http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2012/6/6/main-feature/1/the-six-day-war-day-two/e
This week, Jewish Ideas Daily commemorates the forty-fifth anniversary of the Six-Day War with a day-by-day synopsis, for which we are indebted to Michael Oren’s comprehensive Six Days of War. Below, the third of a seven-part series. Read parts I and II.
In the Sinai, Israeli aircraft commanded the skies and the IDF advanced along roads littered with Egyptian tanks. Some were in flames, illuminating the darkness; others were simply immobilized by malfunctions in their Soviet-made engines, which had failed in desert conditions. On June 6th, 1967, by 8:00 a.m. Tel Aviv time, Israeli forces had entered el-Arish. It initially seemed desolate, but the Israelis were soon under fire from every window. Israel’s leadership, not expecting the war to move so quickly, had not considered what do to beyond el-Arish. The IDF’s challenge became keeping up with the retreating Egyptian forces.
Meanwhile, Gaza had been severed from Sinai. Though Defense Minister Moshe Dayan had predicted that this move would cripple the Strip, fighting was heavy; Gaza would ultimately account for nearly half of all the war’s Israeli casualties. Still, Dayan’s prediction was correct: Gaza was taken by mid-morning.
Yet, even as Egyptian anti-aircraft gun barrels melted from the continuous, unsuccessful efforts against Israeli planes, more than half of Egypt’s forces were intact. Some important detachments had yet to see action. Pilots remained available. Forty-eight Algerian aircraft were en route, along with volunteers from Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. Expressions of support poured in from Arab sympathizers. By contrast, Israel’s forces were exhausted from over 24 hours of non-stop combat and were low on fuel and ammunition.