For Egypt the '73 was is a victory - a complete lie but like most other propaganda widely believed.
There are some things that just don’t sink in. Like the truth.
“President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Saturday that "the victory of 1973 was not a coincidence because the roots of victory and conquering hardships are deeply embedded in the soil of our great country," adding "that's how Egypt crossed the bridge between defeat and victory from 1967 to 1973."
’73 wasn’t a victory. The Egyptians got across the canal, may have gone 10ks inland in some places but Cairo and Alex were bombed by Israel whilst the Egyptian Air Force did what it usually does – loose and was basically destroyed on the ground, or in the air.
Against the advice of his chief of staff, Sadat's decision to further advance without air cover allowed the Israelis to launch a counter-offensive (thanks partly to US resupply of weaponry) deep into Egyptian territory, which turned the tide of war on Oct. 14 as a result of which Egypt lost and this war, which it initiated, ended in an ugly mess. Egypt started it, had the initiative and the element of surprise but still stuffed it. Still for the military Immortals it was a victory (specifics and details unclear) - what a bloody joke - and an absolute lie if you believe in facts.
Sadat, a big pro-Nazi in WW2 and imprisoned by the British (his judgement was always bad and the fool didn't work out that the Nazi's he supported regarded Semites as a seriously inferior race to the ruling Germans/Nordics) for this and an utterly useless military commander with no experience of putting men into actual battle, dismissed the Egyptian Chief of Staff Saad El-Shazly at a bad point of the battle and this man maintains in his book The Crossing of the Suhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/firas-alatraqchi ... 263.htmlez (still banned in Egypt) that these tactical decisions by the idiot Sadat on Oct. 14 sealed Egypt's fate. His widow ignores all this and forgets that her foolish husband's decision killed thousands of Egyptians who would not have died under competent generalship - which her husband was not. Her lack of remorse for the stuff ups is exactly what you expect of this rotten ruling class.
By Oct. 24, the Israeli Army was 80 km. from Cairo and 40 km. from Damascus and the Egypt Airforce destroyed. Mubarak was head of the airforce but his failure was seen as a great strength – as it is in Egypt.
The Egyptian Army Engineers stand out. Their performance was the worst of the worst in badly organizing the canal crossing. Not much better nowadays. Its a country that worships engineers but at every point they have proved themselves useless - as they are today.
1973 wasn’t just Egypt’s stuff up.
Here is the list of the help on the 1973 War against Israel which shows that even with a lot of assistance they failed in a huge way and couldn't manage a drink in a pub:
Russia – lots of planes, tanks and military advice, satellite photos and threat to intervene.
Pakistan – sent some pilots who flew Syrian planes.
Cuba – 4,000 troops.
North Korea – 20 pilots.
Libya – troops (numbers unclear but in their thousands) and two squadrons of fighter planes.
Morocco – One infantry brigade, one armed regiment, 52 combat aircraft plus money – 5,500 troops
Saudi and Kuwait – 3,000 troops – followed up with oil embargos which cost them a lot.
Tunisia – 1,000-2,000 troops.
Lebanon – radar units.
Sudan – 3,500 troops.
Jordan – troops but a secret agreement with Israel that they wouldn’t attack Israel if Israel didn’t attack them. King Hussein had flown in secret to Israel just before the war to warn Golda Meir of an imminent attack. They didn’t want to support Egypt and Syria but had to be publically seen to do so.
Algeria – a squadron of fighter planes, an armored brigade of 150 tanks and about $US200 million (in modern money about $US800 million).
Iraq - a squadron on planes and maybe a large number of troops.
Cuba – 1,500-4,000 troops.
Syria – 150,000 troops, 1,200 tanks etc. – performed worse than poorly.
All the external assistance was uncoordinated, with few supplies and little logistical support. Many of the overseas units performed poorly and their Russian technology wasn’t much good. Planning, communications, command structures, intelligence and officer skills of the whole enterprise were also not much good. In a number of cases Generals in the field lied to their superiors to conceal their defeat/problems. As ever initiative was punished. Nothing much has changed
As usual there was disaster at the core. Nasser’s son-in-law was an Israeli spy who alerted the Israeli’s that the Egyptians and Syrians were going to attack. He later died/was murdered/suicided/was killed/fell off a balcony in London.
This map of the positions at the ceasefire shows the small Israel got more Egyptian territory than the other way around and the Egyptian 3rd army encircled. They also got Syrian territory.
Casualties - a measure of who won/lost. Egypt’s figures are unreliable but probably 20,000 dead for their side, Israel about 2,800.
Only a desperado could argue that the Israeli army 80ks from Cairo, your airforce destroyed, your army encircled, the Syrian army and airforce destroyed was a victory. It was part of a long line of defeats. After the war Egypt was completely bankrupt which forced Sadat into the US embrace – and its cash injections.
To admit this was another failure – 1947-48, 1956, Yemen in the 60’s, 1967 and 1973 would raise questions why the military junta were still allowed to run the country after failing on their specialty 5 times. Most would say they were useless - get rid of the fools.
Its pathetic, but possible with a media that has been controlled and propagandistic since 1952 and which tells only lies developed by an educated Egyptian middle class who support the Junta, do their work, and doesn’t care about the truth. The truth is that the people who have run Egypt since 1952 are worse than useless except in relation to telling lies about their failures. Al Pravda still pumps out these lies. If they were useless militarily why would you assume they would be better than useful politically or economically. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... pts--.aspx
On leaked documents from generals in the 1st Iraq war the Egyptian army was worse than useless. It was so bad that they were sent home and excluded from the victory march bye given to all other participants on the allied side. Even the Kuwati's couldn't tolerate their demand that their image be maintained in the face pf their practical uselessness.
