National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

tH e mi l i ta ry do C t r i n e o f t H e is r a e l i air fo r C e 153
Egyptian air force. These dog-fights took place either in Egyptian air space south
of the Canal in an area called as “Texas”, or north of the Canal over the sea and resulted
in the shooting down of countless Egyptian aircraft. It was in response a sort
of reprisal for the Egyptian firing on the Israeli forces on the bank of the canal, and
also a way of gaining local air superiority over the battle area. These fights which
lasted throughout the whole of the war proved the total superiority of the IAF, and
the Egyptian air force was so heavily defeated that finally it gave up trying to combat
the Israeli planes. The Egyptians lost about 100 planes in these battles, mostly due to
dog-fights and others by anti-aircraft fire from the ground.
The War of Attrition was waged on all fronts against countries bordering Israel
– Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, although the vast majority of the operations were on
the Egyptian front. The Syrian air force also suffered heavy losses from aerial battles
and ground attacks from the air.
Despite their heavy losses, the Egyptians continued their attacks along the Canal,
while Israel wished to see an end to the fighting. This proved impossible and it was
eventually decided to extend the field of battle and to commence air attacks into the
heartland of Egypt. These attacks began in January 1970 (“Priha operation”) and
lasted until April the same year, and resulting in the most severe damage to the Egyptians
and perhaps most of all to their self-esteem as they were in a situation where
their air space was open to the whims of the IAF with no means ways of defending
themselves.
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian leader, secretly approached the Soviet Union
and asked for help in defending his country. The Russians agreed to this request and
transferred to Egypt newer and better anti-aircraft missiles (SA2 and SA3), together
with technicians and operators, and they also sent MiG21 interceptors together with
crews of pilots, maintenance personnel and controllers.
Thus slowly but surely, the Soviets became involved in the war. At the beginning
they defended Cairo, Alexandria and the Aswan dam, but later started to get involved
in the actual fighting. They started with the manning of anti-aircraft missile sites, and
moved onto attempting to shoot down Israeli planes. In July-August 1970 Russianmanned
missile sites succeeded in destroying five Israeli Phantoms, but they did not
succeed in completely stopping the attacks across the Canal. In the final stages of
the war they engaged Israeli planes over “Texas” and in the fighting, five Russianpiloted
MiG21 aircrafts were shot down with their Russian Pilots.
On the 7 th August 1970s a truce was declared between the sides on basis of a
freeze of the situation as was on that morning. That same evening, the Egyptians
breached the cease-fire and advanced their missile system right up to the front-line,
thereby providing an additional threat of ground-to-air missiles to the IAF freedom
of flight over the front line in the event of another outbreak of fighting had been
jeopardized.
From the IAF perspective the war ended in a stalemate. The IAF did not succeed