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DDH - The Yom Kippur War · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

• 0:00
  History is strange, it's alien, and it won't give us what we
• 0:04
  would like to have. The morning of October 6th,
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  1973, there was a peaceful calm which had settled over Israel.
• 0:16
  It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
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  It's a day of fasting and prayer and introspection, and the
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  streets were empty as Israelis went to the synagogues to
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  observe the solemn holiday. There was a quiet stillness
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  across the land, but it was a silence that would soon be
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  shattered. At around 2:00 PM, the
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  unthinkable happened. Without any warning, Egypt and
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  Syria launched coordinated surprise attacks On Israel was a
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  strike that came on two fronts. The Egyptian army surging across
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  the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula while Syrian forces
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  stormed into the Golan Heights. This was no small skirmish, this
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  was a full scale war carefully planned and executed invasion.
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  The Yom Kippur War had begun, the Egyptian front would see the
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  1st wave of action. The Egyptian artillery began
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  pounding Israeli positions along the Suez Canal with a ferocity
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  that stunned the Israeli troops was called Operation Badar.
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  For weeks the Egyptians had been preparing for this exact moment.
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  Over 200,000 troops with tanks, heavy artillery stood ready to
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  make their move. The Bar Lev Line, Israelis
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  defense force along the the Suez, had been built after the
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  Six Day War in 67 and was considered nearly impregnable.
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  But like most fortifications, it wasn't.
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  The Egyptians had a plan. Using water cannons, they
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  blasted through the sand embankments of the Bar Lev Line,
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  which created pathways for their troops to cross the canal.
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  In a matter of hours, Egyptian soldiers had flooded into the
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  Sinai. Israeli soldiers stationed along
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  the Barlev line were taken by surprised, outnumbered and
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  overwhelmed. Many were killed or captured.
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  The Egyptians had achieved their initial goal, breaking through
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  the Israelis line first line of defense in the Sinai.
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  By the end of the day, they had established several bridge heads
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  across the Suez Canal and the victory that they had been
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  yearning for since 1967 seemed within reach.
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  While this was all happening in the South, an equally intense
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  battle was raging in the north. In the Golan Heights, Syrian
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  forces, heavily equipped with Soviet tanks, artillery and
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  aircraft launched a massive assault on the Israeli
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  positions. Syrian troops were determined to
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  reclaim the Golan, which they had lost during the Six Day War.
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  The Israeli forces stationed there were outnumbered 12:50,
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  and the Syrians advanced quickly, using their numerical
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  security to catch Israel off guard.
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  Syrians made significant progress on the first day,
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  pushing the Israelis back and capturing key positions,
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  particularly in the southern part of the Golan Heights.
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  The battle was fierce, Israeli tanks and infantry fighting
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  desperately to hold the line, but the sheer size of the Syrian
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  attack made it nearly impossible for them to maintain their
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  positions. Israel's response on this first
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  day was frantic but methodical. The Israeli Air Force scrambled
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  to retaliate, sending fighter jets to the Egyptian and Syrian
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  fronts. However, they faced an
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  unexpected obstacle. Both Egypt and Syria had been
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  armed with Soviet made surface to air missile systems, which
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  effectively neutralized Israel's air superiority.
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  Many Israeli planes were shot down.
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  The pilots who survived returned home with grim reports of their
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  inability to breakthrough Arab air defenses on the ground.
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  Israel's armored units were hastily mobilized.
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  However, the Israeli army was structured in such a way that a
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  significant portion of its strength relied on reserve
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  forces, many of whom were still observing.
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  Yom Kippur with their families took time to get the reservists
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  to their units, and time was something Israel did not have.
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  By the evening of October 6th, Israeli leaders realized that
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  they were facing a war far more dangerous, far more complex than
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  they had anticipated. In the Sinai, Egyptian forces
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  continued their push, meeting less resistance than they had
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  expected. They were emboldened by their
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  early success, and the Golan the situation was even more dire.
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  Israeli commanders struggled to maintain any semblance of
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  control as the Syrian tanks poured into Israeli held
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  territory. By the end of the first day, the
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  situation looked bleak for Israel.
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  The surprise had worked. Egypt and Syria had successfully
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  launched a well coordinated attack, catching Israel at a
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  vulnerable moment. Israeli losses were heavy,
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  particularly in the air. Egyptian and Syrian forces had
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  made significant gains, and for the first time since the state's
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  founding, Israel was facing a genuine threat to its survival.
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  That night, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, Defense
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  Minister Moshe Diane met with the military high command.
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  Mood was somber, even fearful. Israel had always prided itself
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  on the ability to defend itself against multiple adversaries,
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  but this time it was different. This time, Israel was not
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  dictating the terms of the fight.
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  Egypt and Syria were in control. As the sun went down on October
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  6th, 1973, Israel's fate hung in the balance.
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  The war had only just begun. The road ahead would be long and
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  bloody, But for the soldiers on the front lines and on the banks
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  of the Suez Canal and the rocky slopes of the Golan Heights, the
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  first day had been a shock loss and the realization that Israel
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  and they in the fight of their lives.