Preparation for the war
The
late president Al-Sadat said in his book
"In Search of Identity"
( On 30 of
September 1973, I convened the national security
council, I asked the members to give their opinion
in the situation, some of them called for war but
the others were hesitant. The minister of supply
said that the present provision would not be enough for a
long battle.
After everyone talked about the battle
and the condition of the country, I
said to them "everyone gave his word but I would
like to say that our economy now equals zero and we
have commitments to banks which we can not
fulfill it. After
two months when the year of 1974 comes, we will not
be able to provide a loaf of bread to citizens, we
will not be able to ask any of the Arab countries
for one dollar, because they will answer that they pay
the Suez Canal subsidy (because canal was closed
since 1967) and there is no war.")
Source:
Book of the late president Al-Sadat "In
Search of Identity"
The
Egyptian military historian Gamal Hammad said about the
preparation for war in his book "The war operations on
the Egyptian front" ( The problem of how to
cross the Suez canal which forced the Egyptian leadership to innovate a combat
uniform that could carry all weights of infantryman in
a proper way after it had been discovered that the old
one was no longer suitable, the ordnance department
made many
attempts in this subject, till it reached the required
results. Before the end of October 1972, fifty
thousand of new combat uniforms put into
use. The capacity of soldier water bottle increased
to 2.5 liter instead of ¾ of a liter, to be
enough for a complete day.
Because
of heavy weights of a soldier, infantry corps were
provided with carriages that can be pulled by hands
for 5 kilometers and could carry 150 kilogram of
munitions and military weapons over
untracked roads.
Infantryman was provided with many
of modern weapons. In the middle of 1972, infantry
units were provided with lighting tools which were
operated by the infrared rays or enlarging star
lights. In addition to these modern tools, there
were simple tools such as black glasses, which were
used by soldier, when enemy used Zinon rays to blind
our soldiers’ eyes, our soldier could wear these
black glasses then, launching a missile to the source
of light to destroy it.
One of the simple tools is
the rope ladders, it is similar to that tool which
naval units use it and its sides made of rope while
its steps are made from wood it is easy to roll and
carry it, then to stretch it on the sand
barrier (high artificial Israeli mountain of sand on
the eastern bank of the Suez Canal), by
it, the infantryman can climb the sand
barrier,
and his leg will not sink in the sand and we can put two
ladders together, upon them we can pull our cannons,
such as
B-10
and
B-11 recoilless cannons, missile
malutka,
RPG,
Strela SAM 7 for
aircrafts, medium machine
cannon 7.62 mm and heavy
machine cannon 12.7 mm, in addition, the
infantrymen can pull carriages and move on the sand barrier without sinking in the sand
Source: The
Egyptian military historian Gamal Hammad from his
book "The war operations on
the Egyptian front"
General Mohamed Abd
Al-Ghany Al-Gamasy, said in his
memoirs ( President Al-Sadat gave a strategic
direction to general commander Ahmed Ismail in 10th
of Ramadan – 5th of October 1973 as
follow:
Upon
military strategic directions of me on 1 of October
1973, and upon conditions and political situations
I give the order to the military forces to do the
following strategic jobs.
- Break the status-quo and cease-fire on 6 of October 1973.
- Causing a great loss to
the enemy in
individuals and weapons.
- Libration the occupied land (Sinai) on stages depending on
the development and
capability of armed forces.
These
steps should be executed by the Egyptian Armed Forces only, or
in co-operation with the Syrian Military Forces.
When
General Ismail informed me about these strategic
directions, I asked to know reasons for which
president Sadat sent this message, although we had
the strategic direction dated on 1 of October 1973 which asked for war.
The strategic goal was defined
and the
plan of operation that would be executed was completely
clear for him, and the war would start on 6th
of October. General Ahmed Ismail told me that he
asked for that direction to make the issue clear for
history. )
Source:
October War 1973, second
edition 1998. General Mohamed Abd Al-Ghany Al-Gamasy
chief of operations of
Egyptian Army during the
war.
