The Crocodiles That Helped Win the Yom Kippur War

How 16 low-end amphibious boats made a 1973 victory possible for Israel

- URI KAUFMAN

Fifty years ago, on October 6, 1973, Egypt launched a surprise attack against Israel from the south on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. In a coordinated strike, the Syrian army simultaneously attacked from the north. The Arabs sought revenge and the recovery of territory lost to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel's army took control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Yom Kippur War, which lasted until October 24, was not the rout Egypt and Syria had hoped for. Instead, after many initial missteps, Israel was able to repulse the invading armies. One key to Israel's advance in the south was getting across the Suez Canal into Egypt. The excerpt below from Uri Kaufman's book EIGHTEEN DAYS IN OCTOBER: THE YOM KIPPUR WAR AND HOW IT CREATED THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST (St. Martin's Press, August) details how amphibious boats-the least likely of Israel's options to bring troops and artillery across the canal-moved 120 vehicles in 30 hours and made the ceasefire which ended the conflict possible. Israel's victory in 1973 resulted in a series of "Separation Agreements" that forced its Arab neighbors to withdraw their armies far from any future battlefield. Thus deprived of any military option, the Arabs were faced with a stark choice: make peace with losing the 1967 lands or make peace with Israel. Egypt's Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979 and received the Sinai Peninsula in return. Syria's leaders-Hafez el-Assad and his son Bashar el-Assad-refused to make peace, and the Golan Heights remains under Israeli control today. As Kaufman says in his book, "the surrounding of the Egyptian Third Army, the early end of the war, the signing of the Camp David peace treaty five years later were all made possible by discarded, secondhand vehicles bought for $5,000 a copy. Military history contains few examples of such a good return on such a trivial investment."