Alpinistim
The Alpinistim ( Hebrew יחידת האלפיניסטים; Jechidat ha-Alpinistim) are a special unit of the Israel Defense Forces for mountain warfare .
It is subordinate to the Israeli Northern Command and is currently commanded by Sgen Aluf Shimon Prienta. With the Sajeret Matkal alpine train , it forms the Israeli mountain troops .
The Alpinistim are a reserve unit, but their members often do military exercises, even by Israeli standards (45 to 60 days instead of the usual 30 days miluim annually). They are recruited from former members of the Sajeret Golani and soldiers with mountain combat training from other countries who have made use of the right of return . The unit maintains a winter combat school for members of other IDF units and is also active as a mountain rescue service. Due to the manageable snowfall areas in Israel, some of the training takes place with friendly forces, for example in the USA and France . Because of this opportunity to travel abroad, the Alpinistim service is quite popular.
The Alpinistim specialize in fighting in the mountains and in unusual terrain, especially on Mount Hermon in the Golan Mountains . They are also used for command missions behind enemy lines.
The Alpinistim are trained in various winter fighting techniques, for example shooting and attacking while skiing or with a snowcat . Their standard weapons are the M4 assault rifle , the Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle , the IMI Negev light machine gun and various sniper rifles (mostly M24 or SR-25 ).
history
During the Yom Kippur War , on October 6, 1973, a command unit of the Syrian 82nd Paratrooper Regiment, which landed with transport helicopters, stormed a listening post of the Israeli military intelligence service Aman on the Syrian, 2,800 m high and snow-capped Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights. Of the 41 military technicians and 13 infantrymen of the Israeli occupation, 18 were killed and 31 were wounded. The top secret eavesdropping equipment was immediately evaluated by Syrian and Soviet specialists. Another Israeli occupation attempt with two companies of the Golani Brigade on October 8th initially failed with the loss of 25 dead and 51 wounded. It was not until October 22nd that the Golanis managed to reoccupy the mountain and eavesdropping station, with 55 soldiers of the brigade falling and 79 injured because the Syrian troops in the mountain position were able to effectively fight the advancing Israelis in the poorly covered area with Dragunov sniper rifles and RPGs . The skirmish was one of the bloodiest of the whole war.
These experiences and the immense importance of the listening post on the Hermon (from which one can even see the suburbs of Damascus ) led to the establishment of the Alpinistim in 1974. These were used in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon in the Schuf Mountains .
The battle for the Hermon sat down as a war of attrition with the use of snipers and assault teams until spring 2004 with the separation of forces and the deployment of peacekeepers the UN continues.
Individual evidence
- ^ Michael Wiener: Alpinistim mountain and winter combat in the Israeli army. In: beret. 2/2001 pp. 45-47.
