Mubarak in 'Word for History': Success of the air force strike in October 1973 was the happiest moment in my life
Egypt, Politics, 4/26/2005

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak said that the success of the air strike on October 6, 1973, was the happiest moment in his life. In the first of episodes called "Word for History" with media man Emad Eddin Adib, the president dealt with various stages of his life and his experience in the Egyptian Air Force.

The President in the interview opened his heart and mind before opening the files of war and peace and unveiling details of turning defeat into victory.

After the first ten minutes of the dialogue, President Mubarak surprised his interviewer by taking him to the war operation room in the Air Force command center, where preparations for the first air strike took place and the 1973 war was run.

The President had earlier given directives for cameras to be installed for the first time in history at this important site so that Arab and Egyptian viewers may witness on the ground how the strenuous arrangements were undertaken, in order to move from defeat to victory. President Mubarak unveiled to Adib his viewpoint as an eyewitness to the 1967 defeat and opened the files of the war of attrition, the reshaping of the Armed Forces, the training and planning for operations.

From within the Armed Forces operations theater, President Mubarak explained details of what had taken place at this crucial phase of Egypt's history.

President Mubarak recalled the best moments of his life after the success of the air strike which was the fruit of hard and tenacious work by a huge team involving all specialization, who worked courageously in spinning the first thread of the October victory.

The President reviewed the march of his military life asserting that he spurned any favoritism that would raise him to any post, and also rejected any nepotism for any pilot. He cited in this respect the fact that the brother of the president of the republic at the time was a pilot but he did not enjoy any special treatment.

On his lengthy trip along history since 1949 till April 25, 1982, and the impact of the 1967 defeat on his life and the Egyptian military life in general, President Mubarak said that at the time, he was commander of Beni Sueif air base. There was a 15-day state of emergency and fighter-bombers were on standby. It is natural for a pilot to fly day and night for 15 days so he gets used to flying heavy aircraft, but on June 5 the pilots had not flown any planes in 14 or 15 days, he said.

There had been an intensive process of updating flying in preparation for future operations. On the morning of June 5, we took a decision to retrain pilots and at 09:10 local time, five planes took off one after another in a formation heading for the desert before flying back to the airport.

After five minutes of takeoff, the control tower contacted us and said the airport was being attacked and I had to look for another airport and consequently we landed at Luxor airport, Mubarak said.

Immediately after landing, Luxor airport came under attack and the five planes were the first to be destroyed, he added.

The moment was horrendous, as the pilot when grounded becomes an easy target, but in the sky he can engage in a dogfight and he either kills or gets killed, Mubarak said.

All pilots felt deep sorrow at the size of destruction, and as we had no means of contacting the command, we returned to Beni Sueif by train in the evening, he added.

Responding to a question on his feeling after the defeat of 1967, President Mubarak said that he was very angry.

All the armed forces were furious, said Mubarak, noting that he himself did not go home after the setback for several months until his morale improved.

President Mubarak said that the journey from the defeat of 1967 to the victory of 1973 was long. Egypt during that period passed through the war of attrition, a process of reorganizing the armed forces and training servicemen, said the President, adding that all these operations required a tremendous effort to be achieved.

President Mubarak then accompanied Adib to the operations theater, from which the October War of 1973 was run, to show him the arrangements and preparations made to overcome the defeat of 1967.

The President said that he spent four months inside the operations theater during the 1973 October war.

Answering a question on how far he was affected by the idea of teamwork during his tenure as director of the Air Force Academy, President Mubarak said the spirit of cooperation and team work is necessary.

The President said that he adopted this method his whole life. Also, openness and transparency, said President Mubarak, are very important to guarantee the success of any mission to be undertaken.

President Mubarak said that running the affairs of a country is not a matter to be taken lightly. So everything should be clear from the very beginning.

President Mubarak said he assumed the post of the Air Force Academy Director in November 1967, on the heels of the defeat of June 5, 1967 to train as many Egyptian pilots as possible in preparation for the war of attrition.

The President noted that in just 18 months after he took over the post, five batches graduated from the Academy, something which was unprecedented.

President Mubarak added that he used to spend most of his time at the different basses to follow up any problems with the different engineers in order to make all the pilots feel confident.

The President said any pilot had to be confident as one must fly certain hours and they were taught how to fly under the circumstances prevailing at the time.

The President spoke of how they tried to find a solution to every problem and admitted that the command offered them almost all that was needed.

President Mubarak said that before the October 6, 1973 war, sustained aid came from late Sheikh Zayed of the UAE to the Armed Forces. He said that he used half of this aid to offer some equipment weapons to the Air Force.

Answering a question on his approach towards work, and that several of his aides complained that working with Mubarak was exhaustive, President Mubarak said that protecting the interests of Egypt required this method.

President Mubarak noted that his life during the period of rebuilding the Egyptian Armed Forces before the 1973 October war was very difficult and tough.

Mubarak noted that one of the most important missions he undertook during that period was to boost the morale of the armed forces.

The president said that he had never been pessimistic. Hope is always there, he said.

The process of rebuilding the capabilities of the Egyptian Armed Forces started actually when Lt. General Mohammed Sadek took over the post of minister of defense in 1968, Mubarak said.

President Mubarak said that Sadek started meeting the needs of the Egyptian armed forces in preparation for the October war.

Asked about any aerial photography of the Egyptian military activities by the enemy, the President replied in the negative, saying they would not in the first place be able to photograph aircraft flying at low altitude and getting ready to strike. The planes did not even appear to be hostile as they casually flew over Ismailia canal or Mahmoudia canal at Khatatba, he said.

Asked about the importance of the Air Force and whether it paved the way for the Air Strike, Mubarak highlighted importance of the element at surprise in carrying out a fast and shocking attack that could paralyze enemy communications, this making it possible for ground forces to advance and cut off reinforcements for the enemy. This gave the Egyptian troops the opportunity to cross the Suez Canal, which needed a long time to accomplish, he added.

Asked whether he had expected a counter strike, and whether he had been capable of striking the heart of Israel, Mubarak said he did not plan to strike deep into Israel and that the plan at the time was meant to match existing capabilities.

The enemy could not strike Egypt's depth either, in view of anti-aircraft missiles deployed and fighter planes ready to intercept incoming hostile planes, Mubarak explained.

Mubarak recalled in this respect what had happened on October 14, 1973 when the enemy attacked using a large number of aircraft coming from the sea off Baltim and reaching Mansoura. It was the famous 55-minute dogfight involving some 140 or 150 huge planes. The Egyptian side shot down six enemy planes and they brought down 18 planes.

It is a fact that low-flying planes cannot be seen by radars, Mubarak told his interviewer, pointing out that in order to get over this nagging difficulty the Egyptian side had set up observation points manned by personnel using simple binoculars and wireless sets to report to command any sneaking plane coming from the sea.

But the method, Mubarak said, proved not quite perfect, as a 7 to 8 minute delay in the signal reaching the operations theater in Mansoura had resulted in bombing the city.

This was to change later to ensure quicker communication between observation points and command, according to Mubarak.

President Mubarak pointed out that training pilots to fly at low altitude was the most difficult process, adding that Third Army Commander Abdel-Muneim Wassel once said the planes flew so close to the ground that they almost "brushed our heads."

He reviewed the training of fighter pilots in dogfights, saying that the combat capabilities of the planes were good, with the only Sekhoy that they could not fly for a long time like the Phantoms or Mirages.

Asked about the role played by the Air Forces' Central Operations Room, he said we used to wait and watch and when noticing any danger we notified the relevant areas.

He pointed out that the commander played the role of the maestro as he had the full picture and distributed responsibilities.

He referred to the war of attrition as an example, saying he met with late president Gamal Abdel Nasser at his house in Mansheya 10 days after his appointment and they talked for two hours.

Mubarak recalled precious advice from Nasser at the time, telling him to spare both the lives of Egyptian pilots and their gear by counter-maneuvering Israeli tactics aiming at drawing Egyptian planes just to be hit by waiting batteries at the Suez Canal.

President Mubarak said he told late President Anwar Sadat, the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, that he would use all the available potentials in order to carry out the mission.

He said he told Sadat he was ready for the war, pointing out that he was confident that the troops were skilled enough to engage in the war. Otherwise, I would have told the president to wait for another year as we could not afford a second loss, he added.

Asked how he had come to be that confident and calm at a time Sadat himself was worried, Mubarak recalled how he had been watching everything closely every day and every minute, only going home after he had visited at least four or five bases. He said his confidence was the result of the level of training of the troops and the fact that everyone worked day and night.

He said he even joined them on the battlefield and knew the combat capabilities in hitting targets and in dogfights as well.

He pointed out that the general command at the time was also highly skilled and the minister of defense was a man of great experience.

Asked about the responsibilities of the supreme commander, he said he should be a man of great capabilities enough to take decisions as he is the one to decide whether the army should engage in war or not.

He pointed out that he should also be well-aware of technicalities and dangers, because the decision of the war was a political one and the one who took such decision should be able to choose the right timing.

Asked about his feelings just before the first air strike in the 1973 war, Mubarak said he neither felt concerned, nor afraid nor hesitant, "Because I always say the truth and when I say I will do something I am certainly capable of doing it."

Asked if he had ever felt worried during troop inspections during the reconstruction of the armed forces if something went wrong, Mubarak answered in the negative, saying it would have been counterproductive.

"What I did was to fix what was wrong," Mubarak said confidently. Answering a question about his character in terms of lack of fear or hesitation, he said "life has taught me to be so."

Asked when exactly he knew the exact time of the war, he said this point needed a lot of work, referring to a joint meeting with Syria. The last meeting was held in Alexandria in August 1973 during which they took the decision of the war. The two sides agreed to start operations on October 6 and there were calculations and measures taken to set the date of the war and the two o'clock time. "All wars start early in the day, but this was the first time to start a war at two in the afternoon."

President Mubarak pointed out that nobody at the time believed the war would ever take place. He said late President Sadat was going on with plans for the war, keeping it hush-hush, and to beguile the enemy on the other side of the Suez Canal, Egyptian troops were allowed to play volleyball on this side. Sadat was a veteran fighter, Mubarak said in tribute to the late leader.

He said there were defense alongside camouflage plans, referring to the fact that Egyptian soldiers had engaged in a variety of activities to give the watching enemy the impression they were utterly relaxed and that the notion of war could not be farther from their minds.

No one knew the Zero Hour of the Air Force strike, Mubarak said, pointing out that the hour and day of the war were written in letters handed over to the Air Force personnel with orders not to be opened before 10:00 o'clock.

President Mubarak recalled that before drawing up any plan he would summon all commanders and listen to their briefing.

Then, he added discussions would continue for a week or 10 days with engineers, technicians and others before drafting a report on the capabilities of the Air Force.

The President remembered that at 10:00 A.M. on October 6 several air jets were in the air and then grounded to prepare for the war.

For example, the Mansoura Air Force sector grounded all planes, Mubarak added, recalling he was irritated by this order.

The President said he phoned the commander in Mansoura and told him that grounding all planes would be suspicious at the time of war.

The President recalled that at 7:00 A.M. the day of war he ordered a plane to be prepared for a journey to Tripoli.

At least five people would witness that the Air Force commander and his aides were heading for Tripoli, he said.

Mubarak also remembered that during the five months leading to the war the armed forces took several measures to deceive the Israelis into believing Egypt was not planning military action.

He said that in August he and the commander of the Air Defense Forces accompanied their families to week-long vacation in Marsa Matrouh.

He added that on the eve of war he took his family out for dinner.

Mubarak recalled that on October 6 he went his office at 10:30 while he usually went there at 8:00.

He added that he met with the chief of staff of his office and asked him to head for Anshas airbase to follow up the implementation of the plan.

The President stressed that he did not tell any person of the strike hour, even his wife and family.

He said everybody had clear orders not to make contacts that could be intercepted by the Israelis.

Mubarak added that the strike began without contacting watch towers and instead they used gunshots.

He said that some 230 warplanes were set and ready to carry out the air strike.

The mission was completed successfully with only six planes down including the plane of Atef el-Sadat, the brother of late President Sadat, Mubarak said.

Mubarak asserted that prewar assessments, especially those made by the Russians, expected Egypt to lose between 25 to 30 % of its warplanes in any strike.

He said such estimates were part of attempts to dissuade Egypt for not going to war.

President Mubarak said the success of the air strike on October 6 was the happiest moment in his life.

The success of the strike was only the signal for fierce battles involving other army branches, he added.

The Air Force had other tasks to do, including protecting missiles and assisting army formations by paving the way for them to penetrate enemy's lines, Mubarak clarified.

He said that when late president Sadat was notified of the success of the air strike by then Defense Minister Field Marshal Ahmed Ismail, Sadat replied "congratulations we won the war."

As to the psychological level, Mubarak said the success of the strike helped soldiers regain confidence.

The President recalled that military operations were developed in a later stage to assist Syria, which was also fighting the Israelis on its front.

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