Word: canallers
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...ended, the newspapers began reporting the massive tank battles that were raging in Sinai. Red-bannered headlines blared: SAVAGE ARMOUR BATTLES ALL DAY AND NIGHT. Yet neither the government nor the papers had yet admitted the true extent of the Israeli advances on the west bank of the Suez Canal. Apparently oblivious to the Israeli troops less than 60 miles away, Cairenes continued to crowd the cafes of New Street, where men sat sipping thick coffee and intently playing chess and backgammon. Worshipers gathered at the mosque of Zeinab for noon prayers. Peddlers, as always, hawked their roses...
...about that Israeli task force operating on the west bank of the Suez Canal?" we asked the senior officer, who walked with the stiff waddle characteristic of an aging warrior. He removed his goggles, revealing the dark eyepatch that left no doubt about who the officer was. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan replied coyly: "That is, how you say, the $64,000 question." Dayan was relaxed, confident, even nonchalant as he met reporters on the tarmac of a small airfield in the Sinai. He gave the impression that the Israeli task force was not in any trouble...
When we returned for a second look at the Sinai, the Israelis had gone on the offensive and some of their units had even crossed the canal. In the southern sector they had already regained considerable territory occupied by Egyptian troops and we drove to within a few miles of the canal in two places. Everywhere the Israeli troops displayed ebullient confidence. "Yes, there are a few Egyptians left down there," said one trooper. "But they won't be there long. It will end for all of us very soon...
...troops was the exodus of many senior commanders from a permanent command post in the middle of the Sinai. When we asked where these officers had gone, we were told with a wink that they were "far forward." We assumed that meant on the Egyptian side of the canal...
...decisive new weapon in the Middle East fighting to date is the Soviet SAM6 surface-to-air missile, which had never before been used in combat. The Israelis encountered it on the Sinai front while their aircraft were attempting to knock out the pontoon bridges placed across the Suez Canal by the Egyptians. In the first two days of fighting, 40 Israeli planes were shot down near the canal, most of them by SAM6 batteries. The missile was equally devastating over the Golan Heights, protecting the Syrians from the foil fury of the Israeli air force and exacting a heavy...