Word: suez
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Blue Point. The fighting erupted when Egyptian troops surged across the Suez Canal and Syrian soldiers struck in the north on the Golan Heights. Both forces swept through Israel's front lines and punched their way into Israeli-held territory under the glare of an afternoon sun. Backed by heavy artillery and strafing jets, they maneuvered with tanks and armored vehicles. Helicopters carried some Arab troops into battle. United Nations observers reported seeing Egyptians crossing into the Sinai Desert at five points along the 103-mile canal front; Syrian troops were spotted moving into Israel over the central section...
Considering the shortcomings of the Arab attack, it could have been. On both the Suez and Golan Heights fronts, the Arabs placed emphasis on artillery, armor and infantry troops. They made no attempt to knock out the Israeli air force, their single most deadly enemy. Nor did they bomb Israel's population centers-partly, no doubt, for fear that Israel would retaliate by bombing their cities. Once Egyptian troops were committed east of the canal, they had no way to retreat as long as Israeli jets prowled the waterway...
First reports from the battlefields indicated that the forces of Egypt and Syria had crossed the U.N. cease-fire lines at the Suez Canal and in the Golan Heights while the Israelis were celebrating the holiday Yom Kippur...
Monday, Tel Aviv communiques spoke of smashing the trapped Egyptian tank forces on the East Bank of the canal. By Wednesday the Israelis admitted they had abandoned their Suez defense lines and they talked of a "war of attrition" instead of a war of retribution...
Egypt continued to claim to hold the entire eastern bank of the Suez Canal, while Israeli Premier Golda Meir said Israeli forces had recaptured the Golan Heights from Syrian troops and were pushing the Egyptian army back along the Canal...