The Toyota War | Animated History

as the desert sands of the Sahara blow gently by Libyan dictator moamar Gaddafi sits in his Palace contemplating his next move a messenger arrives to update him on the war on his Southern border and the news is not good ragtag gangs of enemy soldiers in Toyota pickup trucks are on Libyan soil and wreaking havoc the origins of this conflict can be traced to this eccentric Libyan strongman who after seizing power in 1969 sought to expand his sphere of influence across North Africa meanwhile the newly independent republic of Chad had been plagued by Civil War since 1965 and its founding president Francois tomal struggled to hang on to power seeking to mitigate a Potential Threat and settle a historical dispute talbe agreed to the sail of a strip of land at the northern border based in the Oasis town of auu to Gaddafi's Libya this U strip which was rumored to have valuable uranium deposits would serve as a catalyst for not just tab's overthrow in 1975 but the war to come throughout the late '70s and early 80s Chad would suffer through a web of competing militias and shifting power dynamics the presidency of Chad would also change hands multiple times before being Consolidated under hin habre in 1982 H was a notoriously ambitious and brutal leader known for his public displays of violence and power an account from Rebel forces recalls searching his home only to find the bodies of 50 opponents right outside a commission report released by subsequent chadian governments said that Hab was an opportunistic and ruthless figure responsible for numerous human rights violations political killings and systematic torture by 1982 Gaddafi was deeply entangled with the chadian Civil War and had consistently supported efforts against Hab through backing various Rebel groups and occasionally direct military intervention but now that Hab had Consolidated power it was time for Gaddafi to begin a new offensive Libyan soldiers equipped with modern Soviet Weaponry quickly took hold of most of Northern Chad however their Advance was halted by a French expeditionary Force compelling Gaddafi to agree to a demarcation line at the 15th parallel H's power was insured but his country was now partitioned Gaddafi content with these developments took to building military infrastructure and sending reinforcements to the occupied territories under the guise of support for a rebel government however when significant elements in that Rebel group began to defect Gaddafi's cover was blown prompting him to cross the 15th parallel this led to a second French intervention now spearheaded by the French Air Force in support of habre's government and resulted in the bombing of Libya's Airbase at w Doom in February 1986 France was now Allin on supporting H and retaking all of Northern Chad researching and organizing the information I find on the web for our videos can be a huge challenge especially when working on multiple projects at once and that's why I'm pleased to recommend the 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highlight on a page a handy tool if you need to skim a page for information quickly Opera also comes with a buil-in ad blocker and VPN ensuring you a safe secure and private web browsing experience support our Channel today by clicking the link in the description below download Opera for free and begin experiencing the most efficient Dynamic and intuitive web browser available by 1987 chadian and Libyan forces numbered in the thousands but Gaddafi had the more modern equipment including hundreds of Tanks dozens of fixed wing and rotor Aviation and several rocket artillery batteries H was hopelessly outmatched but his allies in France promised both air support and unusually a shipment of 400 civilian manufactured Toyota pickup trucks specifically made up of the Helix and Land Cruiser utility models each to be armed with heavy machine guns rocket propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles while the procurement of these civilian vehicles or technicals as they would later be known may seem like an odd decision there were a number of factors that gave the Toyotas a decisive advantage against standard armor for one the top speed of a civilian pickup was unmatched compared to military hardware a helix could easily outpace the 31 mph max speed of a t-55 tank this speed is complemented by a naturally better fuel economy as a single gallon serves a civilian vehicle much farther than the 1.6 Mi for a t55 this makes the logistics of War much easier as far less fuel needs to be sent on supply lines for a far more efficient result finally the cost and skill level required for repair is unusually low for the Helix and Land Cruiser proper maintenance on a modern main battle tank or APC can take weeks or months of dedicated training from highly specialized Personnel but a civilian mechanic with a modest amount of experience can easily get a Toyota back on the road or in this case the battlefield the Toyota War began in Ernst on January 2nd 1987 when 1200 Libyan troops and 400 chadian Rebels were taken by complete surprise in the strategically crucial northern city of f when 3,000 Toyota abound chadian troops descended upon their position a majority of the libyans were routed and the material damage that occurred was even more surprising 92 tanks and 33 infantry fighting Vehicles were destroyed with dozens more Vehicles captured all to the tune of 18 chadian dead and three technicals destroyed in a desperate attempt to prevent the capture of his vital equipment the Libyan Air Force sent bombers to the newly captured City on January 3rd and 4th but these attempts were feudal and only served to further justify French attrition by air against the libyans the loss of Libyan air superiority opened up a window of opportunity for the chadians commanderin-chief Hassan jamos determined that Libyan forces would need to be more effectively thinned out before they could be driven out of the country defenses at F were made intentionally weaker so as to bait the libyans into attempting to retake the city while the French sought to keep the skies clear of Gaddafi's Air Force by keeping pressure on the air base at Wadi Doom this trap laid by jamos was sprung on the evening of March 18th when a force of 1500 libyans and dozens of Tanks making the long Trek to F were surrounded by a convoy of roving technicals encircled and miles away from the nearest Village of beer Cor Libyan tanks surrounded their camps in a defensive perimeter but these stationary units could barely get their sights on such mobile Targets in the ensuing chaos Libyan forces were able to ask for reinforcements who in the dead of night left the base at Wadi Doom meanwhile in order to break Libyan defenses chadian forces began a diversionary attack with the intent of swinging around the rear of their lines in doing so the Libyan forces collap CED long before help could arrive by the time these reinforcements were well out of sight of their base they too were encircled and destroyed on the 20th over the course of 2 days 800 Libyan troops were killed along with 86 tanks destroyed and another 13 captured Chad certainly wishlisted our upcoming strategy game master of command on Steam link below to pull off such a decisive Victory the Battle of beer Kora demonstrated not only the massive advantage that speed played in modern desert Warfare but also the innovation of chadian officers it seemed as though they could not fail and that the Toyota was the new king of the battlefield however as the chadian forces continued their sweep a rift began between their French allies over the auu strip H was committing to uniting his country including the town of auu but since the territory was legally transferred by purchase and because they did not want to risk starting a larger conflict France refused to extend its air support to operations beyond the internationally recognized boundaries from here on this would be a war the chadians would fight alone chadian technicals crossed the boundary into the U strip in Late July and quickly began occupying Libyan outposts a force of around 3,000 libyans began to regroup in the testi mountains just south of the town of auu proper as these forces exited their stronghold for an attempted counter offensive they were intercepted at the town of Bard and were forced to retreat the chadians then chased these forces all the way to auu itself inflicting hundreds of casualties and capturing more than a hundred more Vehicles along the way auu was then captured on August 8th the Swift capture of the auu strip was met with rage from Gaddafi who considered this a slight against his legitimate claim on the territory Gaddafi mobilized the largest single force in the conflict yet 15,000 troops to retake the town Libyan artillery bombarded auu for days and starting on the 14th attempted to take the town with multiple assaults but all were repelled with confidence in the security of auu chadian forces began to withdraw from the town to prepare for their next attack leaving a skeleton force of 400 troops as a Garrison as the bombardment continued however the libyans deployed a unit from the Revolutionary guard Corps which made a decisive impact on the U Garrison and with French air support not forthcoming the libyans retook auu on August 28th in their first and thus far only victory in the war despite this setback chadian forces had proven themselves capable of military operations without the French and so Hab sought to push their capabilities as far as they could go in a decisive battle that would force Gaddafi to negotiate or at the very least give up on his dreams of imposing a greater Libya upon Chad the forces under H had already utilized many of the most fundamental pillars of military strategy but were prepared to employ another that being that the best defense is a good offense Hab was going to take the Toyotas to Libya itself as night fell upon the isolated mattin alera Airbase on September 5th 2,000 chadians crossed the border into Libya about 100 tanks and other ground Vehicles guarded the nearly 30 fixed wi aircraft stationed at the base along with more than 2,500 Personnel flanked on all sides by a dense Minefield all of this Manpower and material was in a metaphorical island in the Libyan Sahara about about 60 M north of the auu strip channeling the British Jeep raid on CD Hanish Airfield 45 years prior the chadians raced down the air strip firing missiles into the stationary aircraft causing irreparable damage to essential hardware and disappearing as quickly as they arrived accounts differ on the details but it was reported that if the Toyotas drove over them at a certain speed around 62 mph the anti-tank mines would fail to detonate in time to catch a technical either going off a few seconds late or not at all Libyan defenses were rendered completely useless the mattin elera air base was rendered unusable at the end of the night raid it's equipment captured its infrastructure destroyed the air strip torn up and its Personnel dead captured or fleeing to the cold Sands of the Sahara at least 1,000 Libyan fatalities were tallied while the chadian suffered just 65 in this moment the war and the greater cause to exploit a divided Chad was lost seeing the DraStic reversal of Fortune the Libyan dictator swallowed his pride and called for a ceasefire in total over 7,500 libyans lost their lives in this 8-month conflict compared to 1,000 chadian fatalities it was an embarrassing defeat for Gaddafi who had now been driven out of all of Northern Chad's territory and who lost all influence over its internal politics after the ceasefire the dictator recognized Hab as chadian president as his gift to Africa however they still held control over the auu strip an essential symbol of Libya's military prowess this too they would have to concede in 1994 not militarily but by diplomatic pressure when the international court of justice ruled that was Chad that had rightful claim over the U strip and that the libyans would move out of the land a couple months later

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 408,398

Keywords: military history, war, battle, the second world war, historical

Id: RjKHWYRYPkk

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2024