Time Astra

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

Suez

All battlesBattle of Suez: engagement 3 of 3The 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 wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmourArmourGuns01 km2 kmN

One of the 3 engagements of the Battle of Suez recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 3 in date order). Israel (Is Adan Div(+), 14,681 men under Mg Adan) attacked Egypt (Eg 3rd Army(-), 22,570 men under Mg Wassel) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 25.7 hours of fighting on a front of 6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Egypt held. Losses: Israel 340 (2%), Egypt 1,100 (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

UnitArmMen
Israel left wingInfantry3,037
Israel centreInfantry4,050
Israel right wingInfantry3,037
Israel reserveInfantry2,531
Israel artillery (60 guns)Artillery900
Israel armour (225 tanks)Armour1,125
Mg AdanCommander—
In this plan14,680

Egypt

Mg Wassel

UnitArmMen
Egypt left wingInfantry4,606
Egypt centreInfantry6,141
Egypt right wingInfantry4,606
Egypt reserveInfantry3,838
Egypt artillery (139 guns)Artillery2,085
Egypt armour (259 tanks)Armour1,295
Mg WasselCommander—
In this plan22,571

What the sources report

IsraelEgypt
Strength, this plan14,68122,570
Losses, this plan3401,100

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 583, “Suez”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
25.7 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Desert
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
6 km (attacker), 6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Israelattacker14,681340060Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew; Stalemate
Egyptdefender22,5701,1000139Defensive plan; Stalemate

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

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.