Schematic plan · Arab-Israeli War, 1967 (Six-Day War)

Battle of Jerusalem

5 June 1967
Jordan
Victory for Israel

A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.

Israel (Is Gur Para Bde(+), 27,682 men under Bg Narkiss) attacked Jordan (Jor 27th Inf Bde (Jerusalem Bde)(+), 13,600 men under Bg Ata Al) in Jordan. The CAA Database of Battles records 27.9 hours of fighting on a front of 11 km, a double envelopment against fortified defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 1,750 (6%), Jordan 1,500 (11%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Israel

Bg Narkiss

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	6,275
Israel centre	Infantry	8,367
Israel right wing	Infantry	6,275
Israel reserve	Infantry	5,229
Israel artillery (72 guns)	Artillery	1,080
Israel armour (91 tanks)	Armour	455
Bg Narkiss	Commander	—
In this plan		27,681

Jordan

Bg Ata Al

Unit	Arm	Men
Jordan left wing	Infantry	3,086
Jordan centre	Infantry	4,115
Jordan right wing	Infantry	3,086
Jordan reserve	Infantry	2,572
Jordan artillery (36 guns)	Artillery	540
Jordan armour (40 tanks)	Armour	200
Bg Ata Al	Commander	—
In this plan		13,599

What the sources report

	Israel	Jordan
Strength, this plan	27,682	13,600
Losses, this plan	1,750	1,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 550, “Jerusalem”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 27.9 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense
Front width: 11 km (attacker), 11 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	27,682	1,750	0	72	Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Jordandefender	13,600	1,500	0	36	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 550 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.