Israel Tal

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Israel Tal (Hebrew: ישראל טל) (b. 1924), also known as Talik, is an Israel Defense Forces general known for his knowledge of tank warfare. Tal was a brilliant armor tactician and as an armored-division commander he implented his tactics very successfully and achieved great victories.

Tal was a brigade commander during the Sinai War, an armored-division commander in Sinai Peninsula during the Six Day War, and commander of the southern front during the final stages of the Yom Kipur War.

The Israeli government decided in 1970 that it needed an indigenous tank-building capacity. General Israel Tal led a development team which took into consideration Israel's unique battlefield characteristics and lessons learned from previous wars, and began the development and building of Israel's Merkava tank.

Israel Tal is considered among the five greatest armor commanders in history and his picture appears in Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor "Wall of Greatest Armor Commanders" along with Moshe Peled (also Israeli), American George S. Patton and Creighton Abrams and German field-marshal Erwin Rommel.

[edit] Armour Doctrine

Gen. Tal is the creator of the Israeli armour doctrine which led to the Israeli successes in the Sinai in the Six Day War. After the Suez Crisis, Tal organized the armour into the leading element of the Israeli Defense Forces, characterized by high mobility and relentless assault. It is comparible to the German Blitzkrieg and many hold it to be an evolution of that tatic. Tal's transformation and success in 1967 led the IDF to expand the role of armour. This led to reduced attention to other less glamorous aspects of the army such as the Infantry. In the 1973 Yom Kipur War, excessive focus on fast striking armour left the IDF without adequate defensive ability. Only in latter stages of the war did the armour break out and show its potential when General Sharon's armour was able to penetrate the Egyption lines, cross the Suez Canal and envelope the Egyption 3rd Army near Suez.

While the IDF has become a more balanced force since 1973, Tal's influence on armour doctrine was very important to the IDF's development and has influnced armoured doctrines the world over.