Word: canallers
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...country this brilliant, aggressive and fiercely devoted soldier would stand out as a talented strategist. The mastermind behind Egypt's assault on the formidable Bar-Lev Line on the east side of the Suez Canal, Shazli, 52, has long awaited his chance to prove the Arabs' military prowess. Educated at the Egyptian military academy and trained in the Soviet Union, he has been an officer since the first Palestine war of 1948. After the 1967 Six-Day War, he commanded Egypt's "special forces" and later the elite commando unit that forayed across the Suez Canal into...
Driving south to the Sinai along a road built before the Romans came to Egypt, we found virtually all traffic going one way-toward the Suez Canal. Among the endless convoys of military trucks and Jeeps were the motley fleets of civilian vehicles mobilized for the war. In the first days of the fighting, Tel Aviv had been nearly emptied of all taxis and trucks-and here in the desert you could see why. Private delivery vans, called up in the mobilization, were now at the front, still bearing the markings of the milk or bread companies that they served...
...talked with a noncommissioned officer nearby who had just returned from the canal. A grizzled oldtimer in his 50s, fighting his fourth war against the Arabs, he seemed to take the emergency in stride. "The Egyptians have much better equipment than ever before," he said. "It is helping them fight better than I have ever seen them." Then he laughingly motioned toward a young officer and exclaimed: "That kid was not even born when I was fighting in the 1948 war. Now I'm taking orders from...
...headed farther west, getting closer to the canal, we encountered clusters of tanks stopped by the roadside, their crews relaxing. Some of the low-slung Fattens and big Centurions were waiting to advance. Others were serving as a defense against possible Egyptian commando leapfrog raids behind Israeli lines. Those Israelis who had already been in battle were telling fearful tales about some of Egypt's new Soviet-supplied weapons, especially the SA-6 missile, which has taken a devastating toll of Israeli jets. These soldiers also spoke with respect of the new Russian-made antitank weapon...
Nonetheless, the Israelis exuded confidence, some of which bordered on the fanciful. For example, when noting the enormous concentration of Egyptian tanks and troops on the east bank of the Suez Canal, one Israeli officer remarked: "I'm not sure that tactically we didn't want them to come across, since our ultimate objective is to demolish their military machine." Yet by the end of the week, that development was far off. In Sinai, the Israelis had still to deliver a victorious counterattack...