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

Battle of Bir Lahfan

5 June 1967
Egypt
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 Yoffe Div, 10,450 men under Bg Yoffe) attacked Egypt (Eg 3rd Inf Div, 10,050 men under Mg Nasser) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 13.5 hours of fighting on a front of 10 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right rear against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 90 (1%), Egypt 1,350 (13%).

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 Yoffe

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	2,119
Israel centre	Infantry	2,826
Israel right wing	Infantry	2,119
Israel reserve	Infantry	1,766
Israel artillery (48 guns)	Artillery	720
Israel armour (180 tanks)	Armour	900
Bg Yoffe	Commander	—
In this plan		10,450

Egypt

Mg Nasser

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	2,023
Egypt centre	Infantry	2,698
Egypt right wing	Infantry	2,023
Egypt reserve	Infantry	1,686
Egypt artillery (48 guns)	Artillery	720
Egypt armour (180 tanks)	Armour	900
Mg Nasser	Commander	—
In this plan		10,050

What the sources report

	Israel	Egypt
Strength, this plan	10,450	10,050
Losses, this plan	90	1,350

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 555, “Bir Lahfan”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 13.5 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 10 km (attacker), 10 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	10,450	90	0	48	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right rear; Breakthrough; Pursued
Egyptdefender	10,050	1,350	0	48	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · momentum +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. 555 · 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.