2023-09-24 06:56:24
Even 50 years later, Tiki Weeds is moved, almost in tears, when she tells what happened to her in the first days of the war. At the time, she was a regular soldier, a liaison officer at the IDF liaison camp in Beloza, an IDF camp in northwest Sinai, where the regional division headquarters was located. Although the details have been published over the years, her monologue, a young soldier in the war, shakes and reveals the depth of the rift: “Everything I grew up on, that we have a glorious leadership and heroic commanders of Israel, collapsed in front of the calls and cries of the fighters of the strongholds in the connection, and it shattered in my face.”
“Saturday morning, The brigadier general called us together and said that there might be a ‘small incident’ in the evening and not to worry. So we didn’t worry. The war caught us while we were fasting on Yom Kippur, all of us with checkered slippers after praying in the officers’ dining room. Suddenly we saw two planes flying overhead, one of the soldiers said : ‘I wonder why the Air Force flies on Yom Kippur’.
“Through the radios of the jeeps, we hear the sounds of massive and terrible shelling on the bastions. I immediately ran to the communications headquarters. As a regional brigade, in HML we coordinated all the communication networks, not only the communication of the strongholds, but also of the tanks and artillery and the Shaked patrol. All the units that were in the sector, and I coordinated all the communication networks. Because of the bombings, everyone started talking together, at once, and it was necessary to do Order and receive the reports in an orderly manner.
“The surprise was great, Thousands of Egyptians are shooting at us. In minutes, seconds, hours, I have no idea. Suddenly there is talk of Egyptian tanks and soldiers already climbing the slopes of the strongholds. Everyone started asking for assistance and help.
“The HML to my left was the operations HML and that’s where all the commanders, generals and NCOs were concentrated. I ran there and asked them to tell me what to do, what to say about it? ‘Tell them that reinforcements are on the way,’ they told me. And it was clear to me that reinforcements were on their way. We waited for her and the Air Force to arrive.
“I knew the area very well, we had traveled a lot in the strongholds before. Just a week before I had arrived at one of the strongholds and climbed a high observation tower and saw the enormous Egyptian force deployed there. It was terrifying but not scary, because there was no fear in us. We were raised to be heroes and strong And the IDF has strong generals and a blind general who is omnipotent, and a prime minister who is an iron woman, and this instilled confidence in us.
A damaged bastion on the southern front. Tiki Weeds: “It became a one-man war. There were no orders from the high command. There was a terrible embarrassment, great confusion, no guiding hand” (Photo: ‘Bamahane’, IDF and Security Forces Archives)
“I took the reports from all the hardliners And slowly I realized that the senior command did not understand the general picture that I had already understood, because I received the reports directly from the strongholds. I understood that the tank battalion was already worn out in the first two hours. The 9th Battalion (of the 401st Armored Brigade – AD) almost did not exist in the first hours of the war.
“You have to understand that in front of an Egyptian division, which includes 1,200 infantry soldiers and tanks, there was one of our tank battalions and eight depleted strongholds in the northern sector. These are the Israeli soldiers who had to stop the attack. No aid, no air force and with very little ammunition, no preparation in advance, when most of them are fasting. That was the case.
“I ran to HML to tell what was going on: Tanks on the slopes, at the foothills of the bastions, had to be stopped there by mines. Moti Ashkenazi, commander of the “Budapest” bastion asked: ‘How do the dogs from the Egyptian border arrive and not step on mines?’ In retrospect it turned out that a few months earlier they dismantled the mines because they wanted to renew them, but they didn’t.
“I received an order from the military commanders who are operating to encourage the strongholds, to tell them that there is no withdrawal order and that they must continue to fight. It was important to me that they live. I didn’t think about retreat, but I thought they should get out of hell. My perception is not that of a commander, but that of a woman, a liaison officer, a soldier.
“At some point there was an order to continue fighting and not to evacuate the wounded. To me, this is an unthinkable order, and when the tanks asked me and asked for permission to evacuate the wounded, they received permission from me.”
“The warriors in the strongholds fought with great strength, They personally, with their bodies, stopped the Egyptian attack. It’s not just a saying. Reports of the injured and dead began to reach me, and I continued to encourage and say that reinforcements were on their way. At some point I got tired of myself and I no longer had words, I felt it was just a statement.
“The first break was when the ‘Lachasnit’ fortress fell (at noon on Sunday, the few who remained alive were taken prisoner -AD). What is a conquered fortress? It is unthinkable. We had to constantly struggle with the effect of surprise and absorb, at some point, that this Really a war and not some incident with an ineffective Egyptian army.
“They were a smart, planned, organized army, With lots of forces and equipment, and all this against a handful of bastions and a battalion of tanks. Of course some reinforcements arrived later from an armor school. But the northern area of the Suez Canal is an area of swamps, and many, many of the tanks that arrived as reinforcements sank in the mud or were hit by anti-tank missiles from the Egyptians. They never reached the strongholds. Very few got there, so there were no reinforcements.
“It was a terrible break for me. Everything I grew up on, that we have a glorious leadership and heroic commanders of Israel, collapsed in front of the calls and cries of the fighters of the strongholds in the connection and it shattered in my face.
“There were a lot of infantry soldiers from Harmesh and patrol Shaked who showed resourcefulness and courage. It became a one-man war. There were no orders from the high command. There was a terrible embarrassment, great confusion, no guiding hand, and those who took responsibility were the fighters and commanders in the field. I took an example from them: they take responsibility, so I also take responsibility.
“The strongholds kept asking me to call the commanders, But no commander came to talk to them. There was a clear feeling that they had been abandoned. Let them continue to fight, no one will talk to them, help will be sent to them, some will come some won’t. There was clearly no commander who spoke to them.
“I took responsibility in several cases. At some point there was an order to continue fighting and not to evacuate the wounded. To me, this is an unthinkable order, and when the tanks asked me and asked for permission to evacuate the wounded, they received permission from me, and I also directed them to the correct tagad (a battalion collection station for casualties – AD).
“The condition of the strongholds worsened, there were many wounded. A ‘button’ stronghold has fallen and a ‘disassembles’ stronghold. Four or five fighters remained there and the rest were wounded. I have no connection with the Milan stronghold, it has been cut off.
“Losing contact with the brigade is the most difficult thing that can happen to them. Until now, the fighters in ‘Milan’ have repelled all attacks, including a flamethrower attack. I thought what would happen to them in the next attack. I turned to the brigadier general and told him: ‘They will be killed there, it should be said for them to evacuate from there’. He answered: ‘No one will retreat, there is no withdrawal order, let them continue to fight and hold on.’
There were four fighters in ‘Parfat’. I didn’t think retreating from hell was a ‘retreat’. Abandoned them. We have no one to trust, and I am here alone in front of them, and I have no one to trust either. The trust I lost in the command I found in the soldiers and commanders in the field.
“Between the walkie-talkies stretched a hidden thread between me and the fighters. A thread that tied us together in a brave and strong, unbreakable bond of shared destiny in war”
“Then Keren Tikva appeared. Tank 3A from an armor school announced that he was intercepting ‘Milano’ in contact, and that he remained in the tank under fire to contact us. My heart expanded. Contact was again established with the ‘Milano’ bastion, which was the last bastion on the canal in the northern sector. There was also ‘Budapest’ which was on the east bank near the sea (and the only one that was not conquered – AD).
“If they don’t get out of there now, their fate will be sealed. Someone needs to tell them to get out. The commanders in the field took responsibility, so I also took responsibility. I took the microphone and called 3A. I told them to tell the soldiers in the bastion to get out of there, immediately, now. The time was 10:30 p.m. 3A confirmed and passed the message on to the ‘Milan’ commander, who also confirmed and said they would leave within half an hour.
“I thought to myself, half an hour? Let them get out of there right away, now, why are they waiting? Why half an hour? It didn’t occur to me that half an hour is very little time to plan and evacuate a stronghold. Gather all the fighters and wounded in the dark, destroy documents and radios, and all this while to fight
“The commander and the lieutenant organized to evacuate the bastion, and asked me for artillery softening during the rescue. I ran to HML for the artillery’s assistance and asked them for artillery softening. The fighters began to leave under the cover of darkness. From that moment we maintained wireless silence, because if we talked about the connection the Egyptians would hear.
“Between the walkie-talkies stretched a hidden thread between me and the fighters. A thread that bound between us a brave and strong bond, unbreakable, of shared fate in a war.
“One of my advantages was that I was not an officer or a general, I was insignificant and no one knew what they wanted, so after the war they didn’t come to an account with me. On the contrary, when I wrote the book (“Voices that are always with me”, Maariv Publishing House, 2004 – AD) I wrote that I was the one who gave the order, or rather the request – because I don’t give orders – to leave the stronghold. Not only did they denounce me, but everyone said – the brigadier general, the general, even Baran (Abraham Aden, the division commander – A.D.) – ‘Why, I gave the order’. But the commander of the ‘Milano’ bastion wrote explicitly: ‘Only on Sunday at 10:30 p.m. I received an order in a female voice, they told us to abandon, to retreat. Wasn’t it from military logic that such an order would be given by a senior commander, who would know how to answer technical operational questions that involve withdrawal?'”
***
Tikki Weeds appeared at a seminar to mark the 50th anniversary of the war at the Ghetto Fighters’ House. Weeds is a director and writer. She worked in educational television and the government advertising office. The study day was moderated by Homi Kenan.
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