Egyptian 25th Brigade ambush

Egyptian 25th Brigade ambush was a battle that occurred on October 17, 1973, the eleventh day of the Yom Kippur War, east of the Great Bitter Lake, in the Sinai Peninsula. The ambush was conducted by the Israel Defense Forces' 162nd Division, against the 25th Brigade of the Egyptian army. The Israelis' goal was the destruction of the brigade, which attempted to disrupt the Israeli crossing of the Suez Canal.

Battle
After strings of counterattacks by Egyptian ground forces during the Israeli offensive in the Yom-Kippur War, Israeli Defense Forces were ambitious to put an end to the Egyptian counterattacks. On October 17th 1973, the Israeli forces conduct an ambush on an Egyptian tank divisions commanded by Ahmad Halalmi Hassan, his forces consisted of 94 Soviet made T-62's and 40 other armored APC's, and they were advancing towards Israeli occupied territories in the Sinai. The Israeli forces consisted of 14 M60 Patton Tanks, they conducted the ambush by creating an "L" formation and attacking from a place where the Egyptian Tank Brigade will not expect an attack. Since the Israeli forces are outnumbered in the battle, they used tactics where their tanks can peek out of the hill to fire one shot, then go back down to take cover from enemy fire, the process would be repeated by every tank in Avraham's division. In the end the Egyptian advance was halted and took heavy losses, the Israeli forces only withstood the loss of three tanks.

Outcome
In the end the battle was a victory for the Israel Defense Forces, because they had caused heavy losses to the Egyptian Forces and pushed them onto the defensive. This battle is a key turning point in the Yom-Kippur War towards an Israeli victory.

Source

 * Avraham Adan, on both sides of the suez, Jerusalem: mekorot, 1979.
 * Elyashiv Sunny, All are looking at them: the brigade commanders on the battlefield, Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 2006.
 * Elyashiv Sunny, The power to decide: the division commanders on the battlefield, Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 2007.