Only one of the tank crew survived to tell the story he had been avoiding for 50 years, of the valor of a single tank that blocked the advancing Syrian army.
Ynet reports that for 50 years, Moshe Nili kept silent about his memories of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. He and his tank mates stopped Syrian forces from advancing on the second day of the war, at the northern-most tip of the Golan Heights. Only he survived.
"I could not allow myself to go back to the trauma and the moments I tried so hard to deny," He told Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth in an interview. "But I understand that the families are getting older and a new generation needs to immortalize those events." Nili recently sat down with members of the families of his commander Eyal Shaham to describe the battles where he, David Golan and Ami Turgeman died.
"It was a real catastrophe," he said. "We could not imagine that we were at war but the planes were bombing us and tanks were shooting at our tank. Eyal stood exposed for hours and commanded the fight, he directed the artillery shells while the Syrian forces surrounded us. It was thanks to him that they were not able to cross the anti-tank ditch and win the battle," he said.
Eyal's widow Miki Shaham-Stein said she was privileged to hear about her husband's final hours and understand his dedication and leadership.
A number of weeks after the war, Eyal's father, himself a Lt. Col. In the IDF, built a memorial for his son and his crew, made of the burned-out remnants of his tank. He placed it at the exact location of his death, just beyond the frontier, on what is now Syrian territory.
But 50 years after that battle, a ramp is being built that will look out at the memorial. It is a joint effort of the Defense Ministry and the Jewish National Fund.
"I've been roaming around the Golan Heights for years, looking for a vantage point from which I would be able to see the memorial," Shaham-Stein says. We now have a place where we can stop and hear the story of the heroism of this tank unit that was whipped out in that war. They deserve to be remembered and their contribution to be appreciated. Eyal Ami and David will not be forgotten anymore," she said. For his valor in battle, her husband received a posthumous medal of honor.
Source - Ynet/X - Image - Courtesy of the Turgeman family