Battle of Baltim - Background

Background

On October 8, the third day of the war, the Israel Defense Forces launched a counterattack in the Sinai in an attempt to push the Egyptian Army back across the Suez Canal. Israeli naval command expected ground pressure on Port Said to prompt a withdrawal of Egyptian naval assets from the local harbor to Alexandria, 180 kilometres (110 mi) to the west. A flotilla of Israeli missile boats was therefore ordered to proceed to Port Said. The boats, having just arrived back in Haifa after the Battle of Latakia, had not yet completed refueling. Nevertheless, within twenty-five minutes eight boats were heading south at thirty knots. These arrived off Port Said five hours later, meeting Commander Michael Barkai who was already on station with two boats. By that time, the counterattack in the Sinai had failed and the Egyptian boats did not leave the port.

Barkai and Admiral Binyamin Telem decided to lure the Egyptians out by shelling coastal targets along the Nile delta. At 9:00 PM, just as they began doing this, they detected targets to the west. The Israeli boats charged at forty knots, but after about thirty minutes it turned out that they had been chasing electronic shadows. Halting to regroup, Barkai asked his ships to report the state of their fuel and munitions supply. The boat he was on, INS Miznak, and three others, were very low on fuel. He contemplated a return to Haifa, but eventually decided to send back the ones that were low on fuel and remain on site with the rest. As he was moving from the Miznak to INS Herev, four Osa class missile boats were detected coming out of Alexandria, heading east. When Barkai climbed aboard the Herev, he ordered his force to move toward Alexandria.