Israeli defense doctrine relies on the standing army to hold the line with air support while the reserves are mobilized. That attack coincided with a similar onslaught by Egyptian forces along the Suez Canal, suddenly forcing Israel to fight a two-front war. On October 6, 1973, during Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, a Syrian armored force of 1,400 tanks backed by more than 1,000 artillery pieces and supporting air power began a coordinated assault along the 36-mile-long Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights in the north of Israel. With two Syrian brigades advancing on the headquarters and no Israeli reserves in sight, defending the headquarters–left in the hands of infantrymen supported by only two trackless tanks mustered from the camp’s repair depot–seemed almost futile.
The Israeli general in charge of the entire front had abandoned his nearly surrounded headquarters (HQ) and retired to a makeshift command post a few kilometers back.
The Syrians’ Soviet-style massive frontal assault was too much to bear, and the Israeli front lines had already collapsed. Yom Kippur War: Sacrificial Stand in the Golan Heights Closeĭefeat seemed to be imminent for the state of Israel.
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