Urban Warfare Project Case Study #4: Battle of Suez City
The battle of Suez City occurred on October 24–25, 1973 during the Arab-Israeli War (also known as the Yom Kippur War), which began on October 6 of that year and ended on October 25 Suez City is located at the very northern end of the Gulf of Suez and rests on the northwest bank of the Suez Canal’s southern entrance. There were three main roads that entered the city, each of which passed through a large gate at the city’s limits: heading north from the city was an asphalt road leading to the city of Ismailia; Route 33 left the city to the northwest before curving west toward Cairo; and to the southwest was the road to Adabiah. The Sarag Road was the main thoroughfare through the city. It ranged anywhere from seventy-five to two hundred meters wide, had a concrete wall as a center median. The road began at the port and ran through the city, effectively cutting it in half, before becoming Route 33 and leaving toward Cairo. Other roads also gave access to the city, although these also passed through gates, and not all of these gates were large enough for vehicles. The southern sections of the city had an industrial area to the southwest and Port Ibrahim (now Port Tawfiq) to the southeast, which sat at the end of a 1.5-kilometer causeway that jutted out south and then southwest into the gulf. Large oil refineries were located to the west of the city limits. To the east of the city and along both sides of the Suez Canal was dense vegetation called the “greenbelt,” which impeded observation and off-road vehicle movement. Sandwiched in between the eastern edge of the city and this dense vegetation beside the canal was a marshy area along Suez Creek that was impassable to vehicles
The Battle
The city’s defenders were sub-units of the Egyptian 3rd Army with remnants of the 4th, 6th, and 19th Divisions, giving an aggregate strength of two mechanized infantry battalions, an antitank missile company, a commando battalion, military police officers, artillery forward observer teams, and a small number of T-54/55 tanks, all under the command of Brigadier General Yussif Afifi. There were also two thousand militia that had been given incremental training by retired Egyptian Army officers. Attacking the city was Israeli Major General Avraham Adan’s 162nd Armored Division consisting of Colonel Gavriel “Gabi” Amir’s 460th Brigade, Colonel Aryeh Keren’s 500th Brigade, and Colonel Nathan “Natke” Nir’s 217th Brigade. To compensate for his lack of organic infantry General Adan was reinforced with an armored infantry battalion that was attached to Keren’s 500th brigade. Colonel Keren’s brigade was also reinforced with a paratrooper “battalion” under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Yossi Yaffe consisting of only 160 soldiers, nine Topaz amphibious armored personnel carriers, and three buses as transport; eighty paratroopers mounted in three trucks and two half-tracks commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Yaakov Hisdai; a scout company; and a company-sized reconnaissance unit.
https://mwi.usma.edu/urban-warfare-project-case-study-4-battle-of-suez-city/
