The men of the outpost stood guard over the tanks all night, protecting them from Syrian commandos armed with Sagger anti-tank missiles. They had been fired upon, and one of the tank’s treads was aflame. Later that night two of the IDF tanks drove to recover two Israeli fighters and one Syrian POW, bringing the three men back to the outpost. The IDF tanks joined the fray and the Syrian convoy was destroyed. Nissim opened fire and the lead truck in the convoy exploded. Their commander, Elimelech, radioed a warning to the IDF tank as Nissim Avidan manned the heavy machine gun and Amos fired an illumination round from his mortar to light up the theater. That night, the men spotted a convoy of Syrian military vehicles, carrying anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. The Golani platoon destroyed them all using their heavy machine guns and mortars. Trucks laden with Syrian infantry raced towards the outpost. Four tanks led by Shmuel Yachin from Battalion 74 of the 188th Brigade opened fire and destroyed eight Syrian tanks that were attempting to cross the border to attack. Most of the outpost’s positions were destroyed, including the large supply of drinking water. The war started that day with a barrage of artillery on the IDF outpost.
There was a small tank company nearby to aid the men in repelling any ground attack from Syria. The platoon’s main job was to observe Syrian activities on the Syrian side of the Golan. The outpost consisted of a series of bunkers with observation points and gun positions. Amos was a mortar man and he reported to Avraham Elimelech, the platoon commander. Amos and his fellow soldiers were from Battalion 13 of the Golani brigade. It was next to Quneitra in the Golan Heights. Outpost 107, code-named ‘Portugal’ was the closest IDF outpost to Syria in 1973.
They fought for 100 hours straight against an overpowering enemy and unrelenting firepower, and survived. Amos* and eighteen of his fellow IDF soldiers were spending Yom Kippur just meters away from the Syrian border when the 1973 war broke out.
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