The War of Atonement: The Inside Story of the Yom Kippur War (Greenhill Military) ebook

by Chaim Herzog

The Yom Kippur War: Still Relevant After all These Years.

The Yom Kippur War: Still Relevant After all These Years. The coordinated attack that began on the sixth of October in 1973 (Yom Kippur-the holiest day in the Jewish calendar) was initiated and carried out by Egypt and Syria in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights respectively.

The origins of the war in the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as is the build-up of Arab forces that almost caught Israel by surprise, and the realisation of the Israeli leadership that they would once again have to fight against overwhelming odds for the survival of their state.

The War of Atonement book.

The origins of the war amid the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as is the build-up of Arab forces that almost inexplicably caught Israel by surprise.

The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the .

The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the two-pronged invasion. An analysis of the political implications of the conflict bring this epic tale to a close. This is the most comprehensive work on a conflict that has had major implications for our own troubled times

The Yom Kippur War was the last major war fought between multiple Arab states and Israel. Most people recall that Egypt and Syria launched a surprise simultaneous attack against Israel on Yom Kippur. But by the war’s end, Israel was also fighting troops from Iraq, Morocco, and Jordan.

The Yom Kippur War was the last major war fought between multiple Arab states and Israel. During the war, Egypt and Israel engaged in the largest tank battle since the Battle of Kursk in World War II. In addition, this was the first war where the combatants engaged in naval battles using ship-to-ship guided missiles rather than naval guns or torpedoes.

Very good book on the strategy of the war as told from the Israeli point of view.

The Inside Story of the Yom Kippur War. By Chaim Herzog. About The Book The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the two-pronged invasion. Introduction by Michael Herzog. The origins of the war amid the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as is the build-up of Arab forces that almost inexplicably caught Israel by surprise. The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the two-pronged invasion.

The War of Atonement: The Inside Story of the Yom Kippur War. Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-935149-13-2. Chaim Herzog on IMDb. Appearances on C-SPAN.

This is the authoritative account of the Israeli Army's performance in the bitter Yom Kippur War of 1973 and it is being reissued on the 30th anniversary of that conflict. The origins of the war in the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as are the build-up of Arab forces that almost caught Israel by surprise, and the realization of the Israeli leadership that they would once again have to fight against overwhelming odds for the survival of their state. A gripping narrative of the conflict itself, punctuated by first-hand accounts and interviews with combatants, The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery. An analysis of the political implications of the conflict brings this epic tale to a close. For this edition Chaim Herzog's son, Colonel Michael Herzog, has written an Introduction which places the book in the context of his father's achievements and gives a revealing insight of the man himself. This is the most comprehensive work on a conflict that has had major implications for our own troubled times.

Delan

Generally good, the book was written in 1975 and therefore does not benefit from more recent revelations. It is very much written from the Israeli side, with very limited Egyptian and almost no Syrian sources. The 2009 re-release adds nothing except a forward from the author's son.

True to his Israeli army training on operational security, Herzog leaves out the last names of most brigade, battalion, and company commanders. Given the book was re-released in 2009, the author's son or the editors could've filled in the last names for these commanders, whose last names can be found in other books on this war. After all, "Colonel Avigdor" Kahalani's amazing tank battles in the goal on Heights are well known throughout the world.

While Herzog acknowledges the IDF's avoidance of well-established combined arms doctrine in favor of naked tank rushes, which cost them hundreds of casualties and dozens of lost tanks, he betrays his own bias toward the armored core by listing every tank battalion and brigade with its unit number, whereas he never mentions the battalion and brigade numbers of infantry or paratrooper units, except for the 31st paratrooper brigade.

Herzog also has no mention of the massive American airlift of tanks, missiles, and other munitions and military supplies during the war. Israeli soldiers still use some of these supplies in 2015, and refer to the American air left as "the air train". Nor does he mention how the US and the Soviet Union almost came to blows, and Nixon's declaration of Defcon 3. It is very much told from the perspective of Israel.

I appreciated the maps distributed throughout the book within chapters covering each few days of battle, although in the hardcover book the middle of the two-page maps was impossible to read because of the gutter caused by the binding.

Lastly, there are multiple instances where navigation direction is wrong. For example, Herzog will write that an Israeli unit is to the west of the Suez Canal in the early days of the war, when in fact it is to the east.

Biaemi

Good info ,good book.

Jusari

Very good book on the strategy of the war as told from the Israeli point of view. I recommend it to anyone interested in the events that took place during the Yom Kippur War.

Bodwyn

It is a tremendous book. A very deep and detailed insight, on the step by step of the escalade of
the Yom Kippur War. A lesson by itself.

Oghmaghma

a book

Faegal

This tightly written work is gripping reading!!! FIRST, it gives a comprehensive political background from the 1967 Six Day War through the coordinated Egyptian-Syrian attack commencing at 2 p.m., October 6, 1973. [I opened an Excel spreadsheet and created an 86-entry "time line" from 1967 through Oct 6, 1973; other readers may find it useful to do likewise. I wish the author had included this tool...).] SECOND: The 9 maps in this book are EXCELLENT. Almost every geographical locaction mentioned in the text appears on the maps. The theater maps identify major geographical and military unit locations without becoming cluttered; the maps clarify and complement the text. THIRD: The writing is terse, detailed, and riviting with lots of fascinating detail. (The first 24 hours were hair-raising! ...And the story of the Israeli breakthrough north of Great Bitter Lake, followed up with encirclement of the 3rd Egyptian Army,is white-knuckle reading!) It came as a sh! ock to me to discover that the Israelis were not totally taken by surprise by the attack. In the last two days before hostilities broke out, it was obvious a war was imminent -- but the Israelis projected a 6 p.m. start. The onslaught began four hours earlier (a compromise between the Egyptians who wanted a p.m. offensive so the sun wouldn't be in their eyes, and the Syrians, who wanted an a.m. attack for the same reason!) FOURTH: This war was in fact two wars, very dissimilar from each other: the Golan Heights war; and the Suez Canal war. Each is fully covered, in exquisite detail, unit by unit, hour by hour. FIFTH: It would have been useful if the author had included tables of organization, and orders of battle for the three major armies involved, but the work is still highly readable without them. SIXTH: Chapter 18, Lessons and Implications, is the capstone of this work. An example of the style (p. 274) : "At the higher level the Egyptian strategy was excellent, co! mbining as it did strategic offense with tactically defensi! ve operations, for as soon as they were across the Canal they deployed in narrow bridgeheads and waited for the Israeli forces to attack. The wide crossing of the Canal dissipated the force of the Israel Air Force and the very nature of the attack ... guaranteed them a number of footholds.... [T]here was no room for the Israeli forces to exercise their superiority in the war of maneuver." SUMMARY: Time spent reading this work is well spent. It is a lovingly crafted work of military history. It is amazing that it was first published only two years after the Yom Kippur War took place! Though written by an Israeli, it gives credit to the high caliber of the Egyptian and Syrian efforts; one wonders what they could have acheived if they hadn't become married to Soviet military doctrines and organization.....