exercises 554.exe.003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

We had plans, and there were exercises on how to act if the Egyptians crossed the Canal, but these plans always began from our that our reserve army would be deployed before the war broke out. In fact, there were reactions to Egyptian or Syrian attacks to which we could reply with the regular army. What happened on the battlefield of the southern command was that, according to the exercises, our strongholds, surrounded by the Egyptian army which had crossed, called for help, and only a few tank platoons came to their rescue. The situation was good for small operations on the part of the Egyptians, but not for a real attack. Most of the tank platoons managed to reach the Canal, but they didn't know what they were supposed to do there; they did not arrive in a concentrated force, but piecemeal, to different areas. They shot a bit, they evacuated the casualties, and then came back again. That's how they arrived: two, three tanks at a time. They began just sinking to the ground... and it became dark, and the Egyptians continued to cross. So that the strategy was a wrong strategy. Instead of evacuating the strongholds and retreat, the tanks ran forward, trying to prevent the crossing, but they acted in very small numbers, while the Egyptians had tens of thousands of soldiers.