Towards the end of May, Nasser finally forbade the general staff from proceeding with the Qahir ("Victory") plan, which called for a light infantry screen in the forward fortifications with the bulk of the forces held back to conduct a massive counterattack against the main Israeli advance when identified, and ordered a forward defense of the Sinai. The general staff changed the operational plan four times in May 1967, each change requiring the redeployment of troops, with the inevitable toll on both men and vehicles. Nasser's ambivalence about his goals and objectives was reflected in his orders to the military. At the same time some Egyptian troops (15,000 - 20,000) were still fighting in Yemen. These forces had 950 tanks, 1,100 APCs and more than 1,000 artillery pieces. No less than a third of them were veterans of Egypt's intervention into the Yemen Civil War and another third were reservists. Historical Account: "Armed Camps" - On the eve of the Six Day War, Egypt massed approximately 100,000 of its 160,000 troops in the Sinai, including all of its seven divisions (four infantry, two armored and one mechanized), as well as four independent infantry and four independent armored brigades. Shown here is a 1:72 scale replica of an Egyptian T-55 main battle tank employed during the Six Day War in 1967. The T-55's new turret has large D-shaped roof panels, visible from above. Early T-54s lacked a gun fume extractor, had an undercut at the turret rear, and a distinctive "pig-snout" gun mantlet. The T-54 can be distinguished by a dome-shaped ventilator on the turret front-right, and has a SGMT 7.62 mm machine gun in a fixed mount in the front of the hull, operated by the driver. Many states have added or modified tank equipment (India affixed fake fume extractors to its T-54s and T-55s, so that Indian gunners wouldn't confuse them with Pakistani Type 59s). Soviet tanks were factory-overhauled every 7,000 km, and often given minor technology updates. Many T-54s were updated to T-55 standards. The T-54 and T-55 tanks are very similar and difficult to distinguish visually. The T-54/55 tank series is the most numerous in the world, and very widely employed, especially by former client states of the Soviet Union. The T-54 and T-55 main battle tanks were the Soviet Union's replacements for the World War II era T-34 tank. Hobby Master HG3307 Egyptian T-55 Main Battle Tank - Six Day War, Sinai, June 1967 (1:72 Scale) "The Russians can give you arms, but only the United States can give you a selection."
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