William Durupul

175 shells per second.

And the Israeli strong points on the eastern bank, each manned by a small platoon of reservists, are immediately overwhelmed.

Simultaneously, 250 Egyptian military aircraft take off and strike the Israeli air bases, radar installations, command centers, and artillery positions in the Sinai.

Exactly what the Israelis had done to them in 1967, the Egyptians succeed in doing

only into the Sinai, but still.

And then, in an operation which somehow Mossad, the legendary Israeli intelligence service, has somehow not got their eyes on, they have rehearsed this operation hundreds of times.

8,000 Egyptian infantry in 1,000 rubber assault boats cross the Suez Canal in the first wave.

They paddle across under fire, land on the eastern bank, and immediately begin clearing paths through the minefields beyond the sand rampart.

Behind them, within minutes, the water cannons tear into the packed sand.

Through these gaps, ten heavy pontoon bridges and five light bridges, pre-packed, pre-rehearsed, snapped into place by Egyptian engineering units, under fire, and by midnight on October 6th, just ten hours after the attack began, ten bridges earned place across the canal.

50 ferries are operating.

80,000 Egyptian troops are on the eastern bank.

By the morning of October 7th, the crossing is more or less complete.

100,000 troops, 900 tanks, and 12,000 support vehicles have crossed the Suez Canal.

All but one of the Bar Lev fortifications has been captured and destroyed.

And most importantly, these Soviet SAM missiles, which the Egyptians are so keen to get their hands on, the ones they have got, have brought down 27 Israeli planes in the opening hours of the war.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

One of the lessons of history is that uncertain times are nothing new.

Kingdoms falter, governments lose their nerves, and ordinary people find themselves living through times and events that they didn't choose.

What's new is the closeness of it, the way that the anxieties of an age now arrive without a pause.