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

Battle of Jebel Geneifa

19 October 1973
Egypt
Victory for Israel

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 Adan Div(+), 16,200 men under Mg Adan) attacked Egypt (Eg 3rd Army(-), 35,633 men under Mg Wassel) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 34 hours of fighting on a front of 18 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Israel won. Losses: Israel 300 (2%), Egypt 1,650 (5%).

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 Adan

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	3,334
Israel centre	Infantry	4,445
Israel right wing	Infantry	3,334
Israel reserve	Infantry	2,778
Israel artillery (48 guns)	Artillery	720
Israel armour (318 tanks)	Armour	1,590
Mg Adan	Commander	—
In this plan		16,201

Egypt

Mg Wassel

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	7,240
Egypt centre	Infantry	9,654
Egypt right wing	Infantry	7,240
Egypt reserve	Infantry	6,034
Egypt artillery (213 guns)	Artillery	3,195
Egypt armour (454 tanks)	Armour	2,270
Mg Wassel	Commander	—
In this plan		35,633

What the sources report

	Israel	Egypt
Strength, this plan	16,200	35,633
Losses, this plan	300	1,650

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 580, “Jebel Geneifa”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 34 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 18 km (attacker), 18 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Israelattacker	16,200	300	0	48	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Egyptdefender	35,633	1,650	0	213	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 580 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.

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.