Goland heights
It led straight from the main Syrian breakthrough points to Nafah, which was not only the location of Israeli divisional headquarters but the most important crossroads on the Heights.ĭuring the night, Israeli forces successfully held back numerically superior Syrian forces. This roadway would prove one of the main strategic hinges of the battle. Within six hours of the initial assault, the first Israeli line of defense was overrun by sheer weight of numbers, but the Israelis continued to resist.Ī Syrian tank brigade passing through the Rafid Gap turned northwest up a little-used route known as the Tapline Road, which cut diagonally across the Golan. However, the Syrians pressed the attack in spite of their losses, and the vastly outnumbered defenders lost a number of tanks. Having practiced on the Golan Heights numerous times, Israeli gunners made effective use of mobile artillery. Syrian forces suffered heavy losses as Israeli tanks and infantry fought desperately to buy time for reserve forces to reach to front lines, and conducted stopgap blocking actions whenever the Syrians were on the verge of breaking through. The Israelis destroyed one Syrian missile battery and lost six aircraft. Codenamed Doogman 5, the attempt was a costly failure. On the second day of the war, the Israeli Air Force attempted to take out the Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. However, the Syrian Air Force repeatedly struck Israeli positions during this period. Israeli aircraft dropped both conventional bombs and napalm, devastating Syrian armored columns. The Israeli Air Force initially lost 40 planes from Syrian anti-aircraft batteries, but Israeli pilots soon adopted a different tactic flying in low over Jordan and diving in over the Golan heights, catching the Syrians in the flank and avoiding many of their batteries. Also as in the Sinai, the Syrians made use of Soviet anti-tank weapons, though they were not as effective as in the Sinai because of the uneven terrain. Israeli reserve forces approaching the Golan Heights were subjected to Syrian artillery fire directed from Mount Hermon.Īs the Egyptians had in the Sinai, the Syrians took care to stay under cover of their SAM batteries. The Syrians had expected it to take at least 24 hours for Israeli reserves to reach the front lines in fact, reserve units began reaching the battle lines only 15 hours after the war began. They were assigned to tanks and sent to the front as soon as they arrived at army depots, without waiting for the crews they trained with to arrive, machine guns to be installed on the tanks, or taking the time to calibrate the tank guns (a time-consuming process known as bore-sighting). Reservists were directed to the Golan as quickly as possible. The Golan however, was in close proximity to Israeli population centers, and should the Syrians regain the area, it would pose a serious threat to major Israeli cities such as Tiberias, Safed, Haifa and Netanya. The fighting in the Sinai was sufficiently far away that Israeli population centers were not immediately threatened. The Golan Heights front was given priority by the Israeli High Command. An Israeli force attempting to counterattack was stopped by a Syrian ambush. Syrian commandos dropped by helicopter also took the most important Israeli stronghold at Mount Hermon, which had a variety of surveillance equipment. Every Israeli tank deployed on the Golan Heights was engaged during the initial attacks. In addition, the Syrians deployed two armoured divisions from the second day onwards. The engineering vehicles were priority targets for Israeli gunners and took heavy losses, but Syrian infantrymen, braving intense fire, advanced forward and used their entrenching tools to build up earthen causeways for the tanks, enabling them to overcome anti-tank ditches.Īt the onset of the battle, the Israeli brigades of some 3,000 troops, 180 tanks and 60 artillery pieces faced off against three infantry divisions with large armour components comprising 28,000 Syrian troops, 800 tanks and 600 artillery pieces. The forward brigades of three divisions then penetrated the cease-fire lines and bypassed United Nations observer posts, followed by the main assault force, which was covered by mobile anti-aircraft batteries, bulldozers to penetrate anti-tank ditches, bridge-layers to overcome obstacles and mine-clearance vehicles. They began their attack with an airstrike by about 100 aircraft and a 50-minute artillery barrage. In the Golan Heights, the Syrians attacked two Israeli brigades and eleven artillery batteries with five divisions and 188 batteries.