iscover
Sword of David
0 comment
Since the devastatingly effective missions of 5th June 1967, the Heyl Ha’Avir, the air arm of the Israeli Defence Force, has become a legend for deadly effectiveness. In this exciting series, Israeli defence writer, Ben-Tor, describes from interviews with IDF aircrew how modern air combat is fought and won.
October 7, 1973
MDC A-4N Skyhawk Mikoyan MIG-19 Farmer
The Yorn Kippur War of 1973 took Israel completely by surprise. The depth and ferocity of the attack on two fronts (Sinai and the Golan Heights) was something that we had never encountered before. Yorn Kippur of course is the equivalent to a Christian Christmas in terms of how a country virtually shuts down to celebrate and put aside day-to-day chores. Therefore when the first attacks came during the early afternoon of October 6, again an unusual time for a pre-emptive strike, we were largely unprepared despite a frenzied alert being given to all units earlier that morning. The basic problem was, however, that most IDF regulars and the reserves were simply not contactable.
Because of this, I myself did not fly my first combat mission till the morning of the next day. This mission, in my squadron’s A-4N Skyhawk, was in support of our beleaguered troops in the Golan region. Facing more than a thousand Syrian tanks with twice that number of APCs and light armoured recce vehicles were less than two hundred Israeli tanks. The only way to stop Syria from regaining the Golan and avalanching down into the Huleh Valley was by concentrated air power. My first mission was like something out of a nightmare. Three A-4s flew at tree top level into a cloud of smoke, fire and dust in an effort to hit the leading tank columns. Their defence was absolute as the Syrians had brought an immense number of air defence weapons with them including a new missile that our ECM jammers and Sam Song radar warning receivers did not seem to disturb. Above one hundred feet the SAMs were all over you, below that height you had to come to grips with the terrain and the radar-guided tracked ZSU-23/4 cannons which many of us considered even more effective than the SAMs. That mission ended with us successfully hitting ground targets largely through their sheer density rather than our usual precision-based techniques. It was a nightmare and a miracle that we egressed safely. The next mission, however, would not be so successful!
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Australian Aviation a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Australian Aviation as a preferred news source.
