The story of an Egyptian soldier of the air defense heroes who contributed to writing the October War





The story of an Egyptian soldier of the air defense heroes who contributed to writing the October War

There are many memories in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who fought the last wars of Egypt and the most since the Pharaohs, and I fear that she will die with us and does not know anything about them.

Abdullah Al Masry begins his memories and says .... I am proud to be one of the hundreds of thousands who contributed to writing part of the history of Egypt on 6 October 1973

Beginning in the armed forces

In the autumn of 1971 he was recruited into the armed forces and because of my studies he was sent to the schools of armed forces specialized in radar and missiles to receive military science in the air defense systems and became a specialist in the operation and repair of radar stations that direct missiles

End the work of Russian experts

In the summer of 1972, President Sadat ended the work of the Russian experts and we were immediately sent to replace them in the rocket battalions. I was assigned to a missile battalion on the front near the city of Suez

Missile defense

When Nzoli and my fellow Mukhti from the cart carrying water to the battalion, which I found by chance on the road, one of the soldiers came out of his trench, smiling and said with a loud voice .. "Aywa is the front of the front" ... The answer to the question is in my mind and I have not spoken it yet But I did not see radar stations, rocket launchers or rocket-propelled vehicles. Where is this battalion? !! And I knew that it is one of the ambushes to fly the enemy on the edge of the canal and this place is the back of the battalion any place to return, and installed again the water cart after providing food and headed in the direction of the channel, the ambush ended without a clash with the enemy flight who did not try to approach the channel and we dismantled stations and download The missiles were a hard work because these missile bases were designed to remain in a constant location for their size and heavy equipment, but our leadership also trained us to move them from one place to another so that the enemy did not know where they were.

The first meeting with the comrades of the weapon

It was the first meeting with the comrades of the weapon. Corporal "Abu Fotouh" (tax officer) and his great love for cleanliness and order and was giving me a pack of cigarettes, "Belmont," which was with us to eat breakfast during the days of the war because he does not smoke.

Corporal "Tawfiq" (industrial institute) and his wife Douglas and his adventures, which he was cutting on us and his mouth in his mouth smells of smoke, "infertility" attractive smell.

Corporal "Hamdy" (agricultural engineer) and his constant challenge to Captain "Hamdy" and Bebe, which is always in his mouth even when the efficiency and skill in tracking targets on radar screens.

Sergeant "Said" and the implementation of the orders accurately and fear of permanent fall in error.

Sergeant "Girgis" and his white shirt and his blond hair and his deadly calm and great friendship to the first Sergeant "Zakaria".

Captain (Yuzpachi) "Hamdy" the station commander (a costly engineer) is strict and rarely smiling and his constant defense of us with the battalion commander to get our best privileges.

In the end my friend "Fekry" (diploma) is the generator factor that supplies the station with electricity and its strong care of itself and its appearance.

The battalion moved to Marsa Matruh

At the end of 1972, the battalion moved to Marsa Matruh for comfort because it has long been on the line of fire, but it was not the best. There were intensive flights from our flight for training in the city of Marsa Matruh every day with a total of 36 aircraft. One.

Several days locked Qashlaq

Once upon a time, some of them did not realize that they were our pilots. Their planes responded positively to the signals I sent from the station. After a longer period of silence than usual, the captain felt that I was not dealing with these targets. I had a few days of imprisonment for Qashlaq. This was a lesson for me not to compromise even with our aircraft.

Raising the degree of readiness "state of first operations"

A few days before the start of the war, we felt that something would happen in the near future. We had to raise the alert to "the first case of operations." This means fighting and the training planes disappeared from the radar screens to become handcuffed and we started preparing ourselves to go to the front

We will fight .... we will fight .... God is greater

On the sixth day of October, the fighting broke out. It is the day of revenge and the liberation of the land, which we were eagerly waiting for and the soldiers of the 14th Battalion began to rebel ... What are we doing here ?! We were there on the front and the commander of the battalion met us and said we were waiting for the orders and actually arrived and it was a great pleasure we would have the honor of defending Egypt and liberating the land and entering the history and the soldiers began shouting we will fight ... The greatest ... God is greatest

Move to the front

The battalion was dismantled in a flash and put it on the train dedicated to us and heading to the front and began to fold the road in a hurry and had priority, it was standing all the other trains to give way and was changing the locomotive quickly and arrived at the station "Tanta" as I recall At night, our destination was a secret. We did not know from where we would enter the front and then head towards Mansoura. The equipment was taken down and we knew that we would complete the road with our vehicles.

God is with you ... God is with you

In the morning there was a clash between the bases of the missiles surrounding the city of "Mansoura" and enemy aircraft were dropped a number of them and in the evening began to move in the direction of "Damietta" and to "Port Said." I can never forget the simple Egyptians from our farmers who went all the way from Mansoura to Damietta to throw all their sweets, food, onions, radishes, watercress and calls from every mouth of God with you. Strongly "fighting I felt that Egypt is all one family