Syrian/Soviet Tank Advance Formations 1973

[utbresearch]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I have a question I thought you might be able to help me with. I'm currently reading a lot about the 1973 October War, particularly the tank battles waged on the Golan Heights between Syrian and IDF forces. One detail I can't seem to find much on is the Syrian tank formations. As they advanced towards the Golan, what formation would they have been in? Everything I read describes their "masses" but there must have been some kind of organized method of advance, am I correct?

I understand that the Syrians at this time were trained by the Soviets. Would they have followed the Soviet tank doctrine under these circumstances?

I guess to sum it up, what I'm asking is when Yair Nafshi was at the crest of Booster Ridge, watching the waves of Syrian tanks advance towards him, what formation were the tanks in?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[STURM]

Have you read 'Arabs At War' by Kenneth Pollack? Whilst the author does not mention what armoured formations were employed by the Syrians, he does mention interesting other stuff, like how the Syrians adopted Soviet tactics but failed to apply them effectively.

 

[utbresearch]

Have you read 'Arabs At War' by Kenneth Pollack? Whilst the author does not mention what armoured formations were employed by the Syrians, he does mention interesting other stuff, like how the Syrians adopted Soviet tactics but failed to apply them effectively.

Yes, I did, and actually spoke to a couple authors who verified the fact that even though they were trained under Soviet methods of advance, they lacked the discipline and overall abilities to pull it off during battle. That seems to be the official word on this.

 

[eckherl]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I have a question I thought you might be able to help me with. I'm currently reading a lot about the 1973 October War, particularly the tank battles waged on the Golan Heights between Syrian and IDF forces. One detail I can't seem to find much on is the Syrian tank formations. As they advanced towards the Golan, what formation would they have been in? Everything I read describes their "masses" but there must have been some kind of organized method of advance, am I correct?

I understand that the Syrians at this time were trained by the Soviets. Would they have followed the Soviet tank doctrine under these circumstances?

I guess to sum it up, what I'm asking is when Yair Nafshi was at the crest of Booster Ridge, watching the waves of Syrian tanks advance towards him, what formation were the tanks in?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Syrians used, still uses Former Soviet armor tactics, this would consist of a constant rolling artillery barrage on front defensive positions with armor moving in echelon formations, this would typically consist of tanks with infantry fighting vehicles and ADA working behind them, associated distance would place them rapidly to the front of the advance if needed. Why this type of scheme of maneuver failed for the Syrians was due in large part with the IDF using a new tactic called a moving ambush, this afforded the IDF the ability to pick off the Syrian armor formations piecemeal. Former Warsaw Pact took this as a lessons learned and placed more emphasis on protecting their flanks and holding units in reserve to utilize them in pincer movements if needed, thus cutting off avenues of retreat.

Syrian armor is in sad shape with over half of it being worn out, I think at last count they only had 1,000 T-72M series tanks with a few thousand older models, IFV support is even worse off. Syrian army is in a desperate need of a major overhauling that isn`t going to take place anytime soon.

 

[STURM]

eckherl, when did the Iraelis start using the moving ambush, was it later in the war? According to Pollack in his 'Arabs At War', the main problem with the Arabs was a lack of maneuver, poor NCOs and a lack of initiative [common problems faced by most 3rd world armies], so I think that even if the Israelis hadn't adopted the moving ambush, the outcome would have remained the same. The Syrians apparently repeated the same mistakes in 1982. Pollack also talks about the Syrians adopting sound Soviet tactics but making then bad by not conducting them properly. Apart from Pollack's book, are there any other English books on Arab military performance? Just like how until the mid-90's, most of what we know about the Eastern front was from German accounts, most of what we know about Arab/Israeli wars until recently was from Israeli accounts.