Military and War - 20th Century Battlefields: 1973 Middle East

Peter and Dan Snow unpick the complex history of conflict in the Middle East. Known in the West as the Yom Kippur War, the fighting that broke out in 1973 was the biggest military clash between Arabic nations and Israel. Covers the Yom Kippur War from start to finish concentrating on both the Syrian and Egyptian fronts. Does not cover one engagement primarily, other than a slight focus on the Battle of Chinese Farm near the Suez Canal. The Palestinian struggle for statehood is heavily emphasized, although neither Egypt, Syria, or the other members of the Arab League were officially concerned with the Palestinian cause at the time. The episode is filmed in the Negev Desert in Southern Israel since neither Egypt or Syria gave permission to film in their territories. Dan Snow learns how to operate an anti-tank missile. Peter and Dan travel to Israel, the country that found itself in danger of being crushed on two sides when Egypt and Syria launched a massive combined attack. Using state-of-the-art graphics, Peter explains how the Egyptians stunned the Israelis in their surprise attack, when thousands of Egyptian soldiers and hundreds of tanks crossed the Suez Canal and pushed into the Sinai desert. With the help of the British Royal Marines, Dan experiences how small teams of Egyptian foot-soldiers used the latest technology to stop the Israel tanks in their tracks.