The armored brigade had three battalions of forty tanks each. The infantry and mechanized infantry brigades each had three infantry battalions, a battalion of forty tanks, an anti-aircraft (AA) artillery battalion and a field artillery battalion. Each Syrian infantry division had one infantry brigade, one mechanized infantry brigade, and one armored brigade. The actual number of Syrian tanks was about 1,260. The Syrian 7th Division was one of the units ready to attack. Israeli Intelligence estimated that Syria had more than 900 tanks and 140 batteries of artillery immediately behind the Syrian line. Nafakh was an important military base at the junction of the Petroleum Road, which crosses diagonally the northern Golan Heights, and a road which leads down to the strategic Bnot Yaakov Bridge over the Jordan River and into northern Israel. By 12:00 on Yom Kippur, 6 October, the brigade was concentrated in the Nafakh area. Without notifying his superiors, he took them on a tour of the front line. He held a meeting with his battalion commanders to go over the main points of the operational plans that were previously implemented in the Israeli Northern Command. He ordered his artillery troops to survey the area and prepare targets and firing tables. The brigade commander Avigdor Ben-Gal concluded that something would happen on Yom Kippur.
On Yom Kippur eve (5 October), the Israeli 7th Brigade was ordered to move one battalion to the Golan Heights to strengthen the Barak Armored Brigade, under the command of Yitzhak Ben Shoham. Although massively outnumbered, the Israeli forces managed to hold their positions and on the fourth day of the battle the Syrians withdrew, just as the Israeli defenses were almost at the point of collapse.īackground An Israeli Sho't Kal, an upgraded Centurion tank The Valley of Tears ( Hebrew: עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא, Emek HaBakha) is the name given to an area in the Golan Heights after it became the site of a major battle in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, known as the Valley (or Vale) of Tears Battle, which was fought from 6 October to 9 October.
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