Everything about The Battle Of Fada totally explained
The
battle of Fada took place in northern
Chad in
1987, and was a turning point of the
Libyan-Chadian War.
Preclude
At the beginning of
1986 the
Libyans controlled all Chad north of the 16th parallel. However, when the
French intervened in the country in
Operation Sparrowhawk and
Goukouni Oueddei's and his
People's Armed Forces rebelled against his former supporter
Qaddafi, Libya's President, the situation became critical for the
Libyan army and promising for Chad's
President Hissène Habré.
Certain that the French would protect Chad south of the 16th parallel, Habré started assembling his army, the
Chadian National Armed Forces (FANT), at Kalaït, a logistic deposit built by France exactly at the 16th parallel, and which it had stocked with munitions, weapons and fuel. France and the
United States had equipped the FANT with a large number of
Toyota pickups, and antitank and antiaircraft missile launchers, such as
MILAN ATGWs. The FANT assault under the command of
Hassan Djamous deployed almost 3000 soldiers for the coming battle.
Battle
This powerful force attacked
Fada, the capital of the
Ennedi and a Libyan stronghold, on
January 2. Hassan Djamous took the 1,000 Libyan soldiers and the 300–400 members of the
Revolutionary Democratic Council (CDR) militia by surprise. In a short but brutal engagement the FANT almost annihilated the Libyan armoured brigade that defended Fada: 784 Libyans died, 92
T-55 tanks and 33
BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed, and 13 T-55s and 18 BMP-1s captured, together with 81 Libyan soldiers. Chadian losses were mininimal: only 18 soldiers died and three Toyotas were destroyed.
This was one of the first major combat victories employing the tactic of using light trucks armed with machine guns or rockets, later known as "
technicals." This tactic mirrored the actions of the raids conducted by the
Long Range Desert Group of
World War II, but on a slightly smaller scale theater, against slightly less numerous enemies, but with more modern weaponry and equipment.
Although the Chadian commander's tactical ability played an important role in the victory, the anti-tank missiles were decisive. When combined with the superior maneuverability of the Toyotas, they proved their efficacy against the Libyan tanks.
Aftermath
On January 3 and 4 the Libyan Air Force sent several waves of bombers to Fada in an attempt to destroy the captured equipment and ammunition. Still, these couldn't change the essential fact that Libya had suffered a major defeat that was to prove the beginning of the end of the Chadian-Libyan War.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Battle Of Fada'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://battle_of_fada.totallyexplained.com">Battle of Fada Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
