miket@brspyr1.brs.com (Mike Trout) (09/12/89)
From: miket@brspyr1.brs.com (Mike Trout) In sci.military Digest Fri, 8 Sep, 1989 Volume 2 : Issue 91 mwolf@vaxc.Teknowledge.COM (Michael Wolf) writes: > I'd heard a story that sounds just plausable enough to be > believed, but I was wondering if anyone could confirm. > > I've been told that Chad has mounted machine guns in the back > of pickup trucks, and then taken them into combat as anti-tank > weapons. They drive them in circles around a tank just faster > then the tank turret rotates, so the tank can't get a shot at > them. > > True or not? CHAD OUTRACED, OUTFOXED FOE Used Toyotas, daring tactics to defeat Libyans By James Brooke New York Times [August 1987] NDJAMENA, Chad -- Speed and agility helped Chad's lightly armed desert fighters last week to rout 1,000 Libyan soldiers stationed in a disputed border strip. In the first detailed accounts of the battle, Chadians and diplomats here described how Chadian fighters destroyed a Libyan column of 300 men, then swept into the village of Aozou through unexpected routes. Expecting an attack from the south on the only road through the surrounding Tibesti Mountains, the Libyans are said to have mined the road and then defended it with cumbersome Soviet-made T-55 tanks. But on Saturday morning, the Chadians annihilated a Libyan column about 40 miles southeast of Aozou, near Omchi, according to the account. Then the Chadians are said to have raced their Toyota light trucks through little-known mountain passes, following dry river beds. Their faces wrapped in cloth against the sand, the Chadians swept into Aozou from the north and east, in a motorized version of the camel charges of their forefathers. "They just blew in real fast, hell-bent for leather--God help anything that got in their way," one Western diplomat said Thursday. In response, the Libyans have bombarded Aozou daily since their defeat. On Thursday, the Chadian radio announced that the bombing had burned a large part of Aozou, a date-palm oasis that had a peacetime population of 2,000. The Libyans are said to have lost 650 men, while Chadian losses were officially put at 17 dead and 54 wounded. Western diplomats here say that Chad accurately reports Libyan casualties, but often understates its own. On Thursday, Chadian officials announced that 147 Libyans were taken prisoner, including 44 officers. A few Libyan survivors are believed to have made it across 50 miles of desert to Libya's last base in Chad, also called Aozou, which straddles the generally recognized Libyan-Chadian border. The survivors are believed to have joined Libyan troops from Aozou base who tried to help their beleaguered comrades in Aozou village. On Thursday, the Chadians listed their Libyan war booty: 111 military vehicles captured and 82 military vehicles destroyed. Destroyed vehicles include 7 T-55 tanks, 8 BMP armored personnel carriers, 40 jeeps with missiles or cannon, 15 troop transports and 11 trucks. "We know it's better to have a good Toyota than a T-55," said Ahmed Moussa-Mi, chief of staff to President Hissen Habre. Mounted with French-made Milan anti-tank missiles, the Toyota pickups have proved to be the key to Chad's string of victories this year. "The Toyotas move so fast that the Libyan gunners could not track them; they could not move their turrets fast enough," the Western diplomat said. The Chadians also made use of a dangerous tactic that few other armies would dare to try. Two Chadian vehicles would race toward a Libyan tank from opposite directions, firing missiles. In practice, a Chadian missile occasionally has missed, blowing up one of Chad's own vehicles. The Chadian army is largely made up of northerners, many of whom have an intimate knowledge of the battlefield. For example, the president, who has planned many of the attacks in minute detail, wandered over much of the area in his youth as a camel herder. France is Chad's main arms supplier, giving by some estimates $70 million in military aid so far this year. France has also stationed troops and air units in southern Chad to keep the Libyans, who once occupied much of the northern part of the country beyond the disputed border strip, from moving south of the 16th parallel. -- NSA food: Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, SOD & NRO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161 "God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." Thomas Jefferson