stoat Posted October 20, 2005 Share Posted October 20, 2005 Most of the vehicles have taken hits in the lower hull on the left side. This would imply that the units that destroyed them were also on the left side of the ditch. My new hypothesis is that the tanks were crossing unopposed, the leading vehicles stopped to wait for the trailing ones, and in the meantime were hit by an Israeli counterattack. Most of the Syrians did not have enough time to traverse out of the traveling position, or bailed when contact was established. Which raises the question, why were tanks taking part in an attack traveling forward with turrets facing the rear? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soddball Posted October 20, 2005 Share Posted October 20, 2005 Originally posted by Michael Emrys: I may have my wars confused, but I think the last time the Syrians fielded Mk. IVs was in the '67 war. And then only as dug-in pillboxes along the top of the Golan escarpment. Michael I have a photo of it in a Panzer IV PDF magazine I acquired. It's in Russian but the photo is clear enough. I was most surprised. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted October 20, 2005 Share Posted October 20, 2005 Is it possible that the Syrian attack was pushed back, and the defenders thought that there might be a second attack coming soon, and took the time to turn the turrets around so as to not confuse dead tanks (pointing backwards) with live ones (pointing forwards). Assuming that they didn't have the time or inclination to move the wrecks, and that the Syrians would be attacking in pretty much the same place again. Pretty contrived answer, huh? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 20, 2005 Share Posted October 20, 2005 I'm going on memories quite a few years old here, but I believe that the brigade was a designated exploitation force and was not expecting opposition. They probably thought that all resistance had already been cleared. But the Israelis still had a platoon or two of their armor concealed nearby. Something else the Israelis had done was to put in telephone poles at precisely measured intervals so that it was easy to estimate range to anything in relation to those. So they had a higher than usual proportion of first round kills. I think the fight was over befor the Syrians had sorted out what was happening. BTW, IIRC this was near al'Quneitra. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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