Showdown in Western Sahara: Air Warfare Over the Last African Colony PDF Download
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Author: Tom Cooper
Publisher: Africa@War
ISBN: 9781912390359
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Illustrated by over 100 photographs, dozens of maps and colour profiles, Showdown in Western Sahara offers a fascinating study of the military aspects of this conflict, its strategy, tactics and experiences with different weapons systems.
Author: Tom Cooper
Publisher: Africa@War
ISBN: 9781912390359
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Illustrated by over 100 photographs, dozens of maps and colour profiles, Showdown in Western Sahara offers a fascinating study of the military aspects of this conflict, its strategy, tactics and experiences with different weapons systems.
Author: Tom Cooper
Publisher: Africa@War
ISBN: 9781912866298
Category : Air warfare
Languages : en
Pages : 72
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Book Description
The former colony of Spanish Sahara saw frequent outbursts of tribal and ethnic rebellions while ruled by the colonial authorities in the late 19th and through the early 20th Century. Its vastness and distances essentially dictated the application of air power in response. While most of these events attracted next to no attention in English-language media, the large-scale operations of the Spanish colonial authorities of the late 1950s became notable at least for the final combat deployment of the famous Messerschmitt Bf.109. Following the Spanish withdrawal from Spanish Sahara in 1975, a major war erupted as Sahrawi nationalists - organized by the POLISARIO front - engaged in guerrilla warfare against Moroccan armed forces deployed to secure the northern part of the country, and Mauritanian forces deployed in the south. Characteristically for this period, POLISARIO's insurgency was often misinterpreted in the West as 'Soviet-influenced', although the rebels never adapted any related frameworks for their operations and tactics, such as those of Mao Zedong. On the contrary, while Algeria at least tolerated their bases on its soil, it was Libya that provided most of the support for the insurgency, eventually enabling it to defeat the Mauritanian military, slightly over a year later. Combined with POLISARIO's raids deep into Mauritania this prompted France to launch a limited military intervention in support. While tactically successful, this proved insufficient: Mauritania withdrew in 1979 after signing a peace treaty. Morocco continued fighting a series of bitter campaigns through 1979 and 1980, until rising costs and casualties prompted its government into developing an entirely new strategy. Construction of extensive earthen fortifications eventually slowed the war down to one of low intensity, only sporadically interrupted by insurgent attempts to achieve at least local successes. With both sides realizing that no solution through an armed conflict was possible, a cease-fire agreement was signed in 1991. However, this conflict still remains unresolved: it merely shifted to civilian resistance. Warfare in Western Sahara has in many ways become exemplary for modern-day counter-insurgency efforts in Africa and elsewhere. This conflict has been falsely declared as a part of some larger, external conflict - the Cold War; in regards of the concept of an insurgency applying motorized forces to deliver often spectacular 'hit-and-run' attacks; and in regards of a conventional military reacting with a combination of earth berms and air power. Illustrated by over 100 photograph as, a dozen maps and 18 colour profiles, Showdown in Western Sahara offers a fascinating study of the military aspects of this conflict, warfare strategies, tactics and experiences with different weapons systems.
Author: Adrien Fontanellaz
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804514152
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 86
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Book Description
Through late 1987 and early 1988, the battlefields of southern Angola moved ever further away from the border with South West Africa/Namibia, until the showdown between the Soviet and Cuban-supported government in Luanda and South African-supported insurgency of UNITA culminated in the controversial and still much disputed Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. During this period, Angolan and Cuban airpower slowly grew to a point where it outmatched the SAAF, in turn limiting the freedom of movement of the SADF and UNITA ground forces, and reducing their operations to attritional battles, with little chance of achieving major victories on terms acceptable to the government in Pretoria. As the changing political climate between East and West, and in Africa began to bring about and end to the South African intervention in Angola and the occupation of South West Africa/Namibia, the government of Angola was able to switch its attentions to dealing with UNITA. Volume 5 of War of Intervention in Angola examines in detail this final period of Cuban involvement in the long and tragic civil war that ruined Angola between 1975 and 1992. While the emphasis is upon the operations of the Angolan and Cuban air forces, it also details how these impacted upon the ground operations of all parties. This volume is richly illustrated with original photographs of the forces involved, specially commissioned maps of the ground operations, and a range of full color artworks.
Author: Javier Garcia de Gabiola
Publisher: Helion
ISBN: 9781914377013
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 80
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Book Description
Spain had been fighting the Rif War since 1909 and Abd-el Krim's revolt caused 8,000 Spanish deaths at Annual in 1921.
Author: Javier Garcia de Gabiola
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804514160
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98
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Book Description
The Rif War in rugged northern Morocco is remembered for romantic films and novels about the French Foreign Legion, such as Beau Geste. In reality, the French intervention, although very important, was late and secondary in importance to that of the Spanish. The second volume of The Rif War begins with the aftermath of the Disaster of Annual and documents the Spanish response and reconquest of Morocco. While the renewed campaign remained largely one of columns, outposts and fortresses, it also took on the character of a very modern war, with the use of armored vehicles, trench warfare, aircraft, chemical weapons and large-scale amphibious landings by combined arms forces. Indeed, the Spanish landing at Alhucemas, conducted with French naval support, would become the subject of study by the Allies in the Second World War. Yet despite these innovations, including a number of ‘firsts’ in the history of conflict and in particular, of the history of conflict in Africa, Spain would continue to suffer heavy casualties in a bitterly fought contest for control of Morocco. Volume 2 of The Rif War covers the Spanish reconquest of the positions lost after the Disaster of Annual in the Melilla Sector, the near disaster of Xauen in the Western zone of the African Protectorate, the Rifian attack in French Morocco, the Landing at Alhucemas and the Spanish-French offensive, with the capture of Abd El-Krim and the destruction of his forces, and the final campaigns in the Gomara region to pacify the Protectorate. This series of books addresses the organization of the Spanish and Rifian armies, and of the air forces and their operations, including those of an incipient and frustrated Rifian aviation. The war also saw the Spanish Army completely reformed, reaching new levels of effectiveness with the Spanish Legion and the recruitment of Moroccan soldiers of the Regulares. This volume is richly illustrated with original photographs of the conflict, and includes specially commissioned artworks showing the men, vehicles, aircraft and ships employed in the Rif War.
Author: John P. Cann
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1915113180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 70
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Book Description
Between 1961 and 1974 Portugal fought a war to retain its African colonies of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. Collectively known as the Campaigns for Africa, the origin of the conflict stems from the post-World War II atmosphere of nationalism and anti-colonial fervor. The Angolan insurgency began in 1961, followed by unrest in Guinea-Bissau in 1963 and Mozambique in 1964. Portugal’s initial actions in Angola were based on foot-slogging by infantry, considered the best method of addressing an insurgency, not only to hunt the enemy but also to keep contact with the population. But in the vast areas of Angola – the majority of which was unsuited to wheeled vehicles – this tactical approach was too painful, and for Portugal the number of troops available was limited. The helicopter was a possible solution, but it was beyond Portugal’s finance resources and it had a tendency to fly over those areas where it was vital to communicate with the population and secure its loyalty. When in 1966 the enemy guerrillas sought a new front in eastern Angola, Portugal needed a force that could combine mobility over rough terrain with the ability to engage insurgents, while maintaining strong links with the population. One of the adaptive solutions to this challenge was found in the past: create horse cavalry units in the form of dragoons that were equally trained for cavalry or infantry service, just as their historical predecessors fought. In this particular case, adaptive tactics involved adjusting existing military methods and means from the traditional and available inventory to craft a solution that would deny eastern Angola to insurgents and support the population there. This story is about imaginative thinking that, instead of a ‘forced abandonment of the old’, led to a ‘resurrection of the old.'
Author: Janos Besenyo
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804514195
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 68
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Book Description
In 1975 Spain relinquished control of its former colony of Spanish Sahara following a short conflict with the Polisario, the armed movement representing many of the native Sahrawi people. In the wake of Spain’s withdrawal, neighboring Morocco and Mauritania divided and occupied the territory. In a fierce guerrilla war that saw the Polisario raid deep into Mauritania and even directly attack the capital city, the latter nation gave up any claim to Western Sahara in 1979 and withdrew. Morocco, however, chose to continue their occupation, building a massive berm stretching for hundreds of kilometers in an effort to contain the Polisario, and fighting continued until a ceasefire was agreed in 1991. One key element of the 1991 agreement was that a UN supervised referendum would be conducted to determine the future of Western Sahara. To that end MINURSO (Mission des Nations Unies pour l'Organisation d'un Référendum au Sahara Occidental) was created to oversee the ceasefire and organize the referendum. Over 30 years later, however, that referendum has still not taken place despite the original agreement and the involvement of some of the late twentieth century’s leading diplomats, and contrary to its previous promises, Morocco is only willing to grant a “high degree of autonomy” in the occupied Western Sahara. The Sahrawis and Polisario refuse to accept this, thus the conflict remains unresolved and ever on the brink of reigniting. The author of the book, János Beseny?, a professor at Óbuda University in Budapest, Hungary, and who served as a peacekeeper in MINURSO, presents the history of the area, the path leading to the creation of the mission, and its operation over the past three decades, and provides a detailed description of the mission’s team sites and the opposing forces of the Polisario and Morocco. This book draws upon several previously unpublished documents as well as previously unpublished photographs taken by peacekeepers. This book is recommended not only to military, foreign policy and diplomatic experts, but also to anyone interested in the history of the region, the events there, and the oldest peacekeeping operation in Africa.
Author: Leopold Scholtz
Publisher: Africa@War
ISBN: 9781909384620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The battle for the town of Cuito Cuanavale is a myth. The conduct of Operations Modular, Hooper, Packer and Displace by South African and UNITA forces in the 6th Military Region of southeastern Angola initially prevented FAPLA and its allies from occupying the UNITA town of Mavinga. The success achieved in this endeavor then led to the conduct of offensive military operations to force FAPLA and its allies to relinquish their bridgehead over the Cuito River and to redeploy to the western bank at Cuito Cuanavale. The FAPLA deployment and occupation of Cuito Cuanavale, on the western bank of the Cuito River, was never contested militarily by opposing forces during 1987 and 1988.
Author: Tom Cooper
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1910777501
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
With Ethiopia in disarray following a period of severe internal unrest and the spread of insurgencies in Eritrea and Tigray, Ethiopia and its armed forces should have offered little opposition to well-equipped Somali armed forces which were unleashed to capture Ogaden, in July 1977. However, excellently trained pilots of the Ethiopian Air Force took full advantage of their US-made equipment, primarily their few brand-new Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter-bombers, to take the fight to their opponents, win air superiority over the battlefield, and thus have their hands free to interdict the Somali supply links to stop the invasion cold. This air victory practically sealed the fate of the Somali juggernaut in Ogaden, especially so once Ethiopia convinced Cuba and the Soviet Bloc to support her instead of Somalia. In a fit of pique, Somalia forced all Soviet advisers to leave the country. Already bitter over similar experiences in Egypt in 1972, Moscow's revenge was designed as a clear message: nobody was to treat her in such fashion again. The USSR subsequently launched an air bridge to Ethiopia, unique and unprecedented in its extension and importance, delivering huge quantities of armament and equipment necessary for the Ethiopians to reconquer Ogaden, and beyond. In turn Somalia asked the USA for help and thus occurred an unprecedented switch of Cold War alliances. This volume details the history and training of both Ethiopian and Somali air forces, their equipment and training, tactics used and kills claimed, against the backdrop of the flow of the Ogaden war. It explains in detail, supported by over 100 contemporary and exclusive photographs, maps and color profiles, how the Ethiopian Air Force won the decisive victory in the air by expertly deploying the F-5Es - unequaled in maneuverability, small size and powerful armament - to practically destroy the Somali Air Force and its MiG-17s and MiG-21s.
Author: Eduardo Martinez
Publisher: Library of Armed Conflicts
ISBN: 9788366148178
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
Continuing with the study of the lesser known Air Forces that fought in the skies of Europe during World War II, in this book we want to remember the Spanish Air Force and how it defended the Spanish skies from several Air Forces that took part in the war. Besides we can read about the Blue Squadrons that fought against the Soviet Air Force in the Eastern Front in spite of the Spanish neutrality. We have written a text that will show us the bravery and courage of these men, in a difficult balance between the Allies and the Axis that allowed to General Franco continue in his position as chief of the Spanish state after the World War 2. We want to compile in a didactic way but without academic intention, the information about this topic from various main sources such as Juan Arráez Cerdá, José Luis González Serrano, Carlos Caballero, Francisco Martínez Canales or Jorge Fernández-Coppel, trying to focus on the Spanish Air Force actions during the world conflict defending the Spanish neutrality and in the Blue Squadrons actions against the USSR. Finally as is required we use this work to pay tribute to all the members of the Spanish Air Force that fought for their country during the difficult years of World War II.
