Israeli Order of Battle questions?

[Jim von Krieg]

Thanks Ricky,

I'm thinking most of the books written on the Golan are from the armor officers with little from the infantry officers.

Bazookas and LAWs with a dash of Recoilless Rifles seems to be the mix. Some of the reading indicates they spent all their defense dollars prior to the war on upgrading the tanks which left little for the infantry. Also, their doctrine emphasized the Armored Corps at the expense of infantry and artillery.

I'm finding that there aren't the great OBs I'm used to from WW2 readily available. Or at least, I haven't found them yet. I have a couple of books on the Israeli Army in the mail, so maybe it will answer my question.

As to the other answers, I'm leaning to the tank turrets being a post '73 addition to the defenses. I found a very good description of the Golan defense barrier and it seems more extensive than is generally realized. Describes hundreds of observation and fighting bunkers with wire and extensive mine fields. Also, the mines were on both sides of the anti-tank trench that ran along the Purple Line. It answer my question as to why the Syrians got hung up on the trenches for so long because their Engineers assets were in the rear with the gear.

For the Home Guard, I'm thinking this is an interchangeable term for Reservist units used by the active duty officers that tended to write the histories of the fighting. I've only seen it referenced as Home Guard once in my reading, but I wanted to run it to ground to determine if there was a specific group outside the Reserves as I understand them for the Israelis. Does not seem to be the case at the moment.

Respectfully,

Jim