Valley of Tears - Prelude

Prelude

At 10:00 on Yom Kippur, Ben-Gal and other brigade commanders convened with General Yitzhak Hofi in Nafakh, where Hofi told them that Intelligence was estimating the Syrians would attack that day, at around 18:00. The 7th Brigade was assigned as a reserve force around Nafakh and was to prepare for a counter attack in either the north or south sector, or to split and support both. Ben-Gal then drove to meet one battalion in Sindiana and address the officers. He called an orders group at Nafakh for 14:00, assuming it would give his second Battalion enough time to organize. As they gathered to wait for him, the Syrian artillery and planes began to attack. Ben-gal's men ran back to their battalions while Ben-Gal moved the headquarters out of the camp. After an hour, he was ordered to move to the northern sector in the Kuneitra area and to transfer the 2nd battalion to the southern sector, under command of the Barak Brigade. The 7th Brigade was left in charge of the northern sector from Kuneitra northwards with two battalions.

As part of his usual strategy, Ben-Gal decided to maintain a reserve force, and began building a third battalion. He transferred a company from one battalion and placed it under the command of his armored infantry battalion, thus creating a third battalion framework with tanks. With reinforcements, the new battalion gradually became a proper one: Ben-Gal now had three battalions available for maneuvering purposes. He received Lieutenant-Colonel Yair Nafshi's 74th Battalion, which was in the line with the fortifications in the northern sector. With Nafshi's battalion, the brigade had about 100 tanks. The first battalion was stationed on the Purple Line. The line began at the fortification A1, directly east of Mas'ade on the foothills of Mount Hermon, and ran south four miles to Mount Hermonit.