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    Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts
    Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts
    Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts
    Ebook173 pages1 hour

    Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts

    By Anthony Tucker-Jones

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    The latest volume in Anthony Tucker-Joness series of books on armoured warfare in the Images of War series is a graphic account of the development of armoured forces in the Arab and Israeli armies from 1948 to the present day. In a sequence of over 200 archive photographs he tells the story of the role armour played in Arab-Israeli conflicts over the last sixty years, from the initial battles of 1948, through the Suez Crisis, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza in 2008.In all these clashes armoured vehicles played a prominent, sometimes decisive part. As the photographs show, an extraordinary range of Second World War and post-war tanks, armoured cars and armoured personnel carriers was deployed by all sides. Russian T-34s, SU-100s, T-54/55s, T-62s and T-72s were imported from the Eastern Bloc by the Egyptians and Syrians. Shermans, Pattons, Centurions and AMX-13s were imported from the West by the Israelis. In addition, the Israelis developed modified hybrids such as the Sherman/Isherman, the Shot, Magach and Sabra, and they produced to their own design their main battle tank, the Merkava. Anthony Tucker-Joness photographic survey is an excellent introduction to late-twentieth-century armoured warfare, and it gives a fascinating insight into the military history of Israel and its Arab neighbours.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 2, 2013
    ISBN9781473828391
    Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts
    Author

    Anthony Tucker-Jones

    ANTHONY TUCKER-JONES spent nearly twenty years in the British Intelligence Community before establishing himself as a defence writer and military historian. He has written extensively on aspects of Second World War warfare, including Hitler’s Great Panzer Heist and Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration.

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      Book preview

      Armoured Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflicts - Anthony Tucker-Jones

      Chapter One

      Chariots of the Gods – IDF Armour

      What makes the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) particularly fascinating is that few armies have gained combat experience with such a wide variety of armour. Over the years the IDF have deployed the American M4 Sherman, M48 and M60 Patton, the British Centurion, the French AMX-13 and the Soviet T-54 and T-62 – plus a plethora of modified hybrids such as the Super Sherman/Isherman, Sho’t, Magach and Sabra as well as the homegrown Merkava.

      The Merkava or ‘Chariot’ is a tank that evolved from Israel’s unique operational requirements and exemplifies the power of the Israeli armoured corps, which has helped Israel triumph in six major Arab–Israeli wars. However, it evolved from very humble beginnings. Indeed, in 1948, with the creation of the state of Israel and the first Arab–Israeli conflict, the Israelis had to make do with armoured trucks and a few second-hand British tanks left behind by the British Army. This was soon to change as military necessity ensured that the Israelis became the masters of invention in the face of Arab neighbours who refused to recognise Israel.

      The Israelis developed the Merkava based on their long combat experience against Soviet-designed armour, especially on the Golan Heights, which is far from ideal tank country. The first prototype appeared a year after the Yom Kippur War, however it was not issued to the IDF until 1978 and first saw combat four years later in Lebanon. The performance of the Merkava was particularly impressive, particularly its agility and the protection it afforded the crew. Its two key features are that the engine is in the front and not the back – to enhance crew protection – and the turret is very small. Israel’s small population has always meant that it can afford to trade equipment but not manpower in its conflicts with its stronger neighbours.

      Although the Syrian Army knocked out Merkavas during the 1982 Lebanon invasion, no crew were lost. It performed well against the then state-of-the-art T-72, of which the Syrians had 200. Moscow was not pleased that the very first T-72 had fallen into Western hands (subsequently in an intelligence operation three T-80s were purchased straight off the production line in Ukraine in the 1990s). Likewise it outperformed the Syrians’ large fleet of T-62s. It also proved to be resistant to the anti-tank weapons of the day, notably the ubiquitous RPG-7 and the AT-3 Sagger. As a result the Merkava was viewed as a major development over the IDF’s highly effective previous main battle tank, the much-upgraded, British-supplied

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