It was the idea of Egyptian intelligence men, and they carried it out: to bring back the design of the era's tank.. the war chariot.. and it rested on one branch of the army.

Another ancient Egyptian military department is considered, beyond dispute, the first intelligence apparatus in history. The Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department.

And the role of reconnaissance men in the old days was confined to scouting and monitoring the enemy's movements, then it was not long before it developed, so that it turned into a special operations unit, whose men did not only play their role in reconnaissance, but could infiltrate behind enemy lines, carry out operations, or engage the vanguards of enemy armies, like the commandos of our age.

And the reconnaissance and special operations men caught the mission.. and the work began.

And the clashes with the Hyksos never stopped, and that drove the men to move fast, so they advanced close to "Ambous".. but the Hyksos attacked them suddenly with heavy war chariots.

We have no exact details of this battle.. but it ends with the Egyptian reconnaissance force withdrawing without obtaining the design of the war chariots, yet obtaining something else.. more important and more dangerous.

And a short message reached King "Ahmose", which history has preserved for us word for word.

A terse message that says:

"A war chariot has been captured for the King."

The men captured a whole chariot, intact, with not a single scratch on it, and brought it back with them.. so that the engineers and military experts would seize on it with interest.. and begin studying it under "Ahmose's" personal supervision.

And the first Egyptian war chariot came into existence.

But there was another problem.

This weapon.. this tank of the age.. had fallen into our hands for the first time, and as for using it, the Hyksos were experts in it, and they had a point of superiority.. so it was necessary that this machine carry a new feature that did not exist in the Hyksos war chariots.

And the development plan began to include all the military branches, and the engineers' corps went to work tirelessly.. and for the first time, arrowheads were fitted with pieces of steel instead of wood, and the bowstrings were replaced, so they would be stronger and shoot arrows like bullets, piercing bronze armour.

And these modifications needed the soldiers to train on them, which indeed happened, and the tank.. the war chariot remained the dilemma.. and the engineers and military experts were searching for the necessary modification.. the one that could give it an advantage over the Hyksos chariots.

And in the year 1583 before the birth of Christ, a young man of twenty, named "Ahmose", was advancing at the head of an army, toward the Hyksos capital, on the land of today's "Sharqia" governorate, which was occupied at the time.

And "Ahmose" was, for the first time, driving a war chariot.

A chariot that looked slightly different in its design, but similar to the Hyksos chariots in general.

And the Hyksos began preparing for battle, and amid the dust and sweat and the sound of war drums, the two armies clashed.

And the Hyksos understood, much too late, the development that had been made to the Egyptian war chariot. A very simple development, yet dazzlingly brilliant.

The army engineers in ancient Egypt lightened the weight of the chariot, without it losing its strong armour. And they gave it a slightly wider base for balance.. and that was it.

An idea that seems simple and not dangerous, but on the battlefield the terrible difference was clear.

That is because "speed" in itself.. is an element of superiority.

And the Egyptian tanks set off fighting and manoeuvring like swift leopards on wheels, and the Hyksos war chariots beside them looked like heavy turtles, dragging themselves along.

And the Hyksos were defeated for the first time in a crushing, terrifying defeat, so much so that they fled from their capital "Avaris" — San al-Hagar in Sharqia — to the Delta.

And upon entering their capital, "Ahmose" ordered the destruction of every stone the Hyksos had laid, and he kept doing that and erasing their traces in every city he chased them through, until they finally fled to Palestine, and fortified themselves in the mighty fortress of "Sharuhen" in Gaza.. so he laid a long siege on them, until they surrendered and he stormed it in 1580 BC.

And that was the end of the Hyksos from the face of the earth, and they never appeared again in history, ever.

And with a huge leap we arrive at the year 1336 BC.. to "Akhenaten".. who was far from military life, closer to a philosopher, wandering in the realm of religions, and all he did was a celebration or a religious festival from time to time, so the country began to be struck by chaos, and the importance of intelligence men declined to the utmost degree, and therefore, and because of his defeatist policies.. Egypt began to lose its lands in Asia.

And the rulers of the cities subject to the Egyptian state set about writing to "Akhenaten" asking for rescue from the invaders, or asking him to supply them with soldiers or gold.. to no avail. These letters history has preserved under the name "the Amarna Letters".

And Egypt, whose borders had stretched to the heart of Asia, lost vast areas of land.

And the strange thing, as if history were repeating itself, is that the invaders who came and occupied these Levantine lands belonging to the Egyptian state were from Anatolia!

A people called the "Hittites".. they sought expansion and growth and the plundering of the peoples' wealth by means of invasion.

And after long years.. "Seti I" succeeded in restoring the influence of the Egyptian state up to Kadesh in Syria.. and he concluded a treaty with the Hittites, by which they recognised his sovereignty over these lands, including the city of Kadesh.

And then comes "Ramesses II", the son of "Seti I".. and he ignores the treaty completely.. and decides to recover by force all the lands that had belonged to the Egyptian state.

And "Ramesses" indeed advances at the head of four enormous army corps, the corps of "Amun", the corps of "Ra", the corps of "Ptah", and the corps of "Seth".. and he encamps at Kadesh, and there, two Bedouins come in to him, claiming that they are fugitives from the Hittite army, and asking for his protection.. and they tell him that the enemy is camped at Aleppo.

"Ramesses" believes them and rises and moves with reckless enthusiasm to the north of Kadesh, and encamps, and waits for the rest of the army to catch up with him.

But at that very moment, Egyptian reconnaissance men seize a group of Hittite scouts.. and after interrogating them.. it becomes clear that these Bedouins are nothing but spies, their information false, and that it is nothing but an intelligence trick.. and that the Hittite army is fully stationed at Kadesh.. and has prepared a deadly ambush for "Ramesses".

And the Hittites attacked "Ramesses" in a surprise assault, and destroyed the corps of Ra completely.. and cut the road between him and the rest of the army corps, so the reconnaissance men advanced in a suicide operation, and crossed the Hittite army, and studied the ground well, then returned to "Ramesses" with information about a narrow pass, through which the Hittites could be encircled and the rest of the army awaited.

And Ramesses indeed carries out the plan.. and succeeds in it, and the rest of his forces join him, and the Hittites raise the white flag.. and he wins.

These intelligence operations are absolutely different from the operation that later, centuries afterwards, caused the fall of Greek Sparta or Egyptian Alexandria.. and those we will talk about along with other operations later.

And there remains more to say.

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