Ariel Sharon - Biography Chapters

1967 Six-Day War

Tension in the Syrian-Israeli border reaches its peak when six Syrian Mig fighters are shot down by Israeli Air Force. On May 23, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The winds of imminent war and the violent enthusiasm towards it by Arabs in both Egypt and Syria cause the Israeli public great anxiety and confusion.
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Many years later, Ariel Sharon writes: "For me, the most difficult thing was the loss of confidence. We, the commanders in the field, had plenty of confidence. We trained the forces well… There was an atmosphere of fear and anxiety in the public, and what bothered me and bothers me ever since was how a nation with such military might can suddenly lose its confidence about its ability to fight back and win, when war becomes inevitable. I didn't know where this lack of confidence came from. To me it was very serious. We, the generals, sat with Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and made it very clear that we are capable of striking Egypt. We explained the danger that Israel was in and told him that not taking action right now would be a costly mistake. In the circumstances that Israel was in, there was no alternative but to go to war."

As an emergency measure, Sharon is appointed as commander of one of the southern divisions. During a visit of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in the Negev, he meets with IDF's high command to decide what action to take in response to Nasser's closure of the Straits of Tiran. Chief of Staff Rabin favors a limited operation to capture a small part of the Sinai desert. Sharon says that Israel would do a grave mistake if it would go for a limited operation. He recommends taking over all of the Sinai desert and destroying the Egyptian forces there. A few days later, in a General Headquarters meeting, Sharon repeats his position and criticizes the government for its political helplessness.
Due to public pressure, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol forms a national unity government and appoints Moshe Dayan as defense minister. Dayan supports Sharon's position in regards to the scope of action that should be taken in Sinai.

In the waiting period for the war, Sharon makes many detailed plans for a combined attack which would include infantry units, armored forces, artillery, and paratroopers.

On June 5, 1967, at 22:30, Sharon orders the artillery to begin shelling the Egyptian forces in Um-Katef and Um-Shihan. The targets are illuminated with enormous searchlights, and within twenty minutes 6,000 shells land on the Egyptian forces. After the artillery softening-up, an infantry brigade begins to clear the Egyptian posts in face to face battles. At the same time paratroopers are dropped from helicopters near Egyptian artillery units and hit them. Armored forces block roads to prevent arrival of reinforcement. Even though some units encounter difficulties, the campaign as a whole is executed according to the plan that was designed by Sharon and the heavily defended Abu-Ageila region is penetrated and captured. Casualties: About 1,000 Egyptian soldiers are dead. On the Israeli side: 40 dead, and about 120 wounded.
Penetrating the defenses of Abu Ageila enables the Israeli armored divisions to go through it and attack the Egyptian armored formation. On June 6, the Egyptian armored forces collapse.
Sharon's division later joins an armored brigade making its way to the Egyptian posts at Tamed and Nakhl. When they arrive there, Sharon quickly reads the battlefield and successfully ambushes an Egyptian armored brigade. The Egyptian tanks column goes straight into Sharon's trap and there they it is systematically destroyed. At the end of the day, what's left is a 20 mile long column of twisted and burned Egyptian tanks and vehicles, and hundreds of dead bodies beside them.
The swift victory of IDF in the Six-Day War was tremendous. Brigadier General Ariel Sharon won great national respect and admiration for his part.

On the eve of Rosh Hashana, October 1967, tragedy strikes Sharon again. Gur, Sharon's eleven years old son, and his friend, Yaakov Keren, play with an old shot gun which belongs to Ariel Sharon. The children put gun powder in the shot gun and during play Yaakov aims the gun at Gur's head and pulls the trigger. Sharon then hears the shot, hurries to the front door of his house, where he finds his son Gur lying unconscious, bleeding from his head. Sharon takes Gur in his arms and rushes to the nearest hospital, but when he arrives there it's already too late.
Gur is buried next to his mother, Margalit, who was killed in a car accident six years earlier. At the funeral Sharon sobs.
In the years following this terrible tragedy, Sharon puts the blame for his son's death on the shoulders of little Yaakov Keren, Gur's play mate. He threatens him and calls him a murderer. Yaakov's mother goes to Chief of Staff Chaim Bar Lev and asks him to try to appease Sharon. Bar Lev talks to Sharon, but Sharon is unwilling to conquer his rage. He claims that Yaakov hit Gur intentionally. Eventually the Kerens move elsewhere.

In his capacity as IDF's Head of Training Department, Sharon moves IDF's training camps to the West Bank, and set them up in bases that were abandoned by the Jordanian Arab Legion. In this, he implements his political agenda, according to which these territories should be inhabited by Jews.

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