The Third Field Army is a field army of the Egyptian Army, with its headquarters in

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

. It is now part of the Unified Command of the area east of the canal (Egypt). On 31 January 2015 a "unified command" was established to oversee counterterrorism operations east of the Suez Canal.

Osama Askar Lieutenant General Osama Askar is an Egyptian Army officer. He commands the Unified Command of the area east of the canal. Askar was born in 1957 and attended the Nasser Military Academy. He has commanded a mechanized infantry brigade and the ...

, commander of the Third Army, was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the new "unified command." Askar will also retain his seat on the SCAF. Askar's former deputy, Muhammad Abdullah, has been appointed commander, and Tarek Anwar Helal the chief of staff, of the Third Army. In May 2018 the Third Army comprised the 4th Armoured Division; the 19th Infantry Division, which included an armoured brigade, but whose remaining troops might have been un-mechanized infantry; the 23rd Mechanized Division; and the 11th Armoured Brigade. Previous army commander

had previously commanded the 23rd Mechanized Division earlier in his career. The 23rd Division, under Brig Gen Ahmad 'Aboud el Zommer, was previously part of the Second Field Army during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

Operation Badr order of battle, 1973

Just before the beginning of Operation Badr in October 1973, the army had the following troops under its control: *Headquarters Third Army (Southern Canal Zone) - Maj Gen Abdel Mun'im Wasel :Chief of Staff - Maj Gen Mustafa Shaheen :Chief of Artillery - Maj Gen Munir Shash **''7th Infantry Division''* - Brig Gen Ahmad Badawi Said Ahmad ***2nd Infantry Brigade ***11th Mechanized Infantry Brigade ***8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade **'' 19th Infantry Division''* - Brig Gen Yusuf Afifi Mohamed ***5th Infantry Brigade ***7th Infantry Brigade ***2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade **'' 4th Armoured Division'' - Brig Gen Mohamed Abd el Aziz Qabil ***2nd Armored Brigade ***3rd Armored Brigade*Attached to 19th Division ***6th Armored Brigade ** 6th Mechanised Division'' - Brig Gen Mohamed Abul Fath Muharam ***22nd Armored Brigade* ***113th Mechanised Brigade ***1st Mechanised Brigade ** 130th Independent Amphibious Brigade - Col Mahmoud Shu'aib. At the start of the war the brigade had seventy-four BTR-50 or

OT-64 SKOT The OT-64 SKOT (Czech acronym for: ''Střední Kolový Obrněný Transportér'', and/or Polish Średni ''Kołowy Opancerzony Transporter'' – medium wheeled armoured transporter) is an amphibious, armored personnel carrier (8x8), developed joi ...

armoured personnel carriers and 24

PT-76 The PT-76 is a Soviet Union, Soviet amphibious vehicle, amphibious light tank that was introduced in the early 1950s and soon became the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the other Warsaw Pact armed forces. It was widely exported ...

amphibious light tanks. **25th Independent Armored Brigade* - Col Ahmed Helmy Badawy As a brigadier general,

Ahmed Badawi Ahmed Badawi Sayyid Ahmed (Arabic: أحمد بدوي سيد أحمد) was an Egyptian Field Marshal (Mushir) and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Early life Ahmed Badawy was born in the coastal city of Alexandria in 1927. He ...

commanded the 7th Infantry Division during the

, and after the Third Field Army became encircled, was placed in command of the cut-off force. The isolated part of the army was made up of the 7th and 19th Infantry Divisions, plus two independent armoured brigades, on the east bank, and a mixture of units in

city itself.Trevor Dupuy, Elusive Victory, 1978, 543.

Notes

References and external links

* * https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1976CAIRO16857_b.html - Third Army commander Maj Gen Ahmad Badawi speaks to State Department officials, 7 December 1976. {{Egyptian Army Field armies of Egypt Military units and formations established in 1968 1968 establishments in Egypt