Yom Kippur War WI/ PC/ AHC

WI Iraq, Libya, and Algeria joined with Egypt and Syria in their attack against Israel? Would this have even been plausible then? If not, how could it be made to be plausible with a POD no earlier than the end of the 67 war?

What kind of forces could these three additional nations have brought into the conflict? Could they have won? What would have happened afterwards if they did? Or if the Israelis still emerged victorious?


Bonus points if u can manage to get all three heavily directly involved, but hearing about how two or even just one of them could be brought in would be interesting too.


To be clear, I'm asking what if these countries sent more than expeditionary forces, but instead truly took part in a jointly coordinated attack
 
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Cook

Banned
Iraq did send a 60,000 strong expeditionary force to fight alongside the Syrian in the Yom Kippur War and their air force also sortied against the Israelis. Their performance has been described generously as ineffectual. They entered the ground action after the Yom Kippur War had been raging for a week. That they did so under direct Syrian command is often overlooked by those claiming that the Syrian and Iraqi Ba’ath Party regimes have never got along.

The Arab forces achieved tactical and strategic surprise in October 1973 precisely because no large troop movements were seen prior to the attack. For troops from Iraq, Libya and Algeria to have taken part in the initial attacks would have required their pre-deployment into Egypt and Syria and would have signalled that an attack was imminent. Algerian involvement would have been especially hard to conceal since their forces would have had to be unloaded in the port of Alexandria.

The Libyans and Iraqis would have contributed nothing of value to the initial attack anyway.
 

The Libyans and Iraqis would have contributed nothing of value to the initial attack anyway.

I agree, the Iraqi army was big but their wars against Iran in the 80s and the two conventional wars against the US (1991 and 2003) showed severe deficiencies in tactics and logistics (not to mention inept military leadership). As for Libya, it's armed forces were a joke, proving incapable of even defeating Chad in the 80s border conflict. So the Israelis were not in any real danger from either of these two countries. As for Algeria, I can't comment because I don't know much about that nation's military capabilities, but I doubt they could have significantly altered the eventual outcome (I'm open to being corrected by anyone with more knowledge of Algeria's armed forces in 73).
 

Cook

Banned
is there any way they could've possibly covered up their troop movements beforehand?
Given that to get from Iraq to Syria you have to drive along a couple of desert highways, and that you’d be in a couple of convoys that not even the American satellites* could miss it is going to be a little difficult. These are not small undertakings, they aren’t going to be accomplished quickly; the Iraqi’s committed their forces to the Syrian cause on the first day of fighting, it took a week for the first of their brigades to arrive.

Likewise Libya into Egypt and Algeria would take a small fleet of freight ships to transport even a modest force.

*Not to mention the human intel; the same highways are used by freight trucks and no-one likes talking more than a truck driver.
 
Perhaps if the Federation of Arab Republics had worked out better, the Libyan forces would be considered the one and the same as the Egyptians and could be moved around (eastwards) without suspicion? then again that wouldn't be all that much help as has been stated already. Hmmm... think this AHC might be impossible...
 
Perhaps if the Federation of Arab Republics had worked out better, the Libyan forces would be considered the one and the same as the Egyptians and could be moved around (eastwards) without suspicion? then again that wouldn't be all that much help as has been stated already. Hmmm... think this AHC might be impossible...

You cannot move an Army about 2000 Km without being detected unless is 2000 Km of Jungle and you do it with bikes ... so no is not possible
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Iraq did send a 60,000 strong expeditionary force to fight alongside the Syrian in the Yom Kippur War and their air force also sortied against the Israelis. Their performance has been described generously as ineffectual.


They were certainly ineffectual from a tactical point of view. But it was no mean feet to move two or three divisions (don't recall which), including hundreds of tanks with all their equipment, hundreds of miles in so short a space of time. Indeed, their very appearance on the battlefield took the Israelis by surprise. Although the attacks they mounted on the Israeli salient were pretty much shot to pieces, they did keep the Israelis busy while the Syrians recovered from their mauling and absorbed new equipment being rapidly shipped in by the Soviets.

I think it's worthy pointing out that when the cease-fire took effect on the Golan front, it was the Arabs who about to attack rather than the Israelis.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Perhaps if the Federation of Arab Republics had worked out better, the Libyan forces would be considered the one and the same as the Egyptians and could be moved around (eastwards) without suspicion? then again that wouldn't be all that much help as has been stated already. Hmmm... think this AHC might be impossible...

That would introduce so many butterflies into the TL that the Yom Kippur War would not have taken place in anything like the same manner it did IOTL.
 
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