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

Battle of Tilfit-Zababida

6 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 Ram Armd Bde, 5,350 men under Col Ram) attacked Jordan (Jor 40th Armd Bde(-)(+), 5,450 men under Lcol El Khalidi) in Jordan. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.8 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right rear against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 250 (5%), Jordan 250 (5%).

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

Col Ram

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	1,090
Israel centre	Infantry	1,453
Israel right wing	Infantry	1,090
Israel reserve	Infantry	908
Israel artillery (24 guns)	Artillery	360
Israel armour (90 tanks)	Armour	450
Col Ram	Commander	—
In this plan		5,351

Jordan

Lcol El Khalidi

Unit	Arm	Men
Jordan left wing	Infantry	1,150
Jordan centre	Infantry	1,533
Jordan right wing	Infantry	1,150
Jordan reserve	Infantry	958
Jordan artillery (24 guns)	Artillery	360
Jordan armour (60 tanks)	Armour	300
Lcol El Khalidi	Commander	—
In this plan		5,451

What the sources report

	Israel	Jordan
Strength, this plan	5,350	5,450
Losses, this plan	250	250

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 552, “Tilfit-Zababida”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 11.8 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 1 km (attacker), 4.5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	5,350	250	0	24	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration
Jordandefender	5,450	250	0	24	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · 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. 552 · 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.