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

Battle of Tel El Hara

13 October 1973
Syria
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.

Iraq (Ir 3rd Armd Div, 12,500 men under Bg Lafta) attacked Israel (Is 240th Armd Div, 14,300 men under Mg Laner) in Syria. The CAA Database of Battles records 0.5 hours of fighting on a front of 12 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Israel held. Losses: Iraq 450 (4%), Israel 50 (0%).

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

Iraq

Bg Lafta

Unit	Arm	Men
Iraq left wing	Infantry	2,363
Iraq centre	Infantry	3,150
Iraq right wing	Infantry	2,363
Iraq reserve	Infantry	1,969
Iraq artillery (71 guns)	Artillery	1,065
Iraq armour (318 tanks)	Armour	1,590
Bg Lafta	Commander	—
In this plan		12,500

Israel

Mg Laner

Unit	Arm	Men
Israel left wing	Infantry	2,834
Israel centre	Infantry	3,779
Israel right wing	Infantry	2,834
Israel reserve	Infantry	2,362
Israel artillery (60 guns)	Artillery	900
Israel armour (318 tanks)	Armour	1,590
Mg Laner	Commander	—
In this plan		14,299

What the sources report

	Iraq	Israel
Strength, this plan	12,500	14,300
Losses, this plan	450	50

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 596, “Tel El Hara”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 0.5 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rugged, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 12 km (attacker), 20 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Iraqattacker	12,500	450	0	71	Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Israeldefender	14,300	50	0	60	Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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. 596 · 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.