Operation Badr order of battle

This is the order of battle for Operation Badr, an Egyptian military operation that initiated the Yom Kippur War against Israel along the Suez Canal in the Sinai on October 6, 1973. As neither belligerent has released an official order of battle, this list remains incomplete (for example, concerning brigades within divisions of the Third Army) and largely conjectural. An asterisk indicates Egyptian units that participated in the operation.

The Sa'iqa (lit. "lightning") were Egyptian commando forces.

Egyptian Army

General Headquarters (Center Ten):

Commander in Chief - Colonel General Ahmad Ismail Ali

Chief of Staff - Lieutenant General Saad El Shazly

Chief of Operations - Lieutenant General Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy

Engineer-in-Chief - Major General Kamal Hassan Ali

Chief of Military Intelligence - Major General Fuad Nassar

• Port Said Sector (Port Said and Port Fouad) - Maj Gen Omar Khalid
  • 30th Independent Infantry Brigade* - Brigadier General Mohamed Salah el-Din
  • 135th Independent Infantry Brigade* - Colonel Mustafa el-'Abassi
  • 10th Mechanised Brigade (in reserve)
• Second Field Army (Northern Canal Zone) - Maj Gen Sa'ad Ma'moun

Chief of Staff - Maj Gen Tayseer Aqad

Chief of Artillery - Maj Gen Mohamed Abd el Halim Abu Ghazala

• • 18th Infantry Division* - Brig Gen Fuad 'Aziz Ghali
    • 90th Infantry Brigade
    • 134th Infantry Brigade
    • 136th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
  • 2nd Infantry Division* - Brig Gen Hassan Abu Sa'ada
    • 4th Infantry Brigade
    • 120th Infantry Brigade
    • 117th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
  • 16th Infantry Division* - Brig Gen Abd Rab el-Nabi Hafez
    • 16th Infantry Brigade
    • 112th Infantry Brigade
    • 3rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade
  • 21st Armored Division - Brig Gen Ibrahim Oraby
    • 1st Armored Brigade
    • 14th Armored Brigade*^[1]
    • 18th Mechanised Brigade
  • 23rd Mechanised Division - Brig Gen Ahmad 'Aboud el Zommer
    • 24th Armored Brigade*^[2]
    • 116th Mechanised Brigade
    • 118th Mechanised Brigade
  • 15th Independent Armored Brigade*^[3] - Col Tahseen Shanan
• Third Field Army (Southern Canal Zone) - Maj Gen Abdel Mun'im Wasel

Chief of Staff - Maj Gen Mustafa Shaheen

Chief of Artillery - Maj Gen Munir Shash

• • 7th Infantry Division* - Brig Gen Ahmad Badawi Said Ahmad
    • 2nd Infantry Brigade
    • 11th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
    • 8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
  • 19th Infantry Division (Egypt)* - Brig Gen Yusuf Afifi Mohamed
    • 5th Infantry Brigade
    • 7th Infantry Brigade
    • 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade
  • 4th Armored Division - Brig Gen Mohamed Abd el Aziz Qabil
    • 2nd Armored Brigade
    • 3rd Armored Brigade*^[4]
    • 6th Armored Brigade
  • 6th Mechanised Division - Brig Gen Mohamed Abul Fatah Muharam
    • 22nd Armored Brigade*^[5]
    • 113th Mechanised Brigade
    • 1st Mechanised Brigade
  • 130th Independent Amphibious Brigade - Col Mahmoud Shu'aib, The Egyptian Marines
  • 25th Independent Armored Brigade*^[6] - Col Ahmed Helmy Badawy
• Sa'ka Forces - Maj Gen Nabeel Shukry
  • 127th Sa'ka Group - Col Fuad Basyuni
  • 129th Sa'ka Group- Col Ali Heykal
  • 136th Sa'ka Group - Col Kamal Atiyah
  • 139th Sa'ka Group - Col Osama Ibrahim
  • 145th Sa'ka Group - Col El-Sayid Sharqawy

Most sources uses Dupuy's commando brigade designations: 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, and 134. But Dani Asher clearly defines six commando groups (group = brigade size). Each group, containing 3 to 5 commando battalions totalling 24 battalions. He doesn't identify the groups, but from Arab sources, the following designations are available: 39, 127, 129, 136, 139, and 145.^[7]

Israeli Defense Force

Minister of Defense - Lt Gen (ret.) Moshe Dayan

Chief of Staff - Lt Gen David Elazar

Deputy Chief of Staff - Maj Gen Israel Tal

Head of Operations - Maj Gen Abraham Tamir

Head of Intelligence - Maj Gen Eli Zeira

Southern Command: Maj. Gen. Shmuel Gonen

• 252nd Armored Division - Maj. Gen. Abraham 'Albert' Mandler
  • 8th Armored Brigade - Col Aryeh Dayan
  • 14th Armored Brigade - Col Amnon Reshef^[8]
  • 401st Armored Brigade - Col Dan Shomron
  • 460th Armored Brigade - Col Gabi Amir^[9]
  • 'Harel' Brigade - Col Abraham Bar-Am
  • 11st Reserve Mechanized Brigade - Col Aharon Peled

+Mechanised Infantry and Paratroop support

• 162nd Reserve Armored Division - Maj. Gen. Abraham 'Bren' Adan
  • 217th Reserve Armored Brigade - Col Natke Nir
  • 460th Armored Brigade - Col Gabi Amir^[10]
  • 500th Reserve Armored Brigade - Col Aryeh Keren

+Mechanised Infantry and Paratroop support including: 35th Paratroop Brigade - Col Uzi Yairi

• 143rd Reserve Armored Division - Maj. Gen. Ariel 'Arik' Sharon
  • 14th Armored Brigade - Col Amnon Reshef^[11]
  • 600th Reserve Armored Brigade - Col Tuvia Raviv
  • 421st Brigade - Col Haim Erez
  • 243rd Paratroop Brigade - Col Danny Matt

+Mechanized Infantry units

Footnotes

1. Attached to 16th Division
2. Attached to 2nd Division
3. Attached to 18th Division
4. Attached to 19th Division
5. Attached to 19th Division
6. Attached to 7th Division
7. "Command Decision - Test of Battle -- View topic - Chinese Farm OB". www.testofbattle.com. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
8. Transferred to Sharon's 143rd Division
9. Transferred to Adan's 162nd Division
10. Transferred from Mandler's 252nd Division
11. Transferred from Mandler's 252nd Division

References

• Dupuy, Trevor N. (2002). Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974. Military Book Club. ISBN 0-9654428-0-2.
• Dunstan, Simon (2007). The Yom Kippur War: The Arab-israeli War of 1973 (Illustrated ed.). Osprey Publishing. pp. 35, 38. ISBN 1-84603-288-1.
• Hammad, Gamal (2002). Military Battles on the Egyptian Front (in Arabic) (First ed.). Dār al-Shurūq. p. 903. ISBN 977-09-0866-5.

Further reading

• The Egyptian Strategy for the Yom Kippur War by Dani Asher. Tons of information from a former Israeli intelligence official that has never before been published in English.