By Sarah Saad
More than 50 year after the October 6th Victory, the Egyptian Defence Ministry has unveiled, for the first time, new documents, handwritten by army commanders, during the 1973 war.
Posted on the ministry’s official website, the new and rare documents contain plans, handwritten by army commanders then, of preparations for the October 1973 war and the management of operations.
The documents also contain plans for liquidating the Defersoir Gap, destroying the land barrier and the outline of strategic military preparation for various phases of the war until ceasefire.
Ways of liquidating the Defersoir Gap as presented in both the Shamel and Shamel Revised plans are included in the newly unveiled documents.
The published materials also include the plans for disengagement and withdrawal of Israeli troops in addition to some remarks by the then army commanders.
The Defence Ministry emphasised that Egyptian military strategic planning for the October 1973 War amounted to the highest levels of world military thinking, noting that such planning included the politico-military directive issued by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces together with Commander-General’s decisions regarding operational and supplementary plans.
Aspects of relevance to these preparations include the organization of strategic co-operation, supervision, revision and plan testing, the ministry wrote. The materials also document the role of the Egyptian media, in particular military media, during preparations and planning for the war, as well as its role in developing the regional and international effect.
Regarding the Defersoir Gap, the documents indicated that that that gap was a failed attempt to downside the volume of the Egyptian victory, exaggerate Israel’s military action and preserve Israel’s face in the only real war it fought in the front of the Egyptian army despite US support and the heavy losses Israel incurred as a price for opening a path to the western side of the Suez Canal.
