In 1973, on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days for the Jewish nation, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched an overwhelming surprise attack, officially waging (another) war against Israel.
Egyptian tanks and infantry were surpassing IDF tanks at overwhelming speed, and crushing them relentlessly.
The war was looking very bad for Israel, losing over 580 tanks, with an additional 900 disabled tanks.
The main cause for the destruction of many IDF tanks was the Malyutka, or in other terms, the Sagger.
The sagger was a wire- guided missile that could be fired by a single soldier hiding in a bush.
No official doctrine on how to counter the Sagger was made, and so, the IDF was desperate to find a solution.
While on the battlefield, a tank commander named Reshef had lost several tanks due to the Sagger, but had noticed its weaknesses.
Reshef noticed that the Saggers would fly relatively slowly, and were dependent on the shooters' constant eye contact with the target.
The solution?
Once a tank saw a bright flash of red light from a Sagger's ignition, all tanks would start to move randomly and fire relentlessly in the general direction of the shooter. That's about it.
Dust would obscure the shooter's line of sight, preventing the shooter from guiding the missile to its target.
The doctrine proved so successful, that after the war, NATO forces adopted it to their own war doctrine.
Not researched, not planned through years of experience, just pure improvisation with astounding results.
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