Having assumed office in 1970 the new Egyptian strongman President Anwar Sadat wanted to restore his country's stature in the region. When his overtures for a peace treaty with Israel were rebuffed he settled on the catchphrase "No War, No Peace" to encapsulate his own policy toward Jerusalem. Still confident about Egypt's role in the Arab world he made plans for assembling a pan-Arab coalition and tried to build a separate alliance with the United States. In 1972 he went as far as sending thousands of Soviet advisors and engineers home knowing full well their work was essential to the Egyptian armed forces and other endeavours, such as the prestigious Aswan High Dam.
In 1972, however, the mood in Cairo was tense. The War of Attrition in the Sinai Peninsula, where Israeli and Egyptian forces skirmished regularly, had resulted in no gains after several years. With the Soviets back in the fold preparations were made for a settling of accounts with Israel. To prepare for the war Egypt fielded the latest weapons delivered to its armed forces. This time, a combination of hubris and flawed decision-making by Israel's defence ministry blinded its government to the looming threat. The spirit of 1967 and the heroic generals who had achieved its spectacular victories was alive and well, for better or worse.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war
