Battle of Abu-Ageila (1967)

Battle of Abu-Ageila
Part of the Six-Day War
Date 5–6 June 1967 Location Abu-Ageila in the Sinai Desert, Egypt Result Decisive Israeli victory
Belligerents
Egypt	Israel
Commanders and leaders
Major General Abdel Mohsen Kamel Mortaga	Major General Ariel Sharon
Strength
8,000 66 tanks (T34/85s with 85 mm guns), 22 tank destroyers (SU-100s with 100 mm guns)	14,000, 150 tanks (over 100 Centurions and Super Shermans with 105 mm guns, the rest were AMX-13s with 75 mm guns)
Casualties and losses
4,000 KIA 40 tanks lost	40 KIA 140 WIA 19 tanks lost

The 1967 Battle of Abu-Ageila was a military confrontation between the Israeli and Egyptian military in the Sinai desert in June 1967, as part of the Six-Day War. The decisive defeat of the Egyptians was critical to the eventual loss of the entire Sinai Peninsula to Israeli forces. The head of the Israel command was Ariel Sharon, who later became a prominent politician and prime minister of Israel.

The Israeli attack at Abu-Ageila was part of the Israeli offensive into the Sinai Desert. This attack was led by the Southern Command, consisting of 3 divisions under major generals Israel Tal, Avraham Yoffe, and Ariel Sharon. As part of the Israeli plan of Southern Command, Sharon was ordered to capture the road junction at Abu-Ageila in order to gain access to the central route into the Sinai Desert. The Egyptians had taken considerable preparations to prevent a breach there. Egyptian defences had focused on the Um-Katef (or Umm-Qatef) plateau to the east of Abu-Ageila, roughly 25 kilometers from the Israeli border. The defences were an important part of the overall defence plan, called Qahir, in the preparations for the expected war, later known as the Six-Day War.

Israeli troops numbered about 14,000. Egyptian troop strengths have been estimated at 8,000. More importantly, the Israelis had significant advantage in armour: against 66 Egyptian World War II-era T34/85 with 85 mm guns, and 22 SU-100 with 100 mm guns, the Israelis pitted a total of 150 modern tanks: AMX-13's with 75 mm guns, as well as a hundred Centurions and Super Shermans, armed with 105 mm guns. The guns used by the Centurions were the Royal Ordnance L7 tank guns, specifically made to defeat the T-54, a tank more modern than both types of tanks used by the Egyptians in this battle. On the other side, the best tank gun available for the Egyptians, used by the 22 SU-100 tank destroyers, was a late-WW2 artillery piece overmatched by Centurion's front armor. As a result, in addition to numerical superiority, the Israeli tanks also had a greater effective range than their opponents.

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