October 6, 1973. Yom Kippur. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar. At 2 p.m., a blinding shower of high explosive rains down on a collection of concrete bunkers and observation posts sunk in the Sinai sand. Minutes later, 600 Egyptian tanks roll onto pontoon bridges to cross the Suez Canal. Simultaneously, 100 Syrian MiGs and Sukhoi bombers scream through the skies above the Golan Heights. Burning at both ends, Israel was caught completely by surprise. In two weeks time, the U. S. armed forces would be on Def Con III and nuclear tensions mounting within the Kremlin. Surprised by the fury and excellent excution of the Arab onslaught, and perhaps more than a little complacent, Israel suddenly found itself on the point of losing a war because of a lack of ammunition, planes, and tanks.
The United States, after much vacillation, finally elected to help Israel, beginning a monumental air lift (code name: Operation Nickel Grass) which incurred the wrath of the Arab states, and their sponsor, the Soviet Union. Fortunately the airlift came just in time for Israeli ground forces stabilize their positions and eventually turn the tide in the Sinai and Golan Heights. And it was all made possible by an operation that dwarfed the Berlin Airlift and the Soviets' simultaneous efforts in Egypt and Syria.
The Two O'Clock War is a fast-paced, minute-by-minute account of that fateful October when Israel was almost lost and the two super-powers stared down the barrel of the nuclear gun.
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