action in the coming hours, issue orders, complete the last preparations. At the same time the brigade staff discuss various topics with the com-manders of the service units - the sappers, the medics, the communica-tion services - such as supply routes, the transport of ammunition to the units, and unsatisfied requirements for intelligence.
At five o’clock in the evening the battalion commanders return for a last meeting. They report on the situation. The final arrangements are made. At six o’clock they set off. One last check. The men’s tasks are explained to them.
Zero hour. The first shots, assaults, hours between life and death, losses, evacuation of wounded, resupply of ammunition and equip-ment, fighting. The battle HQ is directly in touch with all this via radio contact with the fighting units. The brigade commander and the chief of operations can hear and feel the pain, the fire, the blood as though they were in the middle of the battle. They get involved in the details of actions and adjust the plan while the fighting rages.
In the early hours of the morning the fate of the night has been decided. Their nerves as ragged as if they had been in the thick of the battle themselves, they both leave the HQ to grab a few hours’ sleep.
The battle lasted four days and three nights. Negba and Ibdis held out.
On the fourth day the Egyptians were approaching their limits, and summoned up all their remaining energy for one last major effort. The road to Negba. The fate of the front depends on this village. A section of the road there is dominated by the fortress of Iraq Suweidan. This sec-tion goes past a little hill, number 105 on the map. On the fourth day the Egyptians capture this hill. Negba is cut off.
The story of Hill 69 repeats itself-but this time the other way round. The brigade commander realizes that he has no choice. He has to attack. Directly and frontally. No maneuver will be of any use here. He has to attack the enemy exactly at the point where he is expecting it.
What forces does the brigade commander have available for this attack, whose chances are so remote? One company of infantry and two units of fighting jeeps. They receive the order to attack, which ends with three words that have a terrible meaning at the front - "at any price. " This "price" is measured in blood and death.
The night of 12 July is dark when the fighters launch their assault on the hill. And then the jeeps appear. Strange apparitions that spitfire, drive over positions, over people. Panic grips the hearts of the Egyptians.