Israeli Borderlands, May 20th, 1954

The opening strikes of the war were not the overwhelming victory hoped for by the IDF. The military exercise announced had caused nearby Syrian airbases and defensive positions to go into high alert, with AA positions otherwise poorly manned being occupied. As such, the first strikes by the Israeli Air Force were met with heavy fire from the ground. Syria’s rather small and poorly trained air force nevertheless took a disastrously heavy beating, while exacting a toll of five bombers lost, two to accidents caused by Israeli crew’s unfamiliarity with the area. Air superiority was initially gained by the Israelis by the end of the first day.

Syria’s military was well-prepared for an offensive into the area - Israeli promises towards such created a very obvious avenue to defend for the Syrians, and their fortifications were well-made and reinforced. The IDF had similarly swelled in numbers, surpassing even its size during the 1948 War - and fresh reinforcements of hundreds of tanks were being funneled into the area. The Israelis, with their fanatic hope to secure the border of their new state inspiring leader and men alike, stormed across the hastily-set boundary into the Hula Valley early on the morning of May 21st, 1954.

The Hula Valley had been settled by humans since prehistoric times. The landscape was dominated by a large, marshy lake in the center of the valley, which fed the Jordan River as it drained south towards the Sea of Galilee. Vague plans had been afoot to drain the lake generally, creating new farmlands for the settlers in the region - yet these had been mostly Jewish plans, and as such had not been seen through by the Syrians. Instead, the expanse of marshy wetland, inhabited by dozens of species and renowned previously for its hunting opportunities, still supported only a handful of villages.

Rolling tanks through the region was thus rather more hard going than could be otherwise expected. Conditions weren’t helped by the warmth and humidity of the wetlands, which bred malaria. Even still, the initial Israeli assault thundered into the valley, with the first line of Syrian resistance being shortly breached by the 1st “Nazareth” brigade, following a short artillery barrage. Unfortunately, the usage of tanks rapidly became a double-edged sword for the Israelis: in particular, the decision to roll 42-tonne M26 Pershing tanks into the region resulted in a bottleneck of tanks, unable to progress through the gorge leading into the Naftali Mountains in the west after one became engorged in the mud, causing a second to attempt to drive around it only to become even further stuck - the column then becoming stuck and pinned down by murderous Syrian fire. Syrian troops gradually pulled back in the face of the onslaught, with Israeli mechanized infantry being forced to demount and progress on foot through the wetlands.

With the advance an evident failure, things break down within the Israeli high command. Troops were scattered across the Hula Valley, their main attacking force bogged down in the marshlands and their supply lines becoming untenable. Syrian troops, somewhat bewildered at their good luck, launched a series of counterattacks that likewise failed to dislodge the Israelis from the southern portion of the Hula Valley.

Note: The following passage was invalidated on November 1st, 2023 by unanimous mod decision. See Discord Announcement for further explanation.

As the operation bogged down at the end of May 27th, the need for a readjustment became clear. In a bizarre incident on May 26th, a brief air battle occurred between a lone Gloster Meteor and Israeli F-86s - only ending when the RAF roundel was observed on the Meteor, causing the Israelis to withdraw. Similar sightings of RAF jets flying over Israeli positions have caused anger and resentment amongst the ranks - why were the British joining in on the side of the Arabs? Yet, no direct attack came from the British, and on the diplomatic front everything was silent. Combat between Iraqi and Israeli fighters over the next week was not conclusive, but the presence of an Arab air force and the appearance of mystery jets had a disquieting effect…

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