Outcome and Observations

Israel s masterful prosecution of its meticulously prepared battle plan resulted in one of the most resounding victories in modern warfare. Three Israeli divisions totaling some fifty thousand men routed the equivalent of seven Egyptian divisions of more than a hundred thousand men and conquered an area approximately three times the size of Israel at a cost of fewer than four hundred of their own troops and forty-six pilots killed . While any loss of life in warfare is tragic, these losses were much, much less severe than anticipated.

At the heart of this resounding victory were the italicized words you saw interspersed throughout the chapter ”the seven guiding principles of maneuver warfare. The Israelis knew their opponent s greatest weakness and conducted their attack with the aim of aggressively exploiting it. During the course of battle they took considerable, albeit calculated, risks and concentrated overwhelming combat power at critical points and times to achieve dramatic outcomes . A combination of speed and surprise created uncertainty and chaos within the Egyptians ranks. The willingness of frontline commanders, such as Colonel Mendler, to make on-the-spot decisions created a rapid pace of battle to which the enemy could not respond effectively. Finally, the creative combination of complementary weapons gave the Egyptians no way out in the Mitla Pass. This series of actions represents the approach to preparing and prosecuting business plans that we hope to impart in this book, and we now turn to delineating and defining each principle.