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

Battle of Ismailia

19 October 1973
Egypt
Victory for Egypt

All battles 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.

Israel (Is Sharon Div, 17,000 men under Mg Sharon) attacked Egypt (Eg 2nd Army(-), 23,860 men under Mg Kalil) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 50 hours of fighting on a front of 20 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Egypt held. Losses: Israel 600 (4%), Egypt 1,800 (8%).

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	3,542
Israel centre	Infantry	4,723
Israel right wing	Infantry	3,542
Israel reserve	Infantry	2,952
Israel artillery (72 guns)	Artillery	1,080
Israel armour (232 tanks)	Armour	1,160
Mg Sharon	Commander	—
In this plan		16,999

Egypt

Mg Kalil

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	4,938
Egypt centre	Infantry	6,584
Egypt right wing	Infantry	4,938
Egypt reserve	Infantry	4,115
Egypt artillery (137 guns)	Artillery	2,055
Egypt armour (246 tanks)	Armour	1,230
Mg Kalil	Commander	—
In this plan		23,860

What the sources report

	Israel	Egypt
Strength, this plan	17,000	23,860
Losses, this plan	600	1,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 579, “Ismailia”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 50 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 20 km (attacker), 20 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	17,000	600	0	72	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Egyptdefender	23,860	1,800	0	137	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages training +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. 579 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Ismailia · 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.