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Unlock This CourseThis lesson is part of the Paper 2 Section B breadth study on the changing nature of warfare, 1919-2011. By the 1960s the USA and the USSR, the two superpowers (the most powerful countries in the world), had thousands of nuclear weapons. Some people thought wars would now be fought with bombs and missiles that could destroy whole cities. They were wrong. Wars between other countries were still fought with ordinary weapons, and the best examples are the wars between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
Key terms:
Nuclear weapons did not take over. Neither side used them in either war, so the fighting was decided by planes, tanks and missiles. This lesson is about the methods of fighting, not the politics behind the wars.
The Six-Day War lasted from 5 to 10 June 1967. Israel faced Egypt, Syria and Jordan, whose armies and air forces stood close to its borders. Israel decided to strike first, and its plan relied on two conventional weapons: aircraft and tanks.
On the morning of 5 June, Israeli aircraft flew low to avoid radar and attacked Egyptian airfields. Most of Egypt's air force was destroyed on the ground before it could take off. Israel then attacked the Syrian and Jordanian air forces in the same way.
With the skies clear, Israeli tank columns drove into the Sinai Desert, supported by infantry and aircraft. They moved fast, broke through Egyptian positions and reached the Suez Canal within days.
Without air cover, Egyptian troops and tanks in the open desert were attacked from the air and cut off. Israel also fought Jordan on the Jerusalem and West Bank front from 5 June, and took the Golan Heights from Syria on 9 and 10 June. Within six days Israel held the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
It echoed the German Blitzkrieg of 1940: fast tanks and aircraft working together. The lesson many armies drew was that whoever controlled the air could then use tanks freely on the ground.
On 6 October 1973, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel by surprise. This time the Arab armies had learned from 1967, and they were armed with modern Soviet weapons.
The war was much longer than in 1967. Israel recovered: it brought up reserves, learned to fight with tanks, artillery and aircraft together, crossed the Suez Canal and trapped part of the Egyptian army. The United Nations called for a ceasefire, and the fighting ended in late October 1973 after about three weeks.
In 1967 the side with the stronger air force and tanks won in days. In 1973 cheap, portable missiles gave the defenders a way to hit tanks and aircraft, so these weapons were no longer sure to win.
Both wars were still decided by tanks, aircraft, artillery and soldiers. Nuclear weapons stayed out of both, so conventional warfare stayed important.
The lesson for armies after 1973 was that tanks and aircraft needed protection: infantry, artillery and air defences working with them. A weapon that dominated one war could be beaten in the next.
Explain TWO ways in which the weapons and tactics used in the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 were different from those used in the war of 1967. [6 marks]
One difference is the use of air power. In 1967 Israel opened the war on 5 June with air strikes that destroyed most of Egypt's air force on the ground, so its aircraft ruled the sky for the rest of the war. In 1973 Egypt and Syria had Soviet surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns arranged in belts, so Israeli aircraft could not fly freely and lost many planes early in the war.
A second difference is how tanks fared. In 1967 Israeli tank columns, backed by aircraft, raced across the Sinai Desert to the Suez Canal within days. In 1973 Israeli tanks that counter-attacked the Egyptians on the canal were hit by infantry firing Sagger anti-tank missiles, and many were destroyed. The tank losses meant Israel could not win quickly, and the war lasted about three weeks.
What lifts it to the top level: two differences, each comparing 1973 with 1967 directly and backed by precise facts about both wars.
Give two ways, and for each one write about both wars: "In 1967 ... whereas in 1973 ...". Facts from one war alone score less.