Key Facts
- Date of launch
- 6 October 1973
- Frontline length
- 160 kilometres (99 miles)
- Territory seized (depth)
- ~15 km along entire eastern Suez bank
- Planning began
- Training exercises from 1968; operational planning from 1971
- Fortification destroyed
- Bar-Lev Line, Israeli defensive chain in Sinai
Strategic Narrative Overview
On 6 October 1973, Egyptian combat engineers used water cannons to breach the sand wall on the Suez Canal's eastern bank, rapidly laying bridges and running ferries to move five infantry divisions across. Israel's military was caught off guard by the attack's scale. By 7 October the crossing was complete, and despite an Israeli armoured counterattack near Ismailia, Egyptian anti-tank weapons repelled it and forces consolidated a 15-kilometre-deep bridgehead along the entire front.
01 / The Origins
Following Egypt and Syria's territorial losses in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, both nations sought to recover the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights respectively. During the subsequent War of Attrition, Egyptian military planners began preparing a large-scale offensive as early as 1968, developing a deception strategy and operational plan from 1971 onward to surprise Israeli forces holding the fortified Bar-Lev Line along the Suez Canal.
03 / The Outcome
By 8 October, Egypt held a continuous strip of territory on the Suez Canal's eastern bank, effectively neutralising the Bar-Lev Line. Egypt also imposed naval blockades in the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Israel eventually halted the Egyptian advance and launched a southern counterattack, but the operation's early successes triggered the broader Yom Kippur War and are commemorated today by Cairo's 6th of October Panorama and the October War Panorama in Damascus.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.