____________________________________________ 3 IICC Perspectives 1:40 p.m. A Command Car came from Tasa with two soldiers, Edward Dagan and Shimon. As soon as it arrived the stronghold commander, Major Meir Visel, used the internal PA system to announce that shelling could hit at any minute. Someone shouted, "Is this a drill?" and Visel answered "No, it's the real thing." We waited in the bunker for three or four minutes and when nothing happened, we started loading our equipment on the Command Car. 1:50 p.m. Just as we finished it began raining mortar and artillery shells. We immediately took our helmets and load-bearing gear out of the Command Car (we had our weapons with us) and went back into the bunker. Suddenly someone entered the bunker shouting, "They're coming for us" and left by the back exit. It was immediately clear to us that the Egyptians had crossed the Suez Canal at several locations and we were at war. 2:05 p.m. I knew where the stronghold’s operations room bunker was because of previous coordination with the commander, but the other guys on my team didn't, so I told them to run after me in single file. We reached the bunker in the midst of a terrible barrage, and I told the commander that from now on we were stronghold soldiers like everyone else and would follow his orders, no matter what. 2:10 p.m. In the operations room bunker we joined the others, who were crouched around the field radio, and listened to reports on the IDF network. It was immediately clear to us that the Egyptians had crossed the Suez Canal at several locations and we were at war. 2:15 p.m. I knew we had to destroy our equipment but we had already loaded it on the Command Car. The Command Car was in the courtyard and was under heavy fire, covered with dust and beginning to be covered with rocks from the gabions – wire mesh boxes filled with rocks which were part of the stronghold's defenses and were being shattered by the shelling. In the midst of it all I raced to the Command Car and at the entrance to the bunker burned the recorded tapes and logs which we had put on top of the equipment and which I could easily reach. I couldn't reach the rest of the equipment because it was covered with debris and rocks. 2:40 p.m. Following initial concerns of a chemical warfare attack when smoke shells fell on the stronghold, we became apprehensive that they might indicate preparations for an Egyptian assault on the stronghold. Since we had not been prepared for such a state of affairs, and as intelligence soldiers our situation would be precarious if we were taken by the Egyptians, I had to think quickly. I invented a cover story and told the other guys on my team that if the Egyptians asked, we would tell them we were support personnel from the Tzrifin camp in central Israel, sent to the stronghold to perform field fortification duties. Soldiers Sent to Monitor the Enemy Become Regular Infantry I ran along the communication trenches from one post to the next asking if anyone needed anything. People in one post asked for water, in another for a machinegun, things like that. I ran back to the operations room bunker to fulfill the requests. In one post the soldiers told me Egyptian soldiers ran towards them but retreated when they shot at them.
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