"Golan Heights" Up!

[HotTom]

First chapter of what I hope will ultimately be a re-creation of the 1973 campaign on the Golan Heights, largest tank battle since WWII: 200 Israeli tanks versus 1,400 Syrian tanks and about 300 from Iraq, Jordan and Morocco.

It's in SB Pro PE single missions.

It's made primarily for the Abrams substituting for Centurions but I do have several Leo1s playing the part of Super Shermans.

This is the first 12 hours in the Northern Golan and it plays out in 30 minutes, so there's lots of company and platoon-level fights to choose from. Most are from fixed positions but others toward the end of the scenario allow you to maneuver your tank. The rolling, open terrain is very challenging (I used the real Golan height map that came with SB)..

Chapter 2 (when I regain my eyesight from too many hours at the computer) will be the opening of the battle in the southern half of the Golan.

Feedback is welcome. I had to do some educated guessing on the locations of some roads and villages and the histories conflict on some details. If you spot any glaring errors, please let me know so I can correct them.

Enjoy!

HT

[nimo]

wow grat!!
did you use real terrain (not height) map of the golan? can you share it?

i used to serve in israely golan for 1.5 years, so i can halp with names of places and roads (when i get back home)

btw jorden didnt took part in 73 war

[HotTom]

Nimo,

I built a very rudimentary terrain map on the SB height map of the Golan. I'd be glad to email or PM you a copy (I don't think it's good enough for general distribution because it may have some minor errors in where I located things.) I had to locate roads and towns from hand-drawn maps in the books that aren't nearly as accurate as the height map (which has no man-made features), so I'm sure it's pretty close but "close" only counts in nuclear warfare and horseshoes. :)

For purposes of the scenario, it works well. I've been to the Golan and this is pretty much what it looks like (maybe a bit too green for October). The rolling terrain makes for some really intense fights.

But if you can help me make it more accurate, I would greatly appreciate it and would feel more comfortable about posting the terrain map for others to use.

As to Jordan, they were little and late but they were there. They fought alongside the Iraqis but apparently didn't coordinate their attacks (in fact the Iraqis twice failed to support Jordanian attacks and once shelled Jordanian troops) and were generally ineffective.

The part of the campaign that my planned series of scenarios will cover runs from Oct. 6 through Oct. 9, when Israel regained its positions along the 1967 cease fire line. This is covered in great detail in Asher's book. The Jordanians didn't show up until Oct. 13.

Following the retaking of the Golan on Oct. 9, the Israelis mounted a "limited" offensive to bring Damascus into artillery range but had no intention of trying to take the city (Golda Meir was much wiser than George W. Bush). The Israelis finally retook Mt. Hermon, lost in the initial attacks, on Oct. 22, and the UN cease fire resolution was accepted by Syria (and Jordan) on Oct. 23.

"Hussein mobilized his reserves and on 13 October the (Jordanian) 20th Armoured Brigade crossed into Syria at Dera'a, entering the line between Syrian and Iraqi forces on the south of Israel's enclave pushing into Syria," Herzog writes in "The War of Atonement."

The Jordanian tankers drove Centurions, the same tank used by the Israelis, which caused some confusion initially, but in the two battles Herzog recounts the Jordanians suffered heavy losses.

Let me know where to send the .ter map and I'll get it off to you. Your experience would be invaluable.

Thanks!

HT

[Ghost]

Would it be possible to do a 12hour version? :)

[HotTom]

LOL, the first version was one hour long and there was too much of what broadcasters call "dead air" between fights. Even I was getting bored waiting for something to happen. So I tightened it all up :)

HT

[stalintc]

Thanks Tom, I look forward to playing this one. Sounds like an interesting scenario and definatley something a bit different from OIF and DC :)

[nimo]

first of all sorry for the very late replay (i was traveling)
i finely looked at your scenario and it looks very detailed strategic wise (where did you find the info?) afcourse it has some problems du to the lack of night fight or the advance of fire systems since 1973, witch allow for sharp shooting of Syrian targets from Israeli ramps.
if you want to add more details to the ter map i can help by providing pics, but i cant add details myself because of low computing power.

here is a pic from bental mt' (what you call booster ridge)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1145/1067766247_d27e13d905.jpg

[HotTom]

Thanks, Nimo.

I'm about to start taking small parts of these very big scenarios and try to turn them into small Coops.

The Golan scenarios have been called "a gunnery exercise on rails" and I don't deny it :) I, first of all, wanted to make it historically accurate.

Now, I can do some "what if?" missions and let the players write their own scripts.

My biggest problem was (and is) finding good topo maps (with contour lines) that ALSO show the location of roads, towns, etc.

The Golan map that came with SB is very accurate but includes zero man-made features. So I had to do a lot of educated guessing. I'm still not sure how accurately placed some of the man-made features are but I think they're fairly close. I may even have mis-named some of the hills but, again, I think it's pretty close.

If you know of such a topographical map, I would sure like to have a copy. I'd be glad to pay for the postage (or maybe it could be scanned and attached to an email?).

The research came from five different books. Avigdor Kahalani's "Heights of Courage" is by far the most readable. Best first-person book I've ever seen about a tank battle. Jerry Asher's "Duel for the Golan" was the most helpful in providing both a good overview and lots of detail on small unit actions. None had decent maps, however.

Also, I was involved in a couple of studies of the Yom Kippur War when I had an assigment as an Army Reserve officer on the faculty of the US Army Command and General Staff College, which, of course, spent a lot of effort looking at the Golan campaign and its lessons for planning the defense the Fulda Gap. I still have access to much of that material, all of which is unclassified.

It amazes me that so few SB players know much about the campaign. It as the only major tank battle since World War II. They all seem fixated on the Fulda Gap, which, thankfully, we never had to fight :)

Anyway, if you have access to some good topo maps with buildings and roads on them, I would sure like to be able to tweak the maps in the campaign.

Thanks,

HT

[HotTom]

Dark sent me a topo map of the Golan today with contours, roads and towns. That's the good news.

The bad news is: It's all in Russian.

Still, I can figure out where the towns and the roads are in relation to the major map features. That's a HUGE step!

Thanks, Dark!

HT

[nimo]

My biggest problem was (and is) finding good topo maps (with contour lines) that ALSO show the location of roads, towns, etc.

The Golan map that came with SB is very accurate but includes zero man-made features. So I had to do a lot of educated guessing. I'm still not sure how accurately placed some of the man-made features are but I think they're fairly close. I may even have mis-named some of the hills but, again, I think it's pretty close.

If you know of such a topographical map, I would sure like to have a copy. I'd be glad to pay for the postage (or maybe it could be scanned and attached to an email?).


Anyway, if you have access to some good topo maps with buildings and roads on them, I would sure like to be able to tweak the maps in the campaign.

Thanks,

HT

i used to have some very good maps back when i was in the army, but they are classified, but a good source of topo maps is afcourse http://earth.google.com/

it has town names a show roads, AT ditches, forts, ramps and mine fields (well not really but you can see were the cows didn't eat the high grass).
i know it's all up to date and not so good for 73 campaign but its something.
you can also extract a bmp of you ter map and add it as a layer to google earth to comper betwin what you have and realty.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1401/1156127242_8d0cbedc91_o.jpg