This interlude instantly conferred on us the desert equivalent of street cred

This interlude instantly conferred on us the desert equivalent of street cred. The next morning, Talik agreed we could accompany the Seventh Brigade as it moved deeper into the Sinai, and peel off when we got closer to Gebel Libni to complete our “sayeret mission.” Given the early course of the fighting, and our forces’ rapid advances in the Sinai, I couldn’t help wondering whether there was any real need to defuse, much less remove, the bugging machinery. But the very fact that the kirya, in the early hours of the war, had still wanted us to try was a reflection of the deep sense of apprehension in Israel in the weeks before the war. Even now, it appeared, there was a concern that the Egyptians might reclaim the parts of the Sinai which we had captured. When the armored column got close to Gebel Libni, I pulled our Jeep aside and headed for the stretch of communications cable where we’d planted the intercept. For several hours, I tried to accomplish in broad daylight what I’d failed to do in the desert darkness four months earlier. But it was no use. I finally told Avraham we’d be better off just blowing it up. I attached an explosive charge and set a two-minute delay. We watched from a couple of hundred yards away as the whole assembly disintegrated. Then we rejoined the Seventh Brigade. Before sunset on the third day of the war, we reached the Egyptian air base at Bir Gafgafa in the heart of the Sinai. Even had the war ended then, we would have been in control of a large chunk of the desert buffer zone which Ben- Gurion had hoped to retain after the 1956 war. But now, more quickly than even the most optimistic planners in the kirva could have anticipated, Talik was poised to move on — toward the Suez Canal, and the main towns and cities of Egypt. As the Seventh Brigade billeted down in Bir Gafgafa, Talik sent his reserve brigade westward, in the direction of the canal. We went with them. The battalion was more mobile than a pure tank force, but also more vulnerable: lightly armored French AMX-13s and a collection of the halftracks which I dimly, unfondly, remembered from my fironut. A few of the AMXs led the way, then a line of halftracks, and more tanks at the rear. I nosed our Jeep into the middle, behind the battalion commander, a lieutenant- colonel named Ze’ev Eitan. There were scattered groups of Egyptian soldiers on either side of us, and they aimed an occasional burst of fire in our direction. But there seemed little point in shooting back. We didn’t need to fight, and it was clear that the Egyptians didn’t really want to. Shortly before dark, Lieutenant-Colonel Eitan brought our column to halt. The road we were on cut through tall sandunes on either side. We knew there 90 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011561