Israel and the War of Attrition [Archive]

S'13

12-27-2004, 03:31 PM

One of the many daring operations the IDF carried out during the War of Attrition.

Operation "Escort"
On the eve of the 7th of September, 1969, in the midst of the War of Attrition, a group of fighters from Shayetet 13 (the Israeli Naval Commando) reached the Egyptian harbor of Ras-Sadat. At 22:05 pm they found their targets, two missile boats which were used to patrol the north of the Suez Canal and which could jeopardize the IDF's plans to carry out an armored raid on the western bank of the canal. Two pairs of Israeli frogman attached explosive charges to the sides of the two ships. Before dawn on the 8th of September, 1969, the two Egyptian ships left their harbor in order to conduct a patrol. Suddenly there was an explosion on one of the two ships, as a result the ship was beginning to sink. The second ship hurried towards the sinking ship when a second explosion ripped a giant hole in its bottom the second ship then ran aground and was taken out of use. This is the outcome of Operation "Escort" which enabled the IDF to proceed to and execute Operation "Raviv".

Operation "Raviv"
On the night of the 8th September, 1969, 6 tanks and 3 APC'S were loaded on 3 landing crafts at Ras-Soder in the Sinai peninsula. All of these were Egyptian tanks and APC'S which were captured by the IDF, this in order to confuse the Egyptians. The landing force was secured by Israeli naval boats and naval commandoes. The landing began at 03:37 am on the 9th of September, 1969, 40 kilometers south of the Egyptian city of Suez. Immediately the armored landing force advanced south and managed to advance for over 50 kilometers, while doing so the force wreaked havoc behind the Egyptian lines, attacking Egyptian guard points, radar stations, military vehicles and other military targets. In the operation a Soviet general was run over and killed while he was driving along the route the landing force was taking. After 10 hours the force was evacuated and returned home safely.

All in all 150 Egyptians were killed, 2 Egyptian missile boats were sunk and only 4 Israeli soldiers were killed, out of which 3 were S'13 fighters who were killed on their way back to base after completing their mission in Operation "Escort". They died after a charge in their boat accidentally went off.

http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/tiran/tiran5.jpg

IDF T-54's (Tiran 4)

http://www.davidpride.com/Israeli_Armor/images/IL_Armor156.jpg
Captured B.T.R-50 APC's were also used in Operation "Raviv"