Military Strategy & Conflicts: Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948-1973

Running Head : Armor Air tactics

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ABSTRACT

This focus on the war conflicts than happened during the World War 2 and the Israel Arab conflict from 1948 to 1973 . A comparative discussion is outlined to depict how the commanders strategized their troops in combating their enemies and how effective they achieved . This is followed by brief discussion on the Italy 's North Africa campaign Rommel 's campaign in Tobruk and El Alamein , Israel 's 1948-49 Independence , 1956 Suez Canal War , 1967 Six Days

War and 1973 Yom-Kippur War

Lastly the will briefly analyze the strengths and weakness of Ariel Sharon as a leader in Israel . In conclusion we find that the tactics employed during WW 2 were not as effective as during the Israel - Arab conflict . Ariel Sharon played key role during the early war engagements of Israel

COMPARISON OF WAR TACTICS USED IN WWII ARAB-ISRAELI WARS OF 1948-1973

The World War 2 which was fought between 1940 and 1944 especially on the North Africa campaign had many similar characteristics with the World War 1 but different characteristics with Arab Israel war of 1948 to 1973 . First we find that the World War 2 involved very many countries and troops from different countries of the world . One was being led by Italians and Germans while others were led by British with allies ' from Australia , New Zealand and South Africa . Two the terrain in the battle field was largely a desert compared with the terrain of the Europe continent . This posed a lot of difficulty during the fight for both troops involved . Third we find that there was large number of troops involved in the fight . For instance the Italians and Germans had over one million soldiers with 400 hay artillery , armory and support units while the British army had 36 ,000 soldiers . These posed a great challenge to the troops . Unlike in Israel which was fought against five Arab countries within a small battle field area (Maoz , 2005

The tactics employed in the Israel - Arab conflict seem to be more advanced than during the world war . This is due to the fact that the tactics used by the commanders were not effective enough to subdue the enemy . Most fights were conducted at the ground unlike in Israel which combined both ground and air strikes . Although losses of lost were evident due to poor coordination by all troops during World War 2 in Israel -Arab conflict it was because the organized troops were well trained and could be able to target their enemies well (Doron , 1988

This is because the tactics used depended on the triangular module that required the commanders to devise mechanism that had to offensively drive away the enemy from its base before surrounding it and destroying its equipment . This is different from the air strikes and arms tactics employed by Israel who targeted the military bases of the opponents such as the airfields and logistics bases . They are were quite effective given that they were well trained and knew their targets very well as opposed to the WW2 commanders . WW2 troops had other problems like lack of skills in coordination e .g . British troops . This worked to their disadvantage such that they were easily countered by Germans who were effective in speed and maneuvering

Israel - Arab war were fought at different times unlike the World War 2 that was continuous and transcended an expansive area . Soldiers were allocated narrow fighting frontier unlike in the Middle East where Israel was surrounded from both sides

ITALY 'S 1940 NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

The North African campaign was a war that occurred during the world war two . It was fought between 1940 and 1943 in the North African countries from Sudan through Egypt to Western Sahara . The campaign was due to control of the Suez Canal and oil resources in the Middle East . The war was mainly centered in Egypt because of Egypt central place within the battle field . Benito Mussolini initiated the fight in June 10 , 1940 with about one million troops in Libya against 36 ,000 Britain 's Royal troops in the Suez Canal and Saudi Arabia . Italians had developed a massive army with about 400 assortment of artillery and 383 aircraft . The royal troops and allied forces countered the attack which was fiercely fought in Gazala and El Alamein . In both cases during the war troops lost supplies that were necessary for the fight . The British were able to capture marshal forces and defeated Italians and freed the Mediterranean safe route and allow safe crossing of goods (Wessels , 2008

ROMMEL 'S 1941-44 CAMPAIGNS OF TOBRUK AND EL-ALAMEIN

Erwin Rommel descended in Libya at Tripoli on February 12 , 1941 and formed Afrika Korps that fought British forces from South Africa where he took control of Tobruk and extended his presence in El Alamein . The battle in Almein was fought twice , the first saw British soldiers and it allies subdued by Rommel 's Africa Korps . But during the second El Almein fight they were defeated in which several aircrafts were destroyed (Maoz , 2005

ISRAEL 'S 1948-49 INDEPENDENCE WAR

Israel is a state that began through war . It has fought several wars the first one being the independence war . This was created following the UN Security council resolution for creating the state of Israel . Apparently the war began before the 14th day of May 1948 the proclamation of the state of Israel (Maoz , 2005 . This took two phases whereby the first phase began in 30th November 1947 and ended in 14th may 1948 . Here the Palestinian forces attacked Israel defence force called Hagana with the help of troops from other Arab states on the night before the proclamation of Israel state bombs were shot in Tel Aviv . Israel replied with heavy fighting through use of armed troops and air strikes that took 13 months and resulted to 6000 Israel soldiers and civilians causalities with 8 ,000 square miles in its authority more than 6 ,200square miles allocated before (Barnett , 1991 Friedman , 2008

1956 SUEZ CANAL WAR

The Suez Canal war of 1956 was fought between Egypt and Anglo-French troops because of Egypt 's take over and control of the Suez Canal . Since the canal was critical to the British and French control of the Middle East resources . It also coincided with Sinai campaign where the Egypt had trained Fedayeen militants that killed several Israel civilians . As a reaction , Israel responded by launching air strikes to destroy the Fedayeen militants , destroy Egypt military base and free the Eilat Gulf to Israel ships . The war lasted eight days and by 5 November 1956 the Sinai Peninsula , Gaza strip and sham el sheikh was under Israel control The Israel forces lost 177 of which four were imprisoned but they killed more than 6000 troops of Egypt . This led to the deployment of UN emergency forces in the Gaza strip and straits of Tiran (Friedman , 2008 Barnett , 1991

1967 SIX DAYS WAR

This war started on 5th June 1967 when the Egyptian military had mobilized their troops and troops of the neighboring states to attack Israel . At this time Egypt had demanded the UNEF troops to leave Gaza strip . The then president Nasser declared closure of the straits of Tiran to Israel ships . By June 4th 1967 they had signed military agreement with Jordan and Iraq . On the June 5th 1967 Israel ambushed the military base of the Arab states . In a span of three hours their goal had been achieved . On the fourth day of the war Sinai Peninsula and Gaza strip was again under their authority

Then Israel asked Jordan king to give up on the war but they did not listen instead they attacked them almost immediately . This forced Israel to sent troops to Jerusalem city on June 7th and fought them without destroying the holy buildings and at the end of the day Judea with Samaria was captured . At the same time Syrian troops had gathered at the north frontier around Golan Heights forming a shell around Israel villages in but on June 9th Israel repelled them and on 10th June the war was over , the Israel defence had removed Syrians , 777 Israelis were killed and over 2500 wounded unlike 15000 troops from Arab states dead (Friedman , 2008

1973 YOM-KIPPUR WAR

The Yom-Kippur war was also referred to as the October war which began as a result of the continued hostility between Arab states and Israel Although they had previously signed cease fire agreement and stayed for about a decade without forceful fight it emerged that Egypt had mobilized its troop with help of her allies to destroy Israel . Egypt attacked Israel through the Suez Canal at 5 routes while Syria attacked from the north through two routes . In the early days of war Egypt succeeded in ejecting Israel from the war and fortifications they had built but this was countered when Israel attacked Egypt through the Suez Canal and were able to penetrate to Egypt territory and surrounded Ismailiya and Cairo city . They destroyed Egypt 's military bases . Hence international pressure mounted from US and Moscow that was able to halt the war but with more causality reported (Friedman , 2008 Maoz , 2005

ARIEL SHARON

Ariel Sharon has been a key political leader in the history of Israel occupancy in the Middle East . He has been involved in the fight for establishment and dominance of Israel in the Arab state . His success has seen the developed and efficiency of Israel occupying most of the Gaza strip and Golan Heights during the 1967 war . He has been successful in destroying or suppressing the militants ' attacks from the Palestinian authority and Lebanese dissidents . During his reign he has been applauded as one of the commandos that helped to fight the less trained Arab troops in the south of Israel . When he ascended to political life from 1970s to 1980s he was seen as champion of Jewish settlers where he helped acquire 64 settlement schemes for Israelis (Doron , 1988

He is remembered of destrioyng the military and political strength of Palestinian when he invaded Lebanon in 1982 . The invasion ensured that the Palestinian authority accepts the decision imposed on them following the ongoing Oslo agreement . However he is criticized for authorizing the killing of the hundreds of Lebanese men and women in camps at Sabra and Shatila (Barnett , 1991

Ariel Sharon is also faulted with leading a separatist military unit when he was commander by directly engaging in fight with Syrian troops between 1948 and 1967 . This was repeated during his tenure as prime minister and could not control the soldiers hence receiving a lot of criticism from supporters of Likud party . The withdrawal of the Jewish settler from the West Bank during his tenure was negatively received by those communities living within there saying it was a signal of his failure to contain the Israel foes because he was the same who engineered their settlement in the first place (Doron , 1988

On the other hand Palestine authorities have seen Sharon rule as a person that has caused a lot of devastation and dehumanization to them whether it is economic , political or social . Palestine people have suffered more in the hands of Sharon . He has also been faulted with the failure of coming to negotiation terms in settling a ceasefire with Palestine . This is because of his divergent view of not recognizing Palestine as a sovereign state

CONLUSION

This has discussed issues concerning the armor and air tactics used during the World War 2 and Israel - Arab conflicts from 1948 to 1973 . The World War 2 was fought between 1940 and 1944 where it in involved forces from Germany , Italy and British forces plus their allied counterparts . There were several fights including the fight of Tobruk and El Alamein . The tactics were characteristic different from those used when the Israelis fought against the Arab sates . It can be seen that Israel were much successful in their fights than troops in the world war 2 due to their level of skill and training

REFERENCES

Barnett , C (1991 . Engage enemy . Rusi , 136 , 73 -78

Doron , G (1988 . Intelligence Israel . Journal of intelligence . 2 , 305- 319

Friedman , M (2008 . Israel conflict . Jewish Zion education

Maoz , A (2005 . War and peace . Constitutional Forum , 24 , 35

Wessels , A (2008 . Defence forces . Military History . 11 , 5

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