Time Astra

Schematic plan · Arab-Israeli War, 1973 (October War)

Second Army Buildup

All battlesOperation Badr (1973): engagement 3 of 5The event in the chronicleWikipedia
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.
Rolling, Desert groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveArmourArmourGuns010 km20 kmN

One of the 5 engagements of the Operation Badr (1973) recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 3 in date order). Egypt (Eg 2nd Army, 63,910 men under Mg Mamoun) attacked Israel (Is Sinai Def Force, 14,000 men under Mg Mendler) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 22.5 hours of fighting on a front of 110 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Egypt won. Losses: Egypt 800 (1%), Israel 450 (3%).

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

Egypt

Mg Mamoun

UnitArmMen
Egypt left wingInfantry12,481
Egypt centreInfantry16,642
Egypt right wingInfantry12,481
Egypt reserveInfantry10,401
Egypt artillery (639 guns)Artillery9,585
Egypt armour (464 tanks)Armour2,320
Mg MamounCommander—
In this plan63,910

Israel

Mg Mendler

UnitArmMen
Israel left wingInfantry2,986
Israel centreInfantry3,981
Israel right wingInfantry2,986
Israel reserveInfantry2,488
Israel artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Israel armour (192 tanks)Armour960
Mg MendlerCommander—
In this plan14,001

What the sources report

EgyptIsrael
Strength, this plan63,91014,000
Losses, this plan800450

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 571, “Second Army Buildup”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
22.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Desert
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
110 km (attacker), 110 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Egyptattacker63,9108000639Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Israeldefender14,000450040Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages morale +2 · momentum +1 · surprise +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.