____________________________________________ 2 IICC Perspectives The following morning, we were on our way. The Unit's regional operations officer said that the previous night some of the Egyptian networks had broadcast a codeword for transition from exercise to operation. Apparently, he was referring to sha'ban, a codeword we had already heard as part of the preparations for the exercise. Our Work at the Stronghold We arrived at around 8 in the morning. We were given an empty bunker and set up our equipment as quickly as possible. We hung blankets over the bunker's openings so none of the other soldiers could see our operations. We could see Egyptian soldiers right across the Suez Canal from us. At that point the Canal was quite narrow, about a hundred yards. The situation on the opposite bank seemed routine: the soldiers weren't wearing helmets or carrying arms. We set up our equipment and antennas and went to work. Because we were without encrypted communications equipment or reference materials, it had been agreed that if we heard something unusual, we would use the stronghold's ordinary telephone to call the Unit. If it was out of commission for any reason, I was to use the stronghold's communication equipment and try to hint, using a complex, clumsy code employed by the IDF at the time. Most of the soldiers at the stronghold were reserves, and the rest were regular army conscripts with various assignments. I joined the shifts monitoring radio traffic as a wireless operator. We didn't hear anything out of the ordinary; everything seemed routine. We didn’t receive any broadcasts from the Soviet-made tank communication devices, and what we could hear was familiar. Saturday, October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, D-Day The Timetable Morning: We continued our routine monitoring of Egyptian radio traffic. The Egyptian soldiers were armed and wearing helmets. The reconnaissance observer told me it was unusual. 11 a.m. I climbed to the top of the observation tower and saw Egyptian soldiers armed and wearing helmets. The reconnaissance observer (one of the reservists) told me it was unusual. 1:15 p.m. Beni, the deputy commander of our base in Tasa, called and told me to dismantle all our equipment, he was sending a car for us. I asked if we were being sent to another stronghold and he said he didn't know. We started dismantling and packing our equipment. Suddenly someone entered the bunker shouting, "They're coming for us" and left by the back exit. David Kanaan 1973 (picture courtesy of the interviewee)
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