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Army and Security
The prisoners slapped the commander-in-chief: "We said there would be a war, they did not believe us"
The IDF archives reveal the minutes of the charged meeting held after the Yom Kippur War between Southern Command General Gonen and IDF soldiers and officers who returned from captivity and pointed out the command's failures.
"When will we get answers?"
Asked an officer, "there is something to investigate - maybe I had misconceptions," said the ousted commander-in-chief
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Yom Hakkipurim War
Shmuel Gonen
Eli Ashkenazi
Tuesday, September 14, 2021, 4:00 p.m.
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In the video: Recordings of the Chief of Staff's Office, October 8, 1973 / 21:30, Chief of Staff Dado wonders about the recklessness of the General of the Southern Command (Photo: IDF Archives and the Ministry of Defense, edited by Yossi Alter)
"How did the king become naked in one day?" Asked Lt. Gen. Assaf Yaguri, the most senior land forces officer captured by the Egyptians on Yom Kippur. He addressed the question to General Shmuel Gonen (Gorodish), who arrived at the Mivtachim convalescent home in Zichron Yaacov to meet the soldiers who had returned from Egyptian captivity.
Yaguri referred in his question to the functioning of the IDF Intelligence Division, which he said was "the best intelligence in the world." "When will they give us answers?" He asked Major General Gonen. .
General Gonen, who until the war was considered king, remained naked;
For only a hundred days he was in the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Command.
Four days after the outbreak of the war, the chief of staff, David Elazar, landed Haim Bar-Lev over Gonen.
The revered and decorated officer who bought his fame in the battles of the Six Day War was taken off the stage.
The Agranat Commission will soon determine that "during the war he did not fulfill his role properly."
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To the full article
"Did not properly fulfill his duty."
Gorodish with Ariel Sharon during the war (Photo: Government Press Office)
Now, five days after he was effectively ousted as commander of the Southern Command, he came face to face to meet the officers and soldiers who returned after a month in captivity in Egypt.
It is a charged encounter in which feelings of anger, pain and severe accusations arise.
To mark the 48th anniversary of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense today (Tuesday) allows the publication of the minutes written at the General's meeting with the released prisoners.
A charged meeting.
IDF POWs Return from Captivity, November 1973 (Photo: Official Website, "In the Camp" (Photographer: Avi Simchoni), courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense)
The meeting opens with a review by Gorodish of what preceded the war;
"On Friday, October 5, 1973, alert C was announced. The Egyptian exercise continued as before, there were discussions in the General Staff as to whether this was an exercise and we treated the matter as an exercise.
There was a very low probability of war.
On Saturday at 07:00 in the morning, I was told by the General Staff that there would be a war and the fire would start at 06:00 in the evening. "
Later in the meeting, in response to a question from one of the fighters, he admitted: "On Friday we went to bed with the thought that there would be no war ...".
He also shared with them the difficult trap in which the political echelon found itself on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities: "We cannot attack a preemptive strike because the Americans will not let us," he said.
"We went to bed thinking there would be no war."
Southern Arena Yom Kippur War (Photo: IDF Archives and the Defense System, Camp Photographers, Morris)
Private Ehud, a Nahal fighter, illustrates to the general the depth of the default. He tells what his eyes saw. But the same picture he saw, a simple soldier on the canal line, the senior officers refused to see:
3 weeks before the war we saw unconventional activity.
Two weeks earlier we saw many soldiers .. We saw commando soldiers, came, measured, watched, recorded, etc .. From morning to night tractors worked and built stations for tanks and batteries .. A week and a half before the war you came to visit.
I asked her: What did you know about all this stuff?
I told the commanding officer that there would be a war, but they did not believe us. "
Private Ehud goes on to describe in detail how in the days before the outbreak of the war the Egyptian army was organized and amassed forces across the canal.
"I believe the reports were stopped and did not get to where they should be. They always said we were not seeing well," said Private Ehud in frustration.
Soldiers who did not know how to operate weapons
General Gonen thought otherwise; "I think it's worse. The reports did not stop. The IDF believed it was an exercise. Said full exercise and not attack. But it would raise the reserve might not have broken out war. "
Even the commander of the bastion of" Oracle "Several Egyptian preparations champion and advance this year are seen at Port Said Egyptian destroyers, tanks and ammunition unloaded." KMN had not taken the port, "he said The reserve officer is disappointed. He also spoke of a very low level of readiness: positions intended for tanks were blocked and "there were soldiers who could not operate personal weapons. I was in my stronghold with five soldiers, a minimum of soldiers. I got guys from a yeshiva to pass the Sabbath. Soldiers were taken out at their expense. "In fact, they should be valued as 'cannon fodder.'" The same reserve officer was even surprised to discover that the soldiers did not even know what the "Pigeon Cage" ordinance intended to promote an Egyptian attack was.
In his answers to the soldiers, the general admitted that "on Monday we realized that we were dealing with another Egyptian army. It turned out that there was a division attack and (they) were not collapsing."
"I got guys from a yeshiva to pass the Sabbath."
Maoz on the Bar Lev line (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Photo: IDF Spokesman Courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense)
On a soldier's claims that "our reserve brigade went to war without machine gun ammunition," Gonen replied that "this is a scandal" and to the anger of another soldier that continuing the fighting in the "pier" was actually a suicide mission, Gonen replied: "There is something to investigate - maybe me too There were misconceptions. "
Towards the end of the meeting, Gonen told the soldiers: "There is a murky atmosphere in the country, it must not have partners. The war is not over. The Arabs' plans for us have not changed.
Gonen and the soldiers parted.
The soldiers continued to bear the scars of war and captivity.
Gonen was severely criticized by the Agranat Commission, which investigated the reasons for the outbreak of the war.
He failed to rehabilitate his status, left Israel and in 1991, at the age of 61, died of a heart attack.
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