Every year, Egypt celebrates the glorious victory of the Sixth of October War in 1973, which corresponded with the 10th of Ramadan, when the fasting Egyptian army defeated the Israeli army.
On Monday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi congratulated Egyptians on the glorious anniversary of their victory on the 10th of Ramadan.
“On this day every year in the blessed month of Ramadan, we celebrate the anniversary of the victory of the 10th of Ramadan to remind us of the highest meanings of redemption, sacrifice, and patriotism,” the president said on his official Facebook page
The surprise attack against Israeli forces was launched at 2pm on the 10th of Ramadan, just as the sun and the desert nature of Sinai caused the soldiers of the Israeli army to be exhausted, catching them by surprise.
Supported by the Air Force, the army pushed across the Suez Canal and dislodged the Israelis on the other side of the international water pathway.
The strategic expert and chief navigator of the 547th Air Brigade in the October War, major general Abdel Rafea Darwish, was quoted by Egyptian local media as saying that during the war, he asked his soldiers to break their fast, but one member of the brigade told him, “We do not want to break our fast, because we want to meet God as martyrs and fasting people.”
Tactically, the canal crossing was bold and ingenious. The Egyptian army dismantled the Bar Lev defensive sand barrier along the eastern bank of the Suez Canal with high-pressure water hoses and installed pontoon bridges to transfer armoured vehicles, tanks, and soldiers to the other side of the canal.
A ceasefire agreement ended the war on 24 October, and the Camp David Peace Accords that were signed years later in 1979 brought it to a favourable conclusion, with the Egyptians regaining control of the Sinai peninsula.
