The Yom Kippur War 1973 (1): Golan Heights

The Yom Kippur War 1973 #1

by Simon Dunstan, Howard Gerrard (Illustrator)

At 1345hrs on 6 October 1973, Israeli spotters in the observation post atop Mount Hermon saw Syrian gunners below them removing the camouflage nets from their guns. Ten minutes later shells began to rain down on Israeli positions all along the Golan Heights – The Yom Kippur War had begun. The shock Syrian attack caught the Israelis by surprise and by the afternoon of 7 October a Syrian brigade was less than 10km from the Sea of Galilee. Simon Dunstan describes in detail how amid desperate and bitter fighting the Israeli forces managed to turn the tide on the Golan Heights.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Military History, Nonfiction, War, Middle East

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2003

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, concise, account of the Yom Kippur War on its north side. Clearly written, which not all works of this type are. Excellent maps and illustrations. The only area this volume falls short is in glossing over the air campaign. Even three additional pages on this subject would have been of value.

[Jake Pettit · Rating 3 out of 5]

As per usual, Osprey Publishing does an excellent job of incorporating numerous visual aids including painted battle scenes, three-dimensional sand table maps, photographs, and topographic maps into a concise historical overview. Insofar as a reader is looking for a 10,000 foot overview of the battle in the Golan, this booklet accomplishes that extremely well.

My primary gripe was that the book includes only one map of the entire Golan Heights, with the initial force dispositions on 06 October, providing only one other topographic map for the rest of the book after that. Moreover, this second map only covers the southern third of the Golan. Additionally, the three-dimensional sand tables, while visually appealing at first, included zero labels for roads, trails, cities, or geographic features, and were almost useless for actually enhancing the reader’s physical understanding of the battlefield in space (the annotations on those tables did provide some clarity on the timeline, at least).

Overall, good intro to the campaign. However, most definitely NOT a stand-alone resource for understanding the Yom Kippur War in the Golan.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and edited overview of complex and intense battles