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Tel Faher and Tel Azziat
TEL AZZIAT and TEL FAHER

Tel Azziat and Tel Faher were two adjacent Syrian strongholds near the border with Israel. Tel Azziat was a well-fortified position built on a hill sharply sloped in the side facing Israel.  Inside the position, protected by 3 barbed wire fences, a large mine field and a set of bunkers, pillboxes, and foxholes, were a Syrian infantry company, several machinegun teams, recoilless anti-tank gun team, 2 20mm cannon teams, a few 82mm mortar teams and a Panzer Mk.4 medium tank.
Before the 1967 war the Syrian force in Tel Azziat would constantly shoot at Israeli settlements close to it, and direct artillery to ones out of its reach. In fact it was a Syrian policy to fire at Israeli settlements, sometimes to the point of completely annihilating them.  In some places people stayed in their shelters day and night, since no building above ground could survive.

On the 6th of June 1967, threatened and pushed against the wall, Israel chose to strike first. The Arab air forces were destroyed in a single day. Israeli forces swept into the Sinai desert and crushed the retreating Egyptians. The next day, Leaders of the settlements and kibbutzs under the Golan Heights asked the Israeli government to end the terror of Syrian shelling, and take the Golan Heights. After much debate the defense minister Moshe Dayan, agreed to take the heights. The plan called for an assault on several key Syrian positions, one was the area of Tel Faher and Tel Azziat.

It was decided that the 51st   battalion of the famed Golani brigade will take Tel Azziat, and that the 12th battalion will take tell Faher. A few Sherman M50 tanks were assigned to assist. The fight for Tel Azziat was a well-planed tribute to the Israeli army’s superior tactics. The force flanked the Syrian position, loosing one tank to mines (the crew was unharmed). The immobilized tank continued to fire at the Syrians, taking out the Panzer tank. The other tanks then broke into the compound and destroyed the Syrian cannons and machineguns. The Golani troops stormed in to the bunkers and foxholes, shocking the Syrians and clearing position after position. Only one Israeli was killed and 3 wounded, while 30 Syrians were killed 26 surrendered and the rest fled.
The Fight for Tel Faher however was not as much a tribute to planning, as it was to bravery. The plan to take Tel Faher was similar to that of Tel Azziat: the force was suppose to come from behind the enemy and surprise them. Unfortunately the Golani troops were forced not to flank, since the road leading to the back of the position was impassable. Instead they had to frontally assault the position. This created a situation in which the 12th Golani battalion received fire from three forces: from the Syrians on Tel Faher, From the Israelis on Tel Azziat (which partly taken by then) shooting at Tel Faher and its surroundings and from the Syrians retreating from Tel Azziat. Under this heavy fire, they discovered the wire cutter was left in the half-track. It was then that a young trooper called David Shirazi lay down on the barbed wire voluntarily, and allowed the force to march in over him.  The force broke in and engaged in hard face-to-face fighting with the determined Syrian garrison. At 5:24pm (the battle started about 2 and a half hours before) one of the company commanders informs headquarters: “Tel Faher is under control”, but fighting soon erupts again.  The Brigades second-in-command enters the Fighting area, and gives orders to scan the area for snipers, while searching they find the 12th battalion commander body. Only at 6:22pm is Tel Faher in Israeli hands, after most of the 12th battalion has been destroyed.
The battle of Tel-Faher is one of the Golani brigades legendary battles, not due to the way it was planned, but due to the way it was fought-to the last man, no turning back, until the objective is taken.
Syrian Panzer 4 in the Golan.