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

Deversoir (Chinese Farm I)

15 October 1973
Egypt
Victory for Israel

All battles Battle of the Chinese Farm: engagement 1 of 3 The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

One of the 3 engagements of the Battle of the Chinese Farm recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 1 in date order). Israel (Is Sharon Div, 22,790 men under Mg Sharon) attacked Egypt (Eg 16th Div(1/2) & 21st Div(1/2), 30,970 men under Bg Hafiz & Bg Owby) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 19 hours of fighting on a front of 14 km, a single envelopment, right rear against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 100 (0%), Egypt 500 (2%).

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

Mg Sharon

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	4,711
Israel centre	Infantry	6,282
Israel right wing	Infantry	4,711
Israel reserve	Infantry	3,926
Israel artillery (96 guns)	Artillery	1,440
Israel armour (344 tanks)	Armour	1,720
Mg Sharon	Commander	—
In this plan		22,790

Egypt

Bg Hafiz · Bg Owby

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	5,851
Egypt centre	Infantry	7,801
Egypt right wing	Infantry	5,851
Egypt reserve	Infantry	4,876
Egypt artillery (322 guns)	Artillery	4,646
Egypt armour (389 tanks)	Armour	1,945
Bg Hafiz & Bg Owby	Commander	—
In this plan		30,970

What the sources report

	Israel	Egypt
Strength, this plan	22,790	30,970
Losses, this plan	100	500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 576, “Deversoir (Chinese Farm I)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 19 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 14 km (attacker), 14 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	22,790	100	0	96	Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration; Stalemate
Egyptdefender	30,970	500	0	322	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · 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. 576 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of the Chinese Farm · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.