← Back to the front page

Lopsided Military Defeats and Humiliating Battlefield Setbacks

Khalid Elhassan September 17, 2024 35 min

Lopsided - Egyptian prisoners captured during the Six Day War — Egyptian prisoners captured during the Six Day War. Pinterest

15. The Lopsided Losses of the Six Day War

Lopsided - Egyptian airplanes destroyed on the ground — Egyptian airplanes destroyed on the ground. Wikimedia

Damage caused by normal bombs striking runways can be repaired by simply filling in the bomb crater and paving it over. However, sinkholes caused by Israel’s prototype bombs necessitated the complete removal of the damaged pavement segment in order to get at and fill in the sinkhole – a more laborious and time consuming process. With the runways destroyed, the airplanes on the ground were stranded, sitting ducks for followup airstrikes. 197 Egyptian airplanes were destroyed in that first wave. Only eight Egyptian airplanes managed to take to the air. After they struck an initial 11 Egyptian airbases in the first few hours of the Six Day War, the Israeli planes returned to base. They quickly refueled and rearmed in under eight minutes, then headed back to strike an additional 14 Egyptian airbases.

They returned to Israel to once again speedily refuel and rearm, and flew out in a third wave. This one was divided between attacks against what was left of the Egyptian air force, and strikes at the Syrian and Jordanian air forces. By noon on June 5^th, the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian air forces were largely destroyed. They sustained lopsided losses of more than 400 airplanes, while nearly 20 Egyptian airbases and airfields were seriously damaged. The damage inflicted on airfields and airbases crippled what was left of the Egyptian Air Force, and prevented it from intervening for the remainder of the conflict. It was one of the most successful preemptive strikes in history, and left the Israeli air force in complete control of the skies for the rest of the war.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.