Golan 1973

Yesterday Mark and I played a game simulating the Syrian attack on Booster Ridge. We ran in twice, the first battle was at night. In this engagement the Syrians had better night fighting equipment. 

The IDF was unable to fire until the range was below 800 meters with the Syrians able to fire out to 1,000 meters. Unfortunately for the Syrians were unable to utilize this advantage. The fight occurred between 500 to 600 meters.

The numbers counted quickly as the IDF lost the right company with the Syrians turning the flank. The conclusion was the Syrians taking the hill but unable to advance past it as they lost over 60% of their T-55. The follow on mechanized division would have to carry on the fight with their tank battalion and a reconstituted battalion from the brigade.

The honors in this engagement go to the recon company from the Syrian brigade. They did yeoman service in identifying the Israeli positions. The goat in this has to be the IDF artillery. In ten turns (an hour and a half) they were only to put one illumination round on the Syrians.

In the next fight we made the engagement in the daylight. The IDF went from two companies to one and the Syrians added an additional two battalions to the brigade (not sure were they came from). In this fight the IDF had the ability to fire our to 2.4KM while the Syrians were only able to fire out to 1.5KM. The Syrians lost a great deal of their armor in approaching the hill. Eventually they caused the loss of the right platoon (again) and an organized assault cause the hill to be captured. Once again the losses were over 60% for the Syrians.

In both engagements the IDF had less than their historical order of battle. In the day engagement the Israelis had a third of their historic tanks.  The only reason the battles were close was the training level. The IDF were rated as good, possibly they should have been excellent. The Syrian were rated marginal, the best they could expect. In these engagements we could see how the battle happened historically. Kahalani’s 77th Armored Battalion was devastated of the initial days of the war. But due to the terrain, training and replacement they were able to hold. This was an enjoyable game and I look forward to running more of these types of battles in the near future. We were even thinking of doing the Sinai soon. Unfortunately I need to paint up some new forces. M60s for the IDF and desert tan for the Egyptians.

Thank you Steve and Dragonhead Distributors for allowing us to play there. Rules used were FFT3. Miniatures are 3mm from PicoArmor. Terrain and painting done by yours truly. 

The Syrians getting organized to take the ridge. OK not very historical.