William Durupul

Sharon made his name doing operations

over enemy lines.

He'd go into Jordan and in response to Fedayeen attacks over the border, one way he would go and destroy Arab villages.

And he was very ruthless.

He was renowned from the beginning as being someone that would just take out civilians without any compunction.

By 1973, he is a veteran.

He's 55 years old.

And he's beginning to be a bit heavier than he was as this young commando who made his name attacking into Gaza and attacking into Jordan in the 60s and 50s.

He's broad-shouldered, heavy, and he's been fighting Arabs and sometimes his own military superiors for his entire adult life.

But he wins battles.

And he is greatly loved by his men.

And he is the kind of superstar of the Israeli special forces.

And he's renowned for his reprisal operations that even senior Israeli figures regard as disproportionate.

So he's already fought in 48, 56, 67.

He's brilliant, fearless, insubordinate, utterly ruthless.

And the Israeli military establishment both kind of loves and fears him in equal measures.

But he is the hero of the hour because having now stopped the Syrian advance over the Golan Heights, it's time for the counterattack against the Egyptians into Sinai.

It is Sharon who, on October the 14th, realizes that the Egyptians have made a mistake.

October 14th, Sadat

under pressure to relieve the battered Syrians who are now the focus of Israeli defense operations, orders his armored divisions to advance out beyond their bridgehead into the open Sinai.