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

Battle of Bir Hassna-Bir Thamada

7 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, 8,700 men under Bg Yoffe) attacked Egypt (Eg 3rd Inf Div, 3,000 men under Mg Ghoul) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 8.8 hours of fighting on a front of 7 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left rear against prepared defense and delaying action, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 60 (1%), Egypt 550 (18%).

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	1,740
Israel centre	Infantry	2,320
Israel right wing	Infantry	1,740
Israel reserve	Infantry	1,450
Israel artillery (48 guns)	Artillery	720
Israel armour (146 tanks)	Armour	730
Bg Yoffe	Commander	—
In this plan		8,700

Egypt

Mg Ghoul

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	586
Egypt centre	Infantry	781
Egypt right wing	Infantry	586
Egypt reserve	Infantry	488
Egypt artillery (24 guns)	Artillery	360
Egypt armour (40 tanks)	Armour	200
Mg Ghoul	Commander	—
In this plan		3,001

What the sources report

	Israel	Egypt
Strength, this plan	8,700	3,000
Losses, this plan	60	550

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 560, “Bir Hassna-Bir Thamada”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 8.8 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Delaying action
Front width: 7 km (attacker), 7 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	8,700	60	0	48	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left rear; Breakthrough
Egyptdefender	3,000	550	0	24	Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · morale +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +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. 560 · 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.