Prior Reconnaissance
In January 1949, slightly over a month before the operation, a small unit was dispatched to reconnoiter the southern Negev, with limited resources and no ability to receive tactical aid. The unit's mission was to map the region, as the best available map of the time was a GSGS map scaled 1:250,000. The unit was reinforced by reconnaissance aircraft and heavy use was made of aerial photography stereoscopic imaging.
The unit moved in two parts: one through the center of the Negev and one through the Arava. It was strictly forbidden to engage the Jordanian Arab Legion or enter the Sinai. The unit encountered Bedouins in Ras al-Naqb and immediately set out to return to Beersheba using a different route. As a result, the Arab Legion again manned posts at Ras al-Naqb, which had previously been abandoned.
Read more about this topic: Operation Uvda
Famous quotes containing the word prior:
“Less smooth than her Skin and less white than her breast
Was this pollisht stone beneath which she lyes prest
Stop, Reader, and Sigh while thou thinkst on the rest
With a just trim of Virtue her Soul was endu’d
Not affectedly Pious nor secretly lewd,
She cut even between the Cocquet and the Prude.”
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721)