Bar Lev Line
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Bar-lev fortification.jpg
The Bar Lev Line was a chain of fortifications built by Israel along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal after it captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The $500 million line, named after Israeli Chief of Staff Chaim Bar-Lev, was claimed to be the longest (about 160 KM) and strongest forward defense line in the history of warfare. It consisted of earthen ramparts and a series of concrete observation posts positioned every 10-12 kilometers along the canal with extra fortifications at the more likely crossing points. The earthen ramparts were constructed over a unique water barrier and had an average height of 20 to 22 meters and a 45 degree incline on the side facing the canal. Each post held about 15 men, their primary task to give warning of any Egyptian attempt to cross the canal and direct artillery fire on them from batteries well in the rear. Behind the canal the Israelis held small armored and artillery units, and further back there were bases at which were stockpiled the weapons and equipment for reserve brigades, which could be mobilized within 24 hours of any attempt to cross the canal. The Israelis expected their artillery and air force to keep any canal crossing force busy until the reserve brigades could get moving towards the canal.
The line was divided into 20 strongholds. Some of the names of the strongholds were Tasa, Maftzach, Milano, Mezach, Chizayon, Mifreket, Orcal, Budapest (the largest), Nisan, Lituf, Chashiva.
The line was wildly popular with the Israeli public but some generals were very critical of it.
During the Yom Kippur War (October 1973 War) the Egyptians were able to easily overrun the Bar Lev Line due to the element of surprise and overwhelming material superiority. To deal with the massive earthen ramparts the Egyptians used hoses attached to dredging pumps in the canal to pump out powerful jets of water; this enabled them to create 81 breaches in the line and remove three million cubic metres of packed dirt on the first day of the war.
Of the 441 men in the sixteen forts on the Bar-Lev line at the start of the War, 126 were killed, and 161 captured. Only Budapest, in the extreme North near the mediterranean city of Port Said, would hold out for the duration of the war, while all the rest would be overrun. (The Yom Kippur War, Rabinovich, 351)
According to the historian Rabinovich, strategically, the Bar-Lev line was a blunder — too lightly manned to be an effective defensive line and too heavily manned to be an expendable tripwire. Moreover, some say the idea of the line was counter-intuitive to the strengths of Israeli battle tactics which in their core relied on agile mobile forces moving rapidly through the battlefield rather than utilizing a heavy reliance on fixed defenses.
Ariel Sharon, who was appointed in 1969 to the commander of the southern frontier, criticized the static defence of the Bar-Lev line, and proposed an agile and mobile defence, instead. Still, he fortified the line to provide better defence to the IDF troops in the War of Attrition.
References
- The Yom Kippur War : The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East by Abraham Rabinovich. ISBN 0805241760ar:خط برليف