Veterans...Get the hell in here now!

BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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On 22 August, Task Force Ranger, consisting of one company of Rangers from 3/75, a special forces unit, and a deployment package of the 160th SOAR (A), was ordered to deploy to Mogadishu, Somalia. They departed on 26 August.

The mission of the 160th SOAR (A) as defined by the task force commander was: “When directed, [to] deploy to Mogadishu, Somalia; [to] conduct operations to capture General Aideed and/or designated others. The aviation task force must be prepared to conduct two primary courses of action: moving convoy and strong point assault. . . . Success is defined as the live capture of General Aideed and designated individuals and recovery to the designated transload point; safely and without fratricide.”

In Mogadishu the task force occupied an old hangar and old construction trailers under primitive conditions. During the month of September, the force conducted several successful missions to arrest Aideed sympathizers and to confiscate arms caches. The aircraft also made frequent flights over the city to desensitize the public to the presence of military aircraft and to familiarize themselves with the narrow streets and alleys of the city.

On the afternoon of 3 October 1993, informed that two leaders of Aideed’s clan were at a residence in central Mogadishu, the task force sent 19 aircraft, 12 vehicles, and 160 men to arrest them.

During the mission, one of the Rangers fast-roping from an MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, missed the rope and fell 70 feet to the street below, badly injuring himself.

The two leaders were quickly arrested, and the prisoners and the injured Ranger were loaded on a convoy of ground vehicles. Armed Somalis were converging on the target area from all over the city.

In the meantime, another MH-60, call sign Super 61 and piloted by CW4 Clifton P. Wolcott and CW3 Donovan Briley, was flying low over the street a few blocks from the target area, and was struck from behind by an rocket propelled grenade (RPG). The MH-60 crashed to the street below.

The convoy and the Somali crowds immediately headed for the crash site. An MH-6 Little Bird, call sign Star 41, piloted by CW4 Keith Jones and CW3 Karl Maier, landed in the street next to the downed MH-60 and attempted to evacuate the casualties. Both Wolcott and Briley had been killed in the crash. Jones went to assist survivors, successfully pulling two soldiers into the Little Bird, while Maier laid down suppressive fire from the cockpit with his individual weapon.

Under intense ground fire, the MH-6 departed with its crew and survivors. In the meantime, Blackhawk Super 64, with pilot CW3 Michael Durant, copilot CW4 Raymond Frank, and crewmembers SSG William Cleveland and SSG Thomas Field, moved in to take Super 61’s place in the formation.

As Super 64 circled over the target area, an RPG suddenly struck it. The Blackhawk’s tail rotor was severely damaged, and the air mission commander ordered it back to the airfield. En route to the airfield, the tail rotor and much of the rear assembly fell off, and the helicopter pitched forward and crashed.

Meanwhile the ground convoy had lost its way, and rescue forces were already overtaxed at the site of the first Blackhawk crash. As armed Somalis rushed toward the Super 64 crash site, the crew’s only hope came from SFC Randall Shughart and MSG Gary Gordon aboard the covering Blackhawk, Super 62, who volunteered to jump in and protect the crew of the downed helicopter. They would ultimately sacrifice their lives for their downed comrades. Durant and Frank had both suffered broken legs in the crash, and both of the crew chiefs were severely wounded.

A large crowd of Somalis, organized by the local militia, surrounded the crew and their rescuers and engaged in a fierce firefight, killing all but Durant. Then, they rushed the downed pilot, severely beating him and taking him prisoner. Meanwhile another Blackhawk carrying a rescue team arrived over the crash site of Super 61 and the 15-man team fast-roped to the ground.

They found both Wolcott and Briley already dead, but crew chiefs Staff Sgt. Ray Dowdy and Staff Sgt. Charlie Warren were still alive in the wreckage. It took hours to pry Wolcott’s body from the wreckage. In the meantime, the soldiers set up a perimeter to protect against attack from Somali militia and armed civilians and awaited the arrival of a convoy from the 10th Mountain Division to rescue them.

The militia had taken Mike Durant captive, planning to trade him for Somali prisoners. But before they could get him back to their village, they were intercepted by local bandits, who took Durant, intending to use him for ransom. He was taken back to a house where he was held, interrogated, and videotaped. Later, after Aideed paid his ransom, Durant was moved to the apartment of Aideed’s propaganda minister.

After five days, he was visited by a representative of the International Red Cross and interviewed by British and French journalists. Finally, after ten days, with the intervention of former U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Robert Oakley, he was released and flew home to a hero’s welcome. The mission was over.

The 160th SOAR (A) had been involved in the fiercest battle since the Vietnam War. It had lost two MH-60 aircraft with two more severely damaged, suffered eight wounded and five killed in action, and had had one of its pilots taken captive. Despite the public perception that this was a failed mission, Task Force Ranger did take into custody and delivered the two leaders from Aideed’s clan, resulting in mission accomplishment. President Clinton expressed sorrow at the deaths of American soldiers in Somalia, but reaffirmed those U.S. forces would stay in the African nation.

That 2-day action resulted in awards of 2 Medals of Honor (both posthumously), 1 Air Force Cross, and at least three dozen Silver Stars including awards to 2 Air Force personnel, 5 Navy Seals, and two dozen or more Army soldiers, pilots, Rangers, and Delta Force members.

www.armyupress.army.mil

Battle of Mogadishu

From an NCO perspective, the Battle of Mogadishu presents how leaders must be proactive in planning and following mission command principles. This helps leaders make sound decisions appropriate to the situation and prepares them for the challenges ahead.
www.armyupress.army.mil
en.wikipedia.org

Battle of Mogadishu (1993) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
FirstCavApache64

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
A guy I served with was with 10th Mountain Division over there when all that happened. It was a shit show of epic proportions. The heroism shown by individuals that day is mind boggling. I know a couple guys from the 160th too, they're a crazy bunch. We did a joint operation with them down in Mexico and got to hang out a lot as we didn't have much to do. Pilots are a wild bunch, but SOAR pilots are a special breed lol
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:

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Yom Kippur War, also called the October War, the Ramadan War, the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973, or the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, fourth of the Arab-Israeli wars, which was initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. It also occurred during Ramadan, the sacred month of fasting in Islam, and it lasted until October 26, 1973. The war, which eventually drew both the United States and the Soviet Union into indirect confrontation in defense of their respective allies, was launched with the diplomatic aim of persuading a chastened—if still undefeated—Israel to negotiate on terms more favourable to the Arab countries.

The Six-Day War (1967), the previous Arab-Israeli war, in which Israel had captured and occupied Arab territories including the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, was followed by years of sporadic fighting. Anwar Sadat, who became Egypt’s president shortly after the War of Attrition (1969–70) ended, made overtures to reach a peaceful settlement if, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 242, Israel would return the territories it had captured. Israel rejected those terms, and the fighting developed into a full-scale war in 1973.

On the afternoon of October 6 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel simultaneously on two fronts. With the element of surprise to their advantage, Egyptian forces successfully crossed the Suez Canal with greater ease than expected, suffering only a fraction of the anticipated casualties, while Syrian forces were able to launch their offensive against Israeli positions and break through to the Golan Heights. The intensity of the Egyptian and Syrian assaults, so unlike the situation in 1967, rapidly began to exhaust Israel’s reserve stocks of munitions. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir turned to the United States for aid, while the Israeli general staff hastily improvised a battle strategy. The reluctance of the United States to help Israel changed rapidly when the Soviet Union commenced its own resupply effort to Egypt and Syria. U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon countered by establishing an emergency supply line to Israel, even though the Arab countries imposed a costly oil embargo and various U.S. allies refused to facilitate the arms shipments.

With reinforcements on the way, the Israel Defense Forces rapidly turned the tide. Israel succeeded in disabling portions of the Egyptian air defenses, which allowed Israeli forces commanded by Gen. Ariel Sharon to cross the Suez Canal and surround the Egyptian Third Army. On the Golan front, Israeli troops, at heavy cost, repulsed the Syrians and advanced to the edge of the Golan plateau on the road to Damascus. On October 22 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 338, which called for an immediate end to the fighting; despite this, however, hostilities continued for several days thereafter, prompting the UN to reiterate the call for a cease-fire with Resolutions 339 and 340. With international pressure mounting, the war finally ceased on October 26. Israel signed a formal cease-fire agreement with Egypt on November 11 and with Syria on May 31, 1974.

The war did not immediately alter the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it did have a significant impact on the trajectory of an eventual peace process between Egypt and Israel, which culminated in the return of the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for lasting peace. The war proved costly for Israel, Egypt, and Syria, having caused significant casualties and having disabled or destroyed large quantities of military equipment. Furthermore, although Israel had staved off any advance by Egypt to recapture the Sinai Peninsula during the war, it never restored its seemingly impenetrable fortifications along the Suez Canal that Egypt had destroyed on October 6. The results of the conflict thus required the two countries to coordinate arrangements for disengagement in the short term and made more immediate the need for a negotiated permanent settlement to their ongoing disputes.

In an effort to maintain the cease-fire between Israel and Egypt, a disengagement agreement signed on January 18, 1974, provided for Israel to withdraw its forces into the Sinai west of the Mitla and Gidi passes and for Egypt to reduce the size of its forces on the east bank of the canal. A United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force established a buffer zone between the two armies. The Israel-Egypt agreement was supplemented by another, signed on September 4, 1975, that included an additional withdrawal of forces and the expansion of the UN buffer zone. On March 26, 1979, Israel and Egypt made history by signing a permanent peace agreement that led to Israel’s full withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and to the normalization of ties between the two countries.

www.aljazeera.com

The October Arab-Israeli War of 1973: What happened?

Forty-five years since the October war in 1973, Israel still occupies Palestinian territories and Syrian Golan Heights.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com

Background & Overview - Yom Kippur War

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:

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"On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.

In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in massive numbers after being unable to wrest the island from a small number of Americans troops earlier in the month. The Japanese strength was now overwhelming, and most of those Americans left alive after the battle were taken by the Japanese off the island to POW camps elsewhere. Ninety-six (?,bb) remained behind to be used as forced labor. The Allied response was periodic bombing of the island—but no more land invasions, as part of a larger Allied strategy to leave certain Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific to basically starve in isolation.

The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the War.

Sakaibara had the 98 prisoners machine-gunned en masse on the beach. One of them managed to survive and escape the slaughter, but was recaptured shortly after, and is supposed to have been personally beheaded by the admiral. It’s said that unidentified man carved a (misdated) testimony to the crime on a nearby coral rock known as “98 Rock”: “98 US PW 5-10-43”.

Although the Japanese had hastily exhumed the murdered POWs and reburied them in a cemetery as the end of the war approached, the cover story on the “Wake Island Massacre” soon cracked.

After the war, Sakaibara was taken into custody by the American occupation authorities, extradited to Guam, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal for war crimes in connection with his actions on Wake Island. He was hanged on June 18, 1947. Until the end, he maintained, "I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure."

 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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Florida Army National Guardsmen help residents evacuate Pine Island, Fla., Sept. 30, 2022. Guardsmen assisted state and local partners with Hurricane Ian relief. Photo By: Army Sgt. 1st Class Trinity Bierley

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A National Guard soldier delivers aid to residents of Englewood, Fla., during relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Oct. 5, 2022. Englewood is located in Charlotte County, one of the areas most heavily impacted by the hurricane. Photo By: Army Spc. Christian Wilson​
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in British Military History:
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The Battle of Loos took place from September 25 and ended on October 8, 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. 142 tons of chlorine gas was released with mixed results; in places the gas was blown back onto British trenches, while in others it caused the Germans considerable difficulty. Due to the inefficiency of contemporary gas masks, many soldiers removed them as they could not see through the fogged-up eyepieces or could barely breathe with them on, which led to some being affected by their own gas. The British gas attack failed to neutralize the defenders and the artillery bombardment was too short to destroy the barbed wire or machine gun nests.

The French and British tried to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement. Despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment, the Franco-British attacks were largely contained by the Germans, except for local losses of ground. The battle was the third time that specialist Royal Engineer tunnelling companies were used to dig under no-man's-land, to plant mines under the parapets of the German front line trenches, ready to be detonated at zero hour.

German tactical defensive proficiency was still dramatically superior to the British offensive planning and doctrine, resulting in a British defeat.

British casualties in the main attack were 48,367 and they suffered 10,880 more in the subsidiary attack, a total of 59,247 losses from the 285,107 British casualties on the Western Front in 1915. James Edmonds, the British official historian, gave German losses in the period 21 September – 10 October as  26,000 of 141,000 casualties on the Western Front during the autumn offensives in Artois and Champagne. In Der Weltkrieg, the German official account, 6th Army casualties are given as 29,657 to 21 September; by the end of October losses had risen to 51,100 and total German casualties for the autumn battle (Herbstschlacht) in Artois and Champagne, were given as 150,000 men. About 26,000 of the German casualties were attributable to the Battle of Loos.

54 Commonwealth Commanding Officers were killed or wounded in the battle. The Loos Memorial commemorates over 20,000 soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth who fell in the battle and have no known grave.

21 Victoria Crosses were awarded, among them regimental bagpiper Daniel Laidlaw nicknamed "The Piper of Loos" in the Scottish press.

Above the din and confusion of battle, the commanding officer, seeing Piper Laidlaw with his bagpipes shouted above the noise, "pipe them together Laidlaw, for God's sake pipe them together".

With complete disregard for his safety, Daniel Laidlaw climbed up onto the parapet of the trench and played to his comrades in full view of the enemy. In the face of heavy withering machine-gun fire and to the sound of 'Blue Bonnets o'er the Border' the 7th Battalion rallied and climbed out of their trenches. As the Borderers advanced forward across no-man’s land under fire, Laidlaw continued to play and struck up the Regimental Charge 'Standards on the Braes o' Mar'. Laidlaw fell wounded in front of the enemy's trenches and did not reach the German's front line.

From his VC citation: “Prior to an assault on German trenches near Loos and Hill 70 on 25th September 1915. During the worst of the bombardment, when the attack was about to commence, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his company was somewhat shaken from the effects of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard of danger, mounted the parapet, marched up and down and played the company out of the trench. The effect of his splendid example was immediate, and the company dashed out to the assault.”​

Laidlaw was quick to give credit to the other pipers who had played during the battle, and who had also rendered extraordinary service in great danger by bringing in the wounded. In particular Pipe Major Douglas Taylor, although wounded in the hand and unable to pipe, continued to bring in wounded men from the battlefield for 36 hours after the attack.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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"On October 8, 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Medal of Honor.

Born in 1887 in a log cabin near the Tennessee-Kentucky border, York was the third of 11 children in a family supported by subsistence farming and hunting. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a fundamentalist Christian around 1915. Two years later, when the United States entered World War I, York was drafted into the U.S. Army. After being denied conscientious-objector status, York enlisted in the 82nd Infantry Division and in May 1918 arrived in France for active duty on the Western Front. He served in the successful Saint-Mihiel offensive in September of that year, was promoted to corporal and given command of his own squad.

The events of October 8, 1918, took place as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive—what was to be the final Allied push against German forces on the Western Front during World War I. York and his battalion were given the task of seizing German-held positions across a valley; after encountering difficulties, the small group of soldiers—numbering some 17 men—were fired upon by a German machine-gun nest at the top of a nearby hill. The gunners cut down nine men, including a superior officer, leaving York in charge of the squad.

As York wrote in his diary of his subsequent actions: “[T]hose machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful…. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush, I didn’t even have time to kneel or lie down…. As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.”

Several other American soldiers followed York’s lead and began firing; as they drew closer to the machine-gun nest, the German commander—thinking he had underestimated the size of the enemy squadron—surrendered his garrison of some 90 men. On the way back to the Allied lines, York and his squad took more prisoners, for a total of 132. Though Alvin York consistently played down his accomplishments of that day, he was given credit for killing more than 20 German soldiers. Promoted to the rank of sergeant, he remained on the front lines until November 1, 10 days before the armistice. In April 1919, York was awarded the highest American military decoration, the Medal of Honor.

Lauded by The New York Times as “the war’s biggest hero” and by General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as “the greatest civilian soldier” of World War I, York went on to found a school for underprivileged children, the York Industrial Institute (now Alvin C. York Institute), in rural Tennessee. In 1941, his heroism became the basis for a movie, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper. Upon York’s death in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called him “a symbol of American courage and sacrifice” who epitomized “the gallantry of American fighting men and their sacrifices on behalf of freedom.”
 
wascaptain

wascaptain

Well-Known Member
i have a former plantion about 12 miles from me. thers signs like this all around my area.

well, first "they" took down general moutons statue in our town, now there are after these types of memeriols. when will it stop.

good or bad its histroy "they" are erasing.

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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
wascaptain said:
i have a former plantion about 12 miles from me. thers signs like this all around my area.
well, first "they" took down general moutons statue in our town, now there are after these types of memeriols. when will it stop.
good or bad its histroy "they" are erasing.
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Just the kind of thing you want to sit down with your kids when they're young and TALK about why there was a Civil War, what led up to it, what was right or wrong about it, and the importance of it in a historical context. Let them know that signs (and statues) like this are not a glorification of anything except the sacrifices AMERICANS made fighting for what they believed at this time in history was the right and honorable thing to do..
 
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned two ships, each with eighty sailors, “for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies.” The foe at the time was Great Britain, whose navy ruled the seas. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy had grown to about fifty ships. In 1789, the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the navy’s future by granting Congress the power “To provide and maintain a navy.”

George Washington once said that “as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive—and with it, everything honorable and glorious.” Those words are even more appropriate in the twenty-first century when U.S. interests span the globe. To serve and protect those interests the U.S. Navy today has 292 deployable ships, more than 2,626 operational aircraft, 341,996 active duty personnel, 59,152 reserve personnel, and more than 279,471 civilian employees (As of 2018)
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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"For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.

Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general."

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raratt

raratt

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:

"For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.

Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general."

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He was an asshole.
 
Dorian2

Dorian2

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:
Today in Military History:


Yom Kippur War, also called the October War, the Ramadan War, the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973, or the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, fourth of the Arab-Israeli wars, which was initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. It also occurred during Ramadan, the sacred month of fasting in Islam, and it lasted until October 26, 1973. The war, which eventually drew both the United States and the Soviet Union into indirect confrontation in defense of their respective allies, was launched with the diplomatic aim of persuading a chastened—if still undefeated—Israel to negotiate on terms more favourable to the Arab countries.

The Six-Day War (1967), the previous Arab-Israeli war, in which Israel had captured and occupied Arab territories including the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, was followed by years of sporadic fighting. Anwar Sadat, who became Egypt’s president shortly after the War of Attrition (1969–70) ended, made overtures to reach a peaceful settlement if, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 242, Israel would return the territories it had captured. Israel rejected those terms, and the fighting developed into a full-scale war in 1973.

On the afternoon of October 6 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel simultaneously on two fronts. With the element of surprise to their advantage, Egyptian forces successfully crossed the Suez Canal with greater ease than expected, suffering only a fraction of the anticipated casualties, while Syrian forces were able to launch their offensive against Israeli positions and break through to the Golan Heights. The intensity of the Egyptian and Syrian assaults, so unlike the situation in 1967, rapidly began to exhaust Israel’s reserve stocks of munitions. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir turned to the United States for aid, while the Israeli general staff hastily improvised a battle strategy. The reluctance of the United States to help Israel changed rapidly when the Soviet Union commenced its own resupply effort to Egypt and Syria. U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon countered by establishing an emergency supply line to Israel, even though the Arab countries imposed a costly oil embargo and various U.S. allies refused to facilitate the arms shipments.

With reinforcements on the way, the Israel Defense Forces rapidly turned the tide. Israel succeeded in disabling portions of the Egyptian air defenses, which allowed Israeli forces commanded by Gen. Ariel Sharon to cross the Suez Canal and surround the Egyptian Third Army. On the Golan front, Israeli troops, at heavy cost, repulsed the Syrians and advanced to the edge of the Golan plateau on the road to Damascus. On October 22 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 338, which called for an immediate end to the fighting; despite this, however, hostilities continued for several days thereafter, prompting the UN to reiterate the call for a cease-fire with Resolutions 339 and 340. With international pressure mounting, the war finally ceased on October 26. Israel signed a formal cease-fire agreement with Egypt on November 11 and with Syria on May 31, 1974.

The war did not immediately alter the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it did have a significant impact on the trajectory of an eventual peace process between Egypt and Israel, which culminated in the return of the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for lasting peace. The war proved costly for Israel, Egypt, and Syria, having caused significant casualties and having disabled or destroyed large quantities of military equipment. Furthermore, although Israel had staved off any advance by Egypt to recapture the Sinai Peninsula during the war, it never restored its seemingly impenetrable fortifications along the Suez Canal that Egypt had destroyed on October 6. The results of the conflict thus required the two countries to coordinate arrangements for disengagement in the short term and made more immediate the need for a negotiated permanent settlement to their ongoing disputes.

In an effort to maintain the cease-fire between Israel and Egypt, a disengagement agreement signed on January 18, 1974, provided for Israel to withdraw its forces into the Sinai west of the Mitla and Gidi passes and for Egypt to reduce the size of its forces on the east bank of the canal. A United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force established a buffer zone between the two armies. The Israel-Egypt agreement was supplemented by another, signed on September 4, 1975, that included an additional withdrawal of forces and the expansion of the UN buffer zone. On March 26, 1979, Israel and Egypt made history by signing a permanent peace agreement that led to Israel’s full withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and to the normalization of ties between the two countries.

www.aljazeera.com

The October Arab-Israeli War of 1973: What happened?

Forty-five years since the October war in 1973, Israel still occupies Palestinian territories and Syrian Golan Heights.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com

Background & Overview - Yom Kippur War

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
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Thank you for the history lesson. My Dad was deployed to Egypt with the UN Peacekeepers in the late 60's. Never talked about it much, if at all. I just know that he despised Camels.
 
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