Israel's victory in the 1967 'Six Day War' sowed the seeds of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. At 1400hrs on 6 October 1973 the Egyptian army launched an assault crossing of the Suez Canal. The carefully co-ordinated attack achieved complete tactical surprise. The sand embankments of the Israeli Bar-Lev Line were breached and an Israeli counterattack thrown back with heavy losses. In the second of his two-volume analysis of the Yom Kippur War, Simon Dunstan details the fighting in the Sinai, culminating in Operation Gazelle, the Israeli counterattack across the Suez Canal. Although defeated militarily Egypt did ultimately succeed in forcing the Israelis back to the negotiating table.

Simon Dunstan is a well-established author, film-maker and photographer in the field of military history, and has published several titles with Osprey. He specialises in armoured warfare, and has written on this subject for two decades. His books have covered topics such as helicopter and armoured warfare in Vietnam, the Challenger main battle tank, the British Guards and armoured warfare in Korea. Simon lives and works in London.