Six Days In June

Book excerpt: SIX DAYS IN JUNE How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War Eric Hammel Distinguished military historian Eric Hammel becomes the first chronicler of the 1967 Six Day War to unite the story of development of Israel’s bold brand of military training and planning with a detailed narrative account of her breathtaking victories in Sinai, Jerusalem, The West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Unlike all earlier accounts of the 1967 war, Hammel’s sweeping narrative describes how, from the early 1950s, the Israel Defense Force—Zahal—undertook a relentless and often visionary campaign to prepare for the inevitable war of national survival that, when it came, radically altered the Middle East and has profoundly influenced international politics ever since. Israel’s brilliant, innovative military thinkers developed extremely flexible strategies, operational plans, and battlefield tactics aimed at overcoming several large Arab forces with Zahal’s much smaller army and air force. Zahal’s innovations proved to be so effective and fundamentally sound that they established the norms of modem military planning and performance that saw the United States and her coalition allies through the lightning Desert Storm campaign of 1991. Hammel decisively disproves the enduring myth that Israel’s stunning 1967 victory was a “miracle” or a “fluke.” He explains how, by necessity and in secret, a tiny Third-World nation developed a First‑World military force that has become the envy of all the nations of the world. Hammel is at his proven best when describing the actions of men at war. Six Days in June seamlessly meshes classic military history with the human drama of Israel’s finest hour. Eric Hammel is the author of more than thirty-five highly acclaimed books on military affairs, including Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War; Ace: A Marine Night Fighter Pilot in World War II; The Root: The Marines in Beirut; and Duel for the Golan: The 100-Hour Battle that Saved Israel.