SIX DAYS IN JUNE How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War Eric Hammel Military historian Eric Hammel becomes the first chronicler of the 1967 Six Day War to unite the story of development of Israel’s bold brand of military training and planning with a detailed narrative account of her breathtaking victories in Sinai, Jerusalem, The West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Unlike earlier accounts of the 1967 war, Hammel’s sweeping narrative describes how, from the early 1950s, the Israel De¬fense Force—Zahal—undertook a relent¬less and often visionary campaign to prepare for the inevitable war of national survival that, when it came, radically altered the Middle East and has profoundly influ¬enced international politics ever since. Israel’s innovative military think¬ers developed extremely flexible strategies, operational plans, and battlefield tactics aimed at overcoming several large Arab forces with Zahal’s much smaller army and air force. Hammel thus decisively disproves the endur¬ing myth that Israel’s stunning 1967 victory was a “miracle” or a “fluke.” He explains how, by necessity and in secret, a tiny Third¬-World nation developed a First World military force that has become the envy of all the nations of the world. Hammel is at his proven best when describing the actions of men at war. Six Days in June seamlessly meshes classic military history with the human drama of Israel’s finest hour.
