Zvika Greengold

Zvi "Zvika" Greengold (born 1952) was an Israeli IDF tank commander who fought during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. As a result of his actions during the war, he became a national hero in Israel, and one of only six people who fought in the war to be awarded the Medal of Valor, the nation's highest medal for heroism.cite web | url=http://www.yairmalachi.org/MedalsOfIsrael/Medal_of_Valor2.htm | title=Recipients of the decoration "Medal of Valor" | accessdate=2006-08-20 ] cite web | url=http://groups.google.co.uk/group/sci.military.moderated/msg/0665cd14068a9fc3?hl=en& | title=Google Groups - sci.military.moderated:Long-range tank kills | accessdate=2006-08-20 | date=1997-05-16 ] Born and raised on Kibbutz Lohamey HaGeta'ot (English: Kibbutz of the Ghetto Fighters, founded by Holocaust survivors of underground and partisan combat against the Nazis) He now lives in a Galilee hilltop village, was one of the founders of the vegetarian food company Tivall and is now managing director of Frutarom chemical company.cite news | url=http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/30YK/art.29.html | title=Shattered Heights: Part 2 | publisher=Jerusalem Post | accessdate=2006-08-20 | date=1998-10-02 | author=Abraham Rabinovich ] __TOC__

Yom Kippur War

At the start of the war Greengold, then a lieutenant, was unattached to any unit as he was enrolled in a course for company commanders,cite news | url=http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/30YK/art.23.html | title=Yom Kippur War: Shattered Heights | publisher=Jerusalem Post | accessdate=2006-08-20 | date=1998-09-25 | author=Abraham Rabinovich ] and was actually at home on his kibbutz.cite web | url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/ykippur/4-6.html | title=Zvika's Story | accessdate=2006-08-20 | date= | publisher=The Department for Jewish Zionist Education ] He volunteered for service at Nafekh and initially helped with the wounded as no tanks were available. Once Centurion tanks became available, he managed to commandeer one with the help of reserve crews.

His tank fought sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with other tanks, with Greengold having to change tanks "half a dozen times" as tanks were knocked out. Greengold managed to commandeer stray tanks at times to form a makeshift "task force". During the following battle he identified his tank(s) to command as "Koah Zvika" ("English:" Zvika Force) to fool the Syrians into thinking they were fighting a tank unit instead of at times his solitary tank. Part of his tactics included holding up a Syrian tank unit by firing and rapidly changing position to allow the Syrians to think they themselves were facing an Israeli tank unit instead of a single tank. Greengold managed to continue fighting the Syrians even though he was wounded and burned during the 20 hours of the action he took part in.

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