The Third Field Army is a

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, and with ...

of the Egyptian Army, with its headquarters in Suez. It is now part of the

Unified Command of the area east of the canal (Egypt) The Unified command of the area east of the canal is an Egyptian military formation that was created to combat the terrorism and insurgency in the Sinai. It is one of the five major military regions of the Egyptian Army. It groups the Second Fie ...

. 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.

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 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

'' - Brig Gen Mohamed Abul Fath Muharam ***22nd Armored Brigade* ***113th Mechanised Brigade ***1st Mechanised Brigade **

130th Independent Amphibious Brigade Thirteen or 13 may refer to: * 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14 * One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013 Music * 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band Albums * ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013 * ...

- Col Mahmoud Shu'aib. At the start of the war the brigade had seventy-four

BTR-50 The BTR-50 (BTR stands for ''Bronetransporter'' (БТР, Бронетранспортер), literally "armored transporter") is a Soviet amphibious armored personnel carrier (APC) based on the PT-76 light tank. The BTR-50 is tracked, unlike mos ...

or OT-64 SKOT armoured personnel carriers and 24 PT-76 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 s ...

commanded the 7th Infantry Division during the Yom Kippur War, 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 Suez 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 The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

officials, 7 December 1976. {{Egyptian Army Field armies of Egypt Military units and formations established in 1968 1968 establishments in Egypt