Time Astra

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

Third Army Buildup

All battlesOperation Badr (1973): engagement 4 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 wingReserveArmourArmourGunsWassel010 km20 kmN

One of the 5 engagements of the Operation Badr (1973) recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 4 in date order). Egypt (Eg 3rd Army, 45,160 men under Mg Wassel) attacked Israel (Is Sinai Def Force, 10,980 men under Mg Mendler) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 22.5 hours of fighting on a front of 54 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Egypt won. Losses: Egypt 750 (2%), Israel 400 (4%).

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 Wassel

UnitArmMen
Egypt left wingInfantry8,841
Egypt centreInfantry11,788
Egypt right wingInfantry8,841
Egypt reserveInfantry7,367
Egypt artillery (555 guns)Artillery6,774
Egypt armour (310 tanks)Armour1,550
Mg WasselCommander—
In this plan45,161

Israel

Mg Mendler

UnitArmMen
Israel left wingInfantry2,371
Israel centreInfantry3,162
Israel right wingInfantry2,371
Israel reserveInfantry1,976
Israel artillery (24 guns)Artillery360
Israel armour (148 tanks)Armour740
Mg MendlerCommander—
In this plan10,980

What the sources report

EgyptIsrael
Strength, this plan45,16010,980
Losses, this plan750400

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 572, “Third 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
54 km (attacker), 38 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Egyptattacker45,1607500555Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Israeldefender10,980400024Defensive/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.