Israel has probably spent a larger percentage of its national history at war than any other nation in history. Formed in war and continually having to fend off attacks by its neighbors, many of whom, for years, sought little more than the obliteration of the state, it is not surprising that most of its annual budget is spent on defense. It also has a powerful lobby in various nations around the world that are sympathetic to Israel and so garners billions every year in funds from these nations (which it spends on defense).

The 1973 war was the plan of Egyptian president Nassar and Syrian president Assad to take back territory lost in the war of 1967. The Sinai for the Egyptians and the Golan Heights for the Syrians.

But first the Egyptians and Syrians had to build up from the losses of 1967. Meanwhile the Israelis build up defenses along the Golan Heights and on the eastern bank of the Suez canal. While the Egyptians and Syrians quietly prepared for war, the Israelis became more and more complacent, feeling that their aggressive neighbors would never be ready to do battle for several more years.

All that came to an end in October of 1973 when, despite warnings from some areas of Israeli intelligence that attack was imminent, the Arab armies and air forces totally surprised a woefully unprepared Israeli military. The first days were ones of both herosism and missed opportunities while the Arab armies were able to meet all their objectives and the defending Israelis were scrambling to build up units and stop the breach.

This book is a compendium of two previous Osprey titles on this war into one with additional material. Simon Dunstan has the opportunity of hindsight to analyze what went wrong on both sides and what went right. It provides basically two looks at the war. One is the war in the south against the Egyptians in the Sinai while the other is against the Syrians in Golan.

All of this is superbly presented in a way that will keep you turning pages to see what happens next even though we all know the final outcome. An excellent choice of photographs and maps helps us keep things straight in our mind as are battle reports. It would be nice to have had more images from Egyptian and Syrian sources, but perhaps those just are not as available as those from Israeli sources.

Overall a superb book and one that I am sure you will enjoy reading as much as did I.

February 2008

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