1973 · East of the Suez Canal, Egypt: the Chinese Farm (the al-Galaa agricultural station) north of the Great Bitter Lake, and the Akavish and Tirtur roads
The Chinese Farm
Your role: You command 890th Paratroop Battalion, 35th Paratroop Brigade, Israel Defense Forces. Alerted in the afternoon, the battalion has just arrived from southern Sinai by aircraft, bus and helicopter. Attached to 162nd Armoured Division, it goes into the ditches south of the Chinese Farm tonight. The brigade commander follows the battalion with the reserve.
Commander's intent: Before first light, clear the anti-tank teams from the ditches south of the Chinese Farm, open the Akavish and Tirtur roads and get the bridging equipment through to the canal.
One decision from this battle · The ditches at Tirtur-42
0245, 17 October, at the southern edge of the Chinese Farm east of the Suez Canal. The paratroop battalion came in by night to open the Tirtur road to the Israeli crossing point, with no reconnaissance, no artillery liaison officer and no tanks. At marker Tirtur-42 fire suddenly pours in: machine guns on the banks, anti-aircraft guns firing direct, mortars and Saggers. The enemy looks like a battalion of the Egyptian 16th Infantry Brigade dug into the ditch banks. The leading company commander reports that most of the fire is going wide and he can push on. Division's guns can only fire deep: the battalion is too close to the enemy to bring the fire in. First light is about three hours away.
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