Time Astra

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

Battle of Tel Fahar-Banias

All battles
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.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingGunsReserveArmourGunsArmour02 km4 kmN

Israel (Is Golani Bde, 5,375 men under Col Efrat) attacked Syria (Syr 11th Inf Bde(+), 8,160 men under Col Amir) in Syria. The CAA Database of Battles records 12.5 hours of fighting on a front of 6.5 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 300 (6%), Syria 850 (10%).

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 Efrat

UnitArmMen
Israel left wingInfantry1,192
Israel centreInfantry1,589
Israel right wingInfantry1,192
Israel reserveInfantry993
Israel artillery (24 guns)Artillery360
Israel armour (10 tanks)Armour50
Col EfratCommander—
In this plan5,376

Syria

Col Amir

UnitArmMen
Syria left wingInfantry1,616
Syria centreInfantry2,155
Syria right wingInfantry1,616
Syria reserveInfantry1,347
Syria artillery (70 guns)Artillery1,050
Syria armour (75 tanks)Armour375
Col AmirCommander—
In this plan8,159

What the sources report

IsraelSyria
Strength, this plan5,3758,160
Losses, this plan300850

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 565, “Tel Fahar-Banias”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
6.5 km (attacker), 6.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Israelattacker5,375300024Frontal attack; Penetration
Syriadefender8,160850070Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · morale +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

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.