Gomig-21
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I've been debating this for over 30 years, now lol. Hey, what's one more time, right?
In reality, there was no retreat involved because on the 17th when it was first reported that the enemy had crossed over with 5 or 6 tanks, Shazly wanted to pull back elements of the 4th armored division from the 3rd army and the 21st armored division from the 2nd army, both of whom were reserves for their respective armies and were originally positioned on the west bank.
So the 21st was the 2nd army's reserve stationed on the west bank of the canal and the 4th armored division was the 3rd army's reserve stationed on the west bank of the canal. Both were ordered to cross to the east to launch the attack (yet another huge blunder by Sadat) to the passes.
So Shazly was basically calling for the 2 armored divisions that had crossed on the 13th from the west to the east to join the 2nd & 3rd army to cross back to their original positions. There was no such thing as "a retreat".
That would've destroyed all hopes for the enemies on the west bank and consolidated the troops and bridgehead on the west bank to prevent any further penetration by the enemy and none of that encirclement would've happened.
To think that Sadat was concerned that the rest of the 95,000 troops -- after all the success of the crossing -- would see the two divisions that had come over as reservist to plan the attack to the passed simply return to the west bank as demoralizing is the epitome of ridiculous.
There's more to it that makes it even more ridiculous such as the 25th division would've remained there and the reserve divisions were equipped with T-62s to boot, making them very suitable in destroying the few enemy tanks and infantry that crossed first.
Silly, absolutely silly on Sadat's behalf and clearly he was no military genius who thought he had the pulse of the men. If anyone knew the morale of the men, it was most certainly Shazly and a big reason why he was "chief of staff" and planned the entire crossing and look how that turned out? Look at how things fell apart completely once Sadat took control? That right there should easily tell you who's MUCH more qualified to make those critical decisions which would've altered the result of the war completely in Egypt's favor.
Not even just that, Shazly had planned the reserves of the 4th and 21st to be there exactly for that scenario. He knew the 3 places likely for the enemy to make their crossing since it's a classic pincer maneuver and the narrowest sections of the canal would be the most suitable along with the least defended areas. So he already had 3 spots picked out and ready to defend should anything like what happened take place and what did Sadat do? Ruin it completely!
Then add insult to injury, Shazly even had 2 more plans which were to be used just in case the 4th and 21st failed in their original defenses and that was then to pull back a few squads of Sagger units to cripple the tanks on the bridgehead. The man was a military genius and shame on Sadat for letting his ego ruing the complete victory.
To think that these men, after all the initial success would panic when they saw the 1 division in the north and the other in the south simply go back to their original positions on the west bank is as ridiculous as the order to sacrifice the 25th division and 500 tanks by sending them to the passes without any protection under the ridiculous pretext that it would relieve pressure on the Syrians! By the 14th when that ill-fated disaster took place, the Syrian front had already been stable for 2 days!!! And not only that, but the Jordanian brigade was arriving to reinforce the Syrian positions and Sadat must've known that since Shazly and Gamassy and Ismail all knew it. The only one who dared to speak up was Shazly, Anyway...
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