Ofira Air Battle

The Ofira Air Battle was one of the first air battles of the Yom Kippur War. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched a massive surprise attack on Israel that included over 200 Egyptian aircraft participating in an opening airstrike. In one of the first engagements near Israeli Air Force Base Ofir at Sharm el-Sheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, two Israeli Phantoms engaged 20 Egyptian Air Force MiG-17s and their eight MiG-21 escorts on their way to attack Israeli positions in the area. By the end of the brief six-minute battle, seven MiGs were confirmed to have been shot down. The remaining MiGs disengaged and the Israeli Phantoms returned to their base.

Read more about Ofira Air Battle:  Prelude, Battle, Aftermath, Egyptian Account

Famous quotes containing the words air and/or battle:

    “Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and literature looks like word-catching. The simplest utterances are worthiest to be written, yet are they so cheap, and so things of course, that, in the infinite riches of the soul, it is like gathering a few pebbles off the ground, or bottling a little air in a phial, when the whole earth and the whole atmosphere are ours.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to women.”
    —Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)