur War, 1973.
Unlike the lightning defeat of the Arab armies in 1967, this time victory almost turned into defeat. A surprise attack, and a coordinated attack from the north and south, caught Israel by surprise. An emergency mobilization was announced in the country, all aviation was alerted, and tank columns of the IDF advanced to meet the Arab armies rushing into the interior of the country. “The main thing is calmness! - the Israelis soothed themselves - All the failures are temporary, we will defeat the enemy again in six days.
But an hour later it turned out that all the usual tactics did not work - the "unbreakable" Hel Aavir aircraft could not break through the dense anti-aircraft fire and, having suffered significant losses, were forced to return to their airbases. Definitely, the Arabs drew conclusions from the "catastrophe-67". The battle formations of their armies were saturated with the latest air defense systems designed to defeat low-flying targets. Israeli tankers suffered no less serious losses: the fathers-commanders did not prepare them for a meeting with so many RPGs and ATGMs "Baby". Left without the promised air cover, Israeli soldiers began to quickly surrender their positions and retreat in a disciplined manner in front of superior enemy forces.
Fierce battles raged for three weeks. With the help of active defense, the IDF managed to "wear down" the advancing Arab divisions and stabilize the situation on the fronts (largely thanks to the actions of Ariel Sharon, who found a "weak spot" in the Egyptian battle formations and broke through with a small detachment into the rear of the enemy - this later decided the outcome of the war) …
Finally, the offensive of the Arab armies ran out of steam. Israel won another (already traditional) victory. The territorial integrity of the country has not suffered. The loss ratio, as usual, turned out to be in Israel's favor. However, the victory was more like a bitter draw: Israel's desperate plight in the early days of the war did not go unnoticed by the Israelis themselves.
When the shots died down, loud exclamations were heard in Israeli society. Who put the country on the brink of disaster? Who is responsible for the setbacks at the start of the war? Where did the reconnaissance look, which was not able to point-blank, through the Suez Canal, to discern the deployment of the half-million enemy group? The result of that war was the resignation of the entire Israeli government, headed by Golda Meir. Together with the top leadership of the state, the leaders of the army and military intelligence left their posts. Apparently, the situation was too serious: the "invincible" IDF was not in the best shape that time.
Well, we will not become like Hezbollah's propagandists (who have a plywood model of a "knocked-out" Merkava tank in their museum) and scrupulously seek out "spots on the Sun" in a powerless attempt to denigrate the victories of the Jewish people. No, the truth is clear: Israel has won all wars. But what is the reason for such a striking victory for the Israel Defense Forces?
No matter how well prepared the IDF is, a battle with a ratio of forces of 1: 5 is usually fraught with the rapid defeat of a small side. This is the harsh axiom of life. How did the Israelis over and over again manage to "get out of the water" and win all the wars in a row?
I'm afraid the explanation will sound unoriginal: the adversary's appalling weakness.
"He lives in the sands and eats from the belly, half-fascist, half-eeser, Hero of the Soviet Union Gamal Abdel all-Nasser."
Probably, many remember the Soviet joke about the then President of Egypt (1954-70). The character, of course, was unpredictable and eccentric, but his eternal dislike for the Anglo-Saxons and Israel made him a loyal ally of the USSR. "Russians can be loved or not, but they must be reckoned with." Alas, neither Nasser's charisma nor serious military assistance from the USSR helped him cope with little Israel. The terrible defeat in the war does not cause the slightest surprise - after all, the Egyptian army was ruled by extraordinary personalities from Nasser's inner circle.
Having received the first reports of devastating strikes by the Israeli Air Force on Egyptian airfields, Defense Minister Sham ed-Din Badran fell into prostration, locked himself in his office and, despite the persistent requests of his subordinates, refused to leave there.
The chief of the Egyptian General Staff, Fawzi, began to insanity: he began to scribble orders to the squadrons already destroyed, ordering non-existent aircraft to counterattack the enemy.
Egyptian Air Force Commander Tsadki Muhammad, instead of taking emergency measures to save the remaining aircraft, spent the day in theatrical attempts to shoot himself.
Field Marshal Hakim Abdel Amer also did not take part in the command and control of the troops, being, according to eyewitnesses, either intoxicated with drugs or alcohol.
President Nasser himself did not have any specific information about the situation at the fronts - no one dared to bring him the terrible news.
This is all really terrible. As soon as the situation did not go according to plan, the military-political leadership of Egypt left the army and the country to their fate.
Even after the loss of aviation, the campaign was not hopelessly lost - the Egyptians could regroup and occupy a second line of defense, counter-attacking precisely in anticipation of the international community's intervention and a ceasefire. But this required a somewhat effective high command, which was absent: even the commanders of the retreating troops on Sinai, at their own peril and risk, tried to organize a local defense, but were not supported in any way! Having finally lost his head and hope, Amer ordered everyone to hastily withdraw beyond the Suez Canal, thereby depriving his country of the last chance.
The Nasser divisions rushed to this channel, abandoning expensive and still combat-ready Soviet equipment along the way. At the same time, they did not know: the Mitla and Giddi passes, the main transport routes to Suez, had already been captured by Israeli troops. Two divisions of the IDF, boldly thrown in this way into the enemy's rear, prepared a death trap for the Egyptians.
- "The Six Day War", E. Finkel.
Israel won that war. Yes, excellent coordination and organization of troops in the offensive was demonstrated. Yes, everything was thought out to the smallest detail - right down to the reconnaissance detachments that checked the density of the soil on the path of movement of tank columns through the Sinai Desert. Still, it would be an unreasonably loud and self-confident statement to present this "beating of babies" as an outstanding example of the art of leadership. With about the same success, 200 conquistadors of Francisco Pizarro defeated the Inca empire.
Captured T-54/55 were massively converted into heavy armored personnel carriers "Akhzarit"
… The chief of staff gives orders to non-existent units, the army abandons combat-ready equipment and runs to the canal … I wonder what the Six Day War would look like if, instead of the Egyptian army, the Israelis were opposed … Wehrmacht!
In order to avoid various vile associations, let's assume that these will be good Germans - without gas vans and Tiger tanks. The technical equipment fully corresponds to the Egyptian army of the 1967 model (or, if desired, 1948, when the first Arab-Israeli war happened). In this context, of interest are the military leadership skills of commanders, the competence of commanders of all levels, the moral and volitional qualities of personnel, technical literacy and the ability to handle equipment. Moshe Dayan vs. Heinz Guderian!
Oh, that would be a terrible battle - the Israelites would fight with the tenacity of the doomed. And yet - in how many hours would the Germans have broken through the front and thrown the IDF into the sea?
This metaphysical experiment is not as far from reality as you think. In history, there is a case of meeting of the "captains of heaven" from Hal Haavir with the same desperate "saviors of the galaxies" from a non-Arab country. You probably already guessed what came of it …
The background is as follows. On October 31, 1956, the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim El Aval (formerly British HMS Mendip) shelled the port of Haifa, but was attacked from the air by Israeli Air Force fighter-bombers. Caught in a hurricane of fire, the Egyptians chose to throw out the "white flag". The captured destroyer was towed to Haifa and subsequently served in the Israeli Navy as a training ship with the trivial name "Haifa".
Surrendered Ibrahim El-Aval is towed to Haifa
British sloop "Crane"
Another case is much less known. Three days later, Hel Haavir's planes again attacked an unidentified ship in Aquaba Bay, mistaking it for an Egyptian one. However, that time the pilots miscalculated - the White Ensign fluttered in the wind on the ship's flagpole.
Her Majesty's sloop "Crane" took an unequal battle with five jet "Mysters" of the Israeli Air Force. Already on the third approach, one of the planes spread its smoky tail and crashed into the sea. The rest of the Israeli pilots realized that something was wrong, such a strong anti-aircraft fire does not look like the Egyptian. The fighters prudently abandoned further attacks and withdrew from the battle. The Crane's sailors repaired the damage and went on their way.
Isn't that a good reason to think?
