Scenario 2: The Raid on Green Island
On July 10, 1969, a platoon of Egyptian as-Saiqa commandos raided across the Suez Canal against the Menach position on the Bar-Lev line. They killed seven Israelis, wounded five more, and took several Israelis back as prisoners. As an insult, they destroyed two Centurion tanks sent after them. The morale of the Israeli reservists manning the Bar-Lev line plummeted, and to counter this, the Israelis needed to retaliate against the Egyptians. They had several targets along the coast they could strike with aircraft, except that the Egyptians had built radar guided anti-aircraft position built by the British during WW II.
The "monster" as if was called boasted 4-85nim anti-aircraft guns, 2-37mm AA guns, a radar dish, 6 heavy anti-aircraft machineguns, and several light machinegun positions. This fortification prevented the Israelis from launching their air attacks, so they decided to take it out ill a commando raid. The island was made up on coral reefs, and boasted a 15' tower housing the radar dome, and two heavy anti-aircraft machine guns. The island had concrete living quarters built around the exterior of the island with two courtyards on the interior. All of the weapons positions were mounted in concrete fortifications on the roof All of the rooms opened into the interior courtyards and contained barracks, dining halls, kitchens, a radar room, cornmunications rooms, etc. The buildings lining the exterior of the walls did have window facing out to sea. The garrison consisted of sixty regular Egyptian army personnel who manned the weapons and radar.
In addition, twenty of the elite commandos were there to stiffen the fighting ability of the garrison during an attack. The entire perimeter of the compound was encircled by three rows of concertina wire. To get on the roof of the buildings required a climb of about 9 feet from the edge of the water.
To attack this fortification, the Israelis delegated twenty of their naval Commandos to make the initial breech into the fort. They would swim unobserved up to the fort, get on the roof, take out the sentries, and keep the Egyptians off of the roof. As soon as the fighting started, twenty army commandos would head for shore in rubber Zodiac boats, and reinforce the navy frogmen. After destroying the garrison, they raiders would plant explosives in each gun emplacement, and destroy the fortifications. Ideally, they would then head out to sea in the Zodiac boats. The attack had to occur between 12:00 midnight and 1:00 A.M. due to the tides. The Israelis scheduled the attack for July 19th, 1969.
Due to the strong tides, the Israeli attack was several hours late starting. The Israelis got onto the roof and were cutting through the three rows of concertina wire when spotted. They immediately attacked, eliminating most of the sentries. Only the commandos aggressively attacked the Israelis, but they were confined to the courtyard while the frogmen were on the roofs. Most of the other Egyptians chose to stay within their rooms, and those that did venture out did so after a lengthy delay.
After some delay, the army commandos arrived and assaulted the courtyard, eventually killing all of the Egyptians. The army commandos had brought with them all of the demolition charges, and with the remaining frogmen's help, placed them against all of the fortifications on the island. Even before the last Egyptian had died, the Egyptian command from the mainland began shelling the island. As the Israelis withdrew, the charges reduced the island to rubble, and the Egyptians shifted their fire onto the retreating boats, sinking several of them.
By this time due to the late start, it was dawn, and several Egyptian patrol boats showed up, as well as Israeli gun ships and Hueys, which eventually rescued the commandos. Israeli losses were six dead (three frogmen and three commandos) and approximately 24 wounded, many seriously. All eighty Egyptians died.
This would probably be best gamed as a large skirmish or small platoon action game in one to one scales. The Israelis should be classified as elite. The Egyptian commandos should be classified as elite, while the rest of the Egyptian garrison would be classified as poor. Everyone was armed with an automatic weapon, either an assault rifle or a sub-machinegun. As the size of the entire fortification was only 120 meters by 80 meters, this means all weapons are almost at close range. All troops had access to grenades, although many of the frogmen's didn't work after being submerged on the swim in (they should dice for a small percentage that are duds). Morale is not an issue as such, as there was no where to run to, and the Egyptians fought to the last man. Troops were driven back, though so morale failures would probably result in a retreat. Both sides knew there would be no surrender. There is a really good description of this action in the book The Night Raider by Samuel M. Katz, including a photograph of Green Island.
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