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War of Attrition

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The War of Attrition was a low intensity war fought between Egypt and Israel 1968-1971. It was initiated by Egypt as a way to make Israel's occupation of the Sinai as costly as possible. Egypt's rationale was explained by journalist Heikal:

"If the enemy succeeds in inflicting 50,000 casualties in this campaign, we can go on fighting nevertheless, because we have manpower reserves. If we succeed in inflicting 10,000 casualties, he will unavoidably find himself compelled to stop fighting, because he has no manpower reserves."

The war ended with a cease-fire signed between the countries in 1971 with Egypt gaining a few kilometers of territory and Israel withdrawing a comparable amount.

IDF's unprecedented victory and Egypt's armys rout in the 1967 Six Day War put the Sinai peninsula all the way up to the Suez Canal in Israel's hands. Nasser's army, the strongest in the Arab world, had not only been throughoutly defeated, but also severly humiliated and a strong feeling of shame and crave for revenge was present. UN negotiations had failed to force Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders as Nasser demanded. Egypt denied Israel's demand to full peace and recognition and Israel denied Egypt's demand to a complete withdrawal of the occupied territories. To him, it was obvious that "What was taken by force must be restored by force."

Thanks to some very generous supplies of weaponry from its ally, the Soviet Union, Egypt managed to redeem its material losses from the Six Day War much quicker than Israel had expected. Additionally hundreds of Soviet military advisors poured into the country and at the beginning of the war 1500 advisors were stationed in the country. Their presence, along with Soviet pilots and ships threatend to escalate the conflict into an East-West confrontation.

The war of attrition began in June 1968 with sparse Egyptian artillery bombardement of the Israeli front line on the west bank of the canal. More artillery bombardements came in the following months that killed some Israelis. IDF:s retaliation came in the night October 30 when heli-borne commandos destroyed Egypt's main electricity supply. The blackout caused Nasser to cease hostilities for a few months while fortifications on hundreds of important targets where built. Simultaneously Israel reinforced its position on the East bank of the Suez Canal by constructing the Bar-Lev Line. A set of thirtyfive small forts running north-south along the canal guarded by infantery.

In February 1969 Egypt was ready for the next round. Nasser declared the cease-fire from November the previous year to be null and void. On March 8 Egyptian artillery begun massive shelling of the Bar-Lev Line leaving many Israeli casualties. Soviet MiG-21 fighters were also employed in the attack. IDF retaliated with deep raids into Egyptian territory which afflicted severe damage. In May, June and July 1967 47 IDF soldiers were killed and 157 wounded. Although Egypt suffered many times more casualties than Israel, Egypt continued with its aggressive stance. Israel managed to sustain the high casualty rate but was hard pressed to find a definite solution to the conflict.

In July Israel stepped up the ante by throwing in the Israeli Air Force. On July 20 and July 24 almost the whole IAF bombed the northern canal sector taking out several antiaircraft positions, tank and artillery. The aerial offensive continued til December and reduced Egypt's antiaircraft defense to nothingness. It managed to reduce the artillery bombardement somewhat but shelling with lighter weapons and especially mortars continued.

Without the airdefense system the IAF could operate at will over Egyptian territory. On October 17, 1969, as the Egyptian army was bent on defeat, talks between the superpowers began. It led to the Rogers plan that was publicized on December 9. It called for Egyptian "commitment to peace" in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Both parties strongly rejected the plan. Nasser instead opted to plead for more sophisticated weaponry from the Soviet Union to withstand the IAF:s bombings. The Soviets initially refused to deliver the weapons he asked for.

On January 22, 1970, Nasser secretly flew to Moscow to discuss the critical situation. His request for new SAM batteries were willingly approved. But their deployment would require qualified personell along with squadrons of aircraft to protect them from Israeli attacks. In effect, he needed Soviet troops in large numbers something Moscow couldn't allow. He then threatened to resign implying that Egypt might turn to Washington for help in the future. Soviet had invested heavily in Nasser's regime and so Brezhnev finally obliged. By June 30 the number of Soviet personnel had increased from 2,500-4000 in January to 10,600-12,150 and 100-150 pilots.

Soviet's direct intervention proved to be troublesome for Israel. Washington feared an escalation and strongly disapproved Israel's bombing campaign. Additionally, on April 8, the bombing of an elementary school which contained a military installation killed 47 school children put a definite end to the bombings. Israel would instead concentrate on canal-side installations.

The respite gave Egypt time to reconstruct its SAM batteries closer to the canal. Soviet flown MiG-fighters provided the necessary air cover. On April 18, eight MiG:s flew over the Canal Zone and intercepted and shot down two Phantom F-4 fighterbombers. The pilots broke the radio silence speaking in Russian intentionally revealing their identities. The warning was clear.

Despite heavy losses the Soviets and Egyptians managed to press the air defenses closer and closer to the canal. Israel couldn't retort effectively. The SAM batteries would allow Egypt to move in artillery which in turn could threaten the Bar-Lev Line. In April 1970 negotiations resumed, this time with the U.S. being the primary negotiator. A cease-fire agreement was reached on August 7. It was to last for three months and neither side was allowed to "changing the military status quo within zones extending 50 kilometers to the east and west of the cease-fire line."

Minutes after the cease-fire Egypt begun moving in SAM batteries to the zone in which the agreement had explicitly forbidden new military installations. Nasser's intention was clear, whether the cease-fire would last or not, his army would still be in a much better situation if hostilities once again erupted. By October there were about 100 SAM sites in the zone.

During the whole war, Nasser had his mind set on a "war of liberation" of the canal. But he died of a heart attack on September 28 and vice-president Anwar Sadat took over.

During the war, 367 Israeli soldiers were killed and eleven aircraft were shot down. There are no known casualty figure for the Egyptian side, but historian Benny Morris estimates in Righteous Victims that about 10,000 Egyptian soldiers and civilians died and that 98 planes were downed.

Both sides considered the end of the War of Attrition a victory. In Egypt, the war was considered a victory because three previous wars in 1948, 1956 and 1967 had been lost to Israel. This time their army had held their own. The Israeli establishment considered that they had held off the Egyptian offensive and thought that Egypt had realized that it could not beat Israel in conventional warfare. They would be proven wrong as Anwar Sadat almost immidiately began planning for the Yom Kippur war that would take place three years later.

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