Lessons from the Battlefield Part Two

 

Lessons from the Battlefield Part Two

Why innovation and strategy outweigh superiority in numbers

The Battle of Gallipolli 18^th March 1915

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized,” says Sun Tzu in The Art of War (5^th Century B.C. military treatise).

The Allied forces won the First World War but they suffered reverses in many battles, too. One of these was the expedition to break through the Narrows (of the Straits of Dardanelles) leading to Gallipolli, which was ruled by the Turkish empire.

The British navy was probably the most powerful in the world at the time. They led the attack with twelve battleships, while the French contributed six. The Turks knew they were no match for the Allied forces, so they used an innovative strategy. Instead of laying a series of mines across the Straits, they sent their mine layer Nusrat on the 7^th of March to set mines parallel to the coast on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles. You’ll soon see why.

#Winston Churchill was the First Lord of the Admiralty during this war.

- Along the coast, the Turks had set up shore batteries (large guns) to protect the entrance to the Dardanelles.

North Sea trawlers had been sent to try and clear the watery minefield but they were easy targets for the Turkish shore batteries and suffered major casualties.

March 18, 1915

The British and French ships sailed into the Straits in an attempt to open a way through the Narrows. They were subjected to intensive shelling and a fierce gun battle ensued between the ships and the Turkish defences lodged in forts and mobile gun batteries. The mighty ships realized they had to turn back. As they tried to manoeuvre around, however, they struck the mines laid along the shore. The French battleship Bouvet, which had been damaged by shell fire and was listing hit one of the mines and sank within thirty seconds! About six hundred men drowned.

Two British battleships, Irresistible and Ocean sank.

The rest of the Allied ships beat a hasty retreat.

                                                              The Straits of Dardenelles

The Israel-Syria War of 1973

The Battle for Golan Heights

The Golan Heights has been described as the most hotly contested real estate on the planet. I guess one could say that of the whole of Israel.

The Heights is a flat plateau stretching over 1200 sq km and it overlooks Israel. It was Syrian territory until 1967 when Israel occupied it after the Arab-Israeli Six Days’ War.

The Syrian Ploy

Syria was desperate to wrest control of the Golan Heights back from Israel and they used the Cry Wolf ploy to lull their enemy into a false state of complacency. We’ve seen how effective this is, time and time again. Remember, Sun Tzu’s famous statement: ‘All warfare is based on deception’?

- The Syrians kept mobilizing troops and then recalling them to barracks. They did this so frequently that, when they mobilized troops for a real attack in October 1973, the Israelis thought this was just another routine exercise.

- The Syrians were confident of victory because they had 1200 tanks equipped with night-fighting equipment. The Middle East terrain contains long fields of fire. There’s nowhere to hide and the Syrians considered this to be a huge advantage. If they simply rushed at the Israelis, how could the latter retaliate when they were heavily outnumbered with just 170 tanks?

The Israeli Response

Once the Israelis got over their initial shock, they gathered their defence forces with remarkable alacrity. As a small state, surrounded by hostile countries, Israel had perfected the art of mobilization.

- They had dug anti-tank trenches in front of the Golan Heights.

-Although outnumbered, the Israeli tanks were superior to the Syrians’ and could fire up to a range of 5 kms.

- Israel had worked hard to develop long range gunnery skills.

The Battle

The Syrians launched an attack by driving straight at the Israelis on the Golan Heights and soon ran into the anti-tank trenches. It made them sitting ducks for Israeli tanks on the Heights. They had to return quickly after suffering debilitating losses.

- Due to their night-fighting equipment, the Syrians launched another attack under the cover of darkness. Their Soviet-made T-55 tanks had infrared projectors which enabled them to see through the dark.

The Israelis only had night vision binoculars! (They’ve come a long way since then).

Despite this, Israel prevailed for one important reason: superior leadership and better strategy.

The Syrians kept advancing straight ahead on the long, flat terrain. The Israelis, however, kept moving about and firing, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. They didn’t allow their tanks to become easy targets and managed to pound the Syrian tanks into submission!

It’s a testament to their success that even today, the Golan Heights remains in Israeli possession.