The fateful June 5, 1967, order to paratroop commander Mordechai Gur ‘just slipped out,’ author Abraham Rabinovich recalls in this excerpt from his landmark book, ‘The Battle for Jerusalem’
Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin informed the General Staff on Saturday night, June 3, 1967, of the decision to launch a pre-emptive strike against Egypt in 36 hours, pending cabinet approval. Every effort would be made to keep the Jordanian front quiet.
Air Force Commander Motti Hod had never divulged details of the air force’s plan to the General Staff. Even now, he revealed to his fellow generals only one element — zero hour. The planes would strike at 7:45 AM. The Egyptian air force mounted dawn patrols from first light until 7 AM in anticipation of a possible Israeli attack out of the rising sun. At 7:45 the Egyptian pilots would be back at their bases having breakfast. Senior commanders lived off base and arrived at their headquarters about 8 a.m. At 7:45, they would still be in their cars, unable to react in the decisive first moments of the attack. Once the first planes began attacking, the Israeli armored divisions could shed their camouflage netting and begin the ground offensive. More
