Israel is under attack.
It is October 6th, 1973, Yom Kippur. The most holy day of the year. Most IDF members are home with family or on leave. The situation is dire.
Without warning, Egyptian Air Forces destroyed or damaged airfields and military facilities throughout the Sinai. In what was expected to take days, Egyptian units have breached the sand walls of the canal in mere hours. Reports indicate massive forces are moving across the Canal and overrunning the Bar Lev Line.
It is only a few hours since Egypt did the impossible and leapt across the Suez Canal, catching Israeli forces asleep on the watch. You find yourself as a foreign exchange pilot with the Israeli Air Force in the unique position of being the only pilot with a plane in the Sinai that is not tasked with repelling a possible second air assault.
Your mission is to:
1. Determine the extent of incursion.
2. Support IDF forces on the front lines, if able. You will have little if any comms with IDF forces on the ground or in the air. ***EXPECT COMMUNICATIONS JAMMING***.
3. Initiative is your greatest asset. If it is moving East, it is certain to be hostile.
Return here. The status of the runways at Rephidim (Melez) is unknown.
You will have no fighter cover over you.
It will be dark in a few hours. Whatever is to be done must happen quickly.
***This mission is an exploration of actual events through a fictional character (you).***
Units and their approximated locations/movements/strengths are all based on historical records and modified to work in the DCS world. Egypt's most southern attack was spearheaded by the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, 5th and 7th Infantry Battalions, and the 3rd Armored Brigade of the 19th Infantry Division. The initial response was fr om elements of IDF's 9th, 52nd, and 184th battalions of the 14th Brigade.
Egyptian forces primarily infantry. Infantry units are represented in this mission by the vehicles they would have employed (or next-best substitute wh ere DCS does not provide a one-for-one unit) and a sampling of shoulder fired SAMs modified to approximate the SA-7 Strella-2 of the era.
I hope you enjoy the scenario and appreciate a) the brilliance of Anwar Sadat's plan, b) the bravery of the Egyptian military's execution of it, c) and the fearsome odds the Israeli's faced.
(Photo credit to Fine Art America for the IAF A-4 "Ayits" picture)
