At the Engineers Syndicate celebration… 4 of the October heroes talk about the secrets of the great victory
The Engineers Syndicate’s celebration of the fifty-first anniversary of the glorious October Victory witnessed a dialogue session during which four of the heroes of the great victory spoke: Major General Engineer Hussein Masoud, Major General Staff Engineer Issam Abdel Halim, Major General Staff Engineer Mahmoud Metwally, and Major General Staff Engineer Muhammad Nader Abdel-Wahab.
Engineer Karim Al-Kassar, Assistant Secretary-General and celebration coordinator, presented the four heroes, greeting them and everyone who participated in making the October victory, indicating that the union is keen to commemorate this memory that will remain immortal in the hearts rather than the minds. Praising what the Corps of Military Engineers provided during the glorious war, he said: “The place is not enough to list what was done by every hero who participated in that war, which restored Egypt and the Arab nation’s dignity and pride.”  Manage Media session dialogues And the journalist writer Ahmed Al-Derini, who began the session, thanked the Engineers Syndicate, engineer Tariq Al-Nabrawy, the union’s office body and its Supreme Council, for organizing a celebration of the great October victory, pointing out that October was a great victory that had a purely military aspect, and also an engineering aspect. He was the ruler and controller of every detail of the industry. This glorious victory. And he began Major General Engineer Hussein Masoud – former Minister of Aviation, in his speech thanking the Engineers Syndicate Which includes the best minds of Egyptians, stressing that military engineers were deployed in all branches and weapons of the armed forces, and they had a major role in achieving victory. He said: “The main goal of every October victory celebration is to send a message to the youth and new generations of Egyptians so that they realize that war October, as much as it had difficulties and sacrifices, is considered easier than the war that Egypt is currently facing. In October 1973, the enemy was clear to us and the Egyptian nation was united behind its armed forces. The enemy was on one side, which is the northern and eastern fronts, while currently the enemy is hidden, and Egypt is surrounded. With dangers from all sides, this is why the youth of Egypt must adhere to belonging to their homeland and arm themselves with knowledge, for the coming battle is a war of minds Thought and information. Masoud added: Who was the rank of engineer captain in the helicopter squadron during the October War, "during the war  1967 The armed forces were not tested, they did not fight a battle in the true sense of the word, but after the setback, the armed forces began preparing and building forces and purchasing modern weapons, and we trained on them, and we began practical training in the war of attrition, and the October War began with the movements of heavy forces, then it was the turn of the thunderbolt behind enemy lines. My mission in the battle was to transport Thunderbolt forces via helicopters far behind enemy lines It ranges between 40 and 45 kilometers, and it is the first time Helicopters are used for combat missions, and it was required to transport the 143rd Thunderbolt Battalion to deal with the enemy’s armored forces in the heart of Sinai. The helicopters took off from Almaza Air Base and we arrived in the Wadi Hjoul area near Suez, where the Thunderbolt forces were waiting. I was part of the crew of one of these aircraft and the squadron engineer. Consisting of 12 aircraft, the role of the Thunderbolt forces was that while the enemy’s armored vehicle was passing, it was ambushed to hinder its progress. The enemy’s radars were unable to detect us. When we reached the Al-Ibrar area, the enemy began to bring out Phantom aircraft to deal with our aircraft, and immediately the ambush was set up with great efficiency. The enemy brigade commander was seriously wounded and killed in this battle, and 7 tanks were destroyed. We continued our successful ambushes against enemy forces from October 11 to 19, and we did not stop until four hours before the ceasefire, when we returned to the canal area. Major General Staff Engineer Issam Abdel Halim said that he joined the Military Technical College in the 5th batch of university graduates and graduated from it in 1968. After his graduation, he joined one of the bridge brigades affiliated with the Military Engineers Corps, and participated in the October War as an engineer commander with the rank of major in the Second Field Army in the southern sector of the Canal. Suez. He added" 10 days before the war, I was on a work mission, and the mission was supplied with 15 rubber boats, in addition to increasing the amounts of fuel given to the mission’s vehicles to an unusually large extent, and quantities of emergency fuel were also disbursed. He became certain at that time that the time for war was approaching, and he said: " My intuition was correct, as we were ordered on the morning of October 6th not to organize a morning column, contrary to the daily norm, and for everyone to be in the trenches. At nine in the morning, we were told that the war would break out at two in the afternoon. Indeed, we prepared for battle, and when the planes passed over our heads at two in the afternoon, Shouts of “God is Great” were heard from all members of the unit. He added: It was issued We were ordered to make openings in the berm for infantry and armored forces to cross. Indeed, the Corps of Engineers was able to open the gaps in less than 5 hours, and 15 heavy bridges were constructed for tanks, artillery and equipment to cross, and 10 light assault bridges for infantry to cross. After completing that mission, the mine and explosives fields were dealt with. Located east of the Suez Canal, which the enemy planted. The hero of the October War pointed out that his division was the only division that opened gaps in the dirt berm east of the Suez Canal in front of the bridges using members of its engineers, unlike the rest of the divisions that sought help from engineers from outside, because the water hoses with which they opened the gaps in other locations were not suitable at the site. Which it was in due to the clayey nature of the earthen berm. Major General Staff Issam Abdel Halim pointed out that building air defense placed great responsibilities on the shoulders of military engineers, as between 1968 and 1973 we built many works for the air defense forces, including the missile wall, and more than 600 fortified shelters for aircraft were built from reinforced concrete with 20 military bases. As well as shelters for pilots and operations rooms within the Air Force. Major General Staff of the Navy Mahmoud Metwally said: "The Egyptian naval forces did not lose any naval vessels during the 1967 war, and they also thwarted the attack on all Egyptian ports and were able to capture and kill many The Israeli frogmen who tried to destroy the port of Alexandria after we destroyed the port of Eilat for them on October 21, which is the day that was designated as a holiday for the naval forces, The Egyptian naval forces also destroyed the Israeli research ship in front of Lake Bardawil. He also mentioned the heroism of the Egyptian naval forces when the Egyptian submarines were standing in front of Haifa and Ashdod for reconnaissance without the Israeli side discovering them. “Metwally” spoke. About the port of Eilat, where it was successfully raided 3 times at close intervals, reviewing the strategic objectives of the naval forces in the Yom Kippur War, the most important of which is preventing oil and supplies from Israel… assisting in combat operations during operations, participating in firefighting and bombing the enemy’s vital targets, and securing the tactical range of the naval forces. In the Mediterranean and Red Bahrain, praising the great role played by Lieutenant General Ashraf Rifaat Chief of Naval Forces Operations in the October War To be able to participate in combat operations. In the conclusion of his word, he called " Metwali" The Engineers Syndicate organizes a trip for young engineers to the Alexandria Arsenal To see for themselves How Egyptian hands make units A new navy capable of protecting Egypt’s interests in the Red and White Bahrain. Let them also see the new units that Egypt recently purchased Which made the Egyptian naval fleet one of the strongest fleets in the region. In his speech, Major General Muhammad Nader Abdel Wahab, former Chief of Staff of the Air Defense, pointed out that the Air Defense Force was established in August 1970 To defend Egypt’s skies from Israeli aircraft attacks Indeed, the Egyptian Air Defense succeeded in establishing an integrated air defense system to protect the front from enemy aircraft, in what was known as the “missile wall.” It was established at a distance ranging between 12 and 18 kilometers from the front line with the Israeli army to prevent enemy aircraft from reconnaissance of the Egyptian army forces west of the canal, which was done using Phantom aircraft capable of determining the command locations of Egyptian army units in an area ranging between 30 and 40 square kilometers, in addition to The Israeli army uses electronic reconnaissance aircraft capable of dealing with all points from which any radio frequencies are emitted and determining their coordinates accurately. “Abdul Wahab” explained: It was possible to deal with these aircraft by sending battalions into advanced positions to surprise the enemy and engage with him, and these battalions succeeded in shooting down the “Stracoroz” plane on September 17, 1971 in the Geneva area. He added that the participation of the Air Defense Forces with the army in the strategic deception plan was through erecting structural models of missiles along the front in order to mislead the enemy about the true locations of the missile sites, in addition to suggesting to the enemy that the Egyptian army possesses a huge number of missile battalions. He pointed out that on the morning of October 6, with the Egyptian aircraft attacking the Israeli command positions, the air defense forces expected that the enemy would launch a counter-air attack within half an hour, which is what actually happened. The missiles of the division responsible for securing the canal were on the lookout for it and they succeeded in shooting down 36 aircraft. As Major General “Mohamed Nader Abdel Wahab” explained: On the seventh of October, the Israeli enemy remembered what it had done in 1967 and tried to attack the airports of Katameya, Tanta, Mansoura, Beni Suef, and Ganaklis, but missile units confronted it in cooperation with the Air Force, and it was only able to destroy a side corridor at Tanta Airport, which was repaired within hours. He added that Port Said witnessed fierce battles that took place with air defense units when the enemy tried to penetrate from the north at low altitudes to attack the bases of the missile brigades, but it succeeded in reducing its danger by using anti-aircraft guns carried on the shoulders. “Abdul Wahab” reviewed The events of October 14, when the enemy attempted to destroy the air base in Mansoura, were confronted by air fighters in coordination with air defense units, causing heavy losses. This day was later declared an Air Force Day. At the conclusion of the discussion session, Engineer Tariq Al-Nabrawy – Captain of the Engineers Syndicate, accompanied by Engineer Mahmoud Arafat – Secretary General of the Syndicate, Engineer Karim Al-Kassar – Assistant Secretary General of the Syndicate and General Coordinator of the Celebration, and Professor Dr. Saad Makram – Assistant Treasurer of the Syndicate, honoring Major General Staff of War Hussein Masoud, Major General Staff Engineer Issam Abdel Halim, Major General Staff of Marine Mahmoud Metwally, and Major General Staff of War Muhammad Nader Abdel-Wahab, journalist Ahmed Al-Darini, and journalist Tariq Radwan, who presented the celebration and presented them with the union’s shield.
