Operation Raviv
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Operation Raviv (, Drizzle), also known in Egypt as the Zaafarana accident () or the Ten-Hour War, was a mounted raid conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
's
Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
coast during the
War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...
. Taking place on September 9, 1969, Raviv was the sole major ground offensive undertaken by the IDF against Egypt throughout the war. The operation saw Israeli forces masquerading as Egyptian troops and using captured Arab armor.


Background

As the War of Attrition raged along the Suez Canal in the summer of 1969, Israel was hard-pressed to find a solution to Egypt's superiority in both manpower and artillery. With Operation Boxer it had begun employing the
Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...
as "flying artillery", yet these operations were under the constant threat of expanding Egyptian air defences. Furthermore, the static nature of the war meant not all of Israel's assets, including its ground forces and their superior mobility, were being put to use. Adopting a policy that has been described as "temporary escalation for the sake of eventual de-escalation",Aloni 2009, p. 22. the Israeli government decided to take the fight to the Egyptians, drawing Egyptian forces from the Suez Canal zone while striking a blow against air defences along the exposed Egyptian flank.Gawrych 2000, p. 111.


Prelude

The planning of ''Operation Raviv'' was carried out jointly by the Armored Forces Command under Major General Avraham Adan and the Israel Navy under Rear Admiral
Avraham Botzer Avraham Botzer (; 25 July 1929 – 2 June 2012) was the Commander of the Israeli Navy between 1968 and 1972. :he:אברהם בוצר Israel Defense Forces: Navy. Biography Pre-establishment of the State of Israel Botzer was born in 1929 in Po ...
. A dedicated task force was set up for the raid, composed of troops from various units. It was led by Lieutenant Colonel Baruch "Pinko" Harel, with Major Shlomo Baum as his second in command. The raid was to be carried out by Israeli armor and infantry masquerading as Egyptians. Israeli troops wore Egyptian uniforms and used Arab hardware captured during the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...
which had been introduced into service with the IDF; the force was to use Tiran 5 tanks (IDF designation for the T-55) and
BTR-50 The BTR-50 (BTR stands for ''Bronetransporter'' (), literally "armored transporter") is a Soviet Union, Soviet tracked Amphibious vehicle, amphibious armored personnel carrier (APC) based on the PT-76 light tank chassis. The BTR-50 was developed ...
armored personnel carriers, camouflaged with the Egyptian sand-coloured scheme.Shalom 2007, p. 428. The tanks were manned by crews from the IDF Armor school and each commanded by an officer. Infantry was provided by the reconnaissance company of the 7th Armored Brigade, augmented by Arabic speaking members of Sayeret Matkal. The crossing of the Gulf of Suez was to be carried out using the
landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...
of the navy's Shayetet 11 and was to be secured by
Shayetet 13 Shayetet 13 () is a naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy and one of the primary sayeret, reconnaissance units of the Israel Defense Forces. Shayetet 13 specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence ...
naval commandos. Assisting the embarkation and disembarkation of the armored force fell to Unit 707, the navy's underwater works unit. After training for six weeks, the force came together at its staging point at Ras Sudar in early September 1969. The armored vehicles arrived at night to avoid detection. On September 7, 1969,
Shayetet 13 Shayetet 13 () is a naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy and one of the primary sayeret, reconnaissance units of the Israel Defense Forces. Shayetet 13 specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence ...
commandos carried out ''Operation Escort'', raiding the
Egyptian Navy The Egyptian Navy (), also known as the Egyptian Naval Forces, is the maritime branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces. It is the largest navy in the Middle East as well as Africa, and is the twelfth largest (by the number of vessels) navy in the w ...
anchorage at Ras Sadat. Arriving on a pair of ''Maiale'' (Pig) human torpedoes, the eight operators attached limpet mines to two P-183 torpedo boats before withdrawing and detonating their charges from a distance. The sinking of the two boats served a dual purpose, preventing the interception of the Israeli landing craft and their cargo, while drawing Egyptian attention north from the planned point of disembarkation. Despite the operation's successful execution, Shayetet 13 suffered three fatalities when the self-destruct mechanism of one of the ''Maiales'' accidentally went off as the commandos were making their way back across the Gulf of Suez.


Battle

"Pinko" Harel's small force of about a hundred men, six Tiran 5s and three BTR-50s, landed on the Egyptian coast at 03:37AM on the morning of September 9. Delivered by three landing craft of Shayetet 11 to a beachhead secured by
Shayetet 13 Shayetet 13 () is a naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy and one of the primary sayeret, reconnaissance units of the Israel Defense Forces. Shayetet 13 specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence ...
, Harel's force landed at El Hafair, south of
Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...
and south of the anchorage at Ras Sadat.Aloni 2001, pp. 63–64. Laden with extra fuel and ammunition, the force headed south, wreaking havoc behind Egyptian lines and attacking installations along the way. The first of these was the Egyptian Army camp and radar site at Abu Darag, which by 07:17 had been secured. Masquerading as an Egyptian force, the raiders met no significant resistance and had little trouble overcoming the surprised and lightly armed troops guarding Egyptian installations, ill-equipped to repel enemy tanks. An Egyptian armored force was camped north of the landing point, but not only were the raiders driving away from it, but also created obstructions to cover their rear. Blowing down rock formations overhanging the road, the force was able to hinder any pursuing force. Supporting the ground forces were the air force's A-4 Skyhawks, providing continuous aerial cover. Two four-ship formations from 109 Squadron departed Ramat David in the morning, the first tasked with suppressing an
SA-2 The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system. It is built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the ...
battery and the second providing
close air support Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires ...
to the troops. As Israeli forces were advancing according to plan and meeting little resistance, the latter were directed to attack an Egyptian radar site. The lead Skyhawk, however, was lost in the attack. Flight leader Major Hagai Ronen was last seen hanging beneath his parachute over the Gulf of Suez and is still missing in action. 102 Squadron provided additional close air support. After the destruction of a radar site at , the force came within sight of another Egyptian armored force but was ordered to disengage. After covering 45 km and operating unhindered for over 9 hours in Egyptian territory, the force rendezvoused once again with the 11th Flotilla landing craft. From Ras Zafarana it was ferried back to Israeli-held territory in the Sinai, having suffered a single light injury throughout. The Egyptian Army suffered an estimated 100-200 casualties, including two
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
military advisors, and had 12 outposts destroyed.Herzog 2005, p. 212.


Aftermath

On September 10, shocked and angered by news of the raid, Egyptian president Gamel Abdel Nasser suffered a heart attack. Upon recovery, ten days later, he dismissed the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff, General Ahmad Ismail Ali, the Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Navy, Vice Admiral Fouad Abu Zikry, the commander of Egypt's Red Sea District, as well as a number of other officers. Having been caught off guard, Egypt had to respond and on September 11 launched a large 102-aircraft raid on Israeli positions in the Sinai.Nicolle and Cooper 2004, pp. 30–31. During this action a single MiG-17 was shot down by Israeli air defences, while the Israeli Air Force claimed the destruction of five
MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...
s and two
Sukhoi Su-7 The Sukhoi Su-7 ( NATO designation name: Fitter-A) is a swept wing, supersonic fighter aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in 1955. Originally, it was designed as a tactical, low-level dogfighter, but was not successful in this role. On the ...
s for the loss of a single Dassault Mirage. Its pilot, Giora Romm, was taken prisoner. Egypt claimed the destruction of three Israeli aircraft.


Notes


References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Operation Raviv Conflicts in 1969 1969 in Egypt Raviv Raviv September 1969 in Africa