401st Brigade (Israel)

401st Ikvot Habarzel Brigade (Hebrew: חטיבת עקבות הברזל) is a military brigade that was established on the eve of the Six Day War in 1967 as a reserve personnel -mixed mechanized brigade, with two mechanized infantry battalions and one armored battallion. After the war it was reorganized to an armored brigade, containing three armored battalions: 46th Shelach (שלח), 52nd Habokyim Harishonyim (הבוקעים הראשונים) and Seara (סערה). In the years between the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War it was stationed mainly in then Israeli-occupied territory of Sinai , and was equipped with M-48/ Magah -3 (מג"ח 3) tanks. In the first days of the Yom Kippur War the Brigade sustained extremly high casualties, and for continued action had to be reinforced by reserve personnel. After the Yom Kippur War, in a long process of rebuilding, the Brigade was restructured again. It lost the Seara batallion and instead gained a mechanized inpantry batallion, the 91st Duhifat. Its main operations zone moved to the Jordan Valley , where it took part in counter-terrorist activity as infantry. In the Lebanon War the Brigade took the central ridge of Lebanon , and fought all the way to the Beirut - Damascus road. It remained stationed in Lebanon and the Jordan Valley until the issue over the disputed territories gained controversy and the Brigade retreated from Lebanon. In 1985 , the brigade was restructured yet again, to include the 9th Eseth (עשת) battalion. Currently, the Brigade is spread over the disputed territories , most of it in Gaza and are currently equipped with Merkava Mk. 4 tanks . v t e v t e¹