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Anglo-Afghan relations

The end of the First Anglo-Afghan War saw Dost Mohammad Khan return to power in Afghanistan. While he had supported the Sikhs during the Second Anglo-Sikh War, Dost Mohammad entered an alliance with the British in 1857, after a Persian offensive, instigated by Russia during the Crimean War, captured Herat and threatened Kandahar. The treaty signed on that occasion allowed the British to station a native muslim envoy, the Vakil, in Kabul.[1]

Dost Mohammad's death in 1863, ushered in a period of dynastic conflict in Afghanistan. The main pretender to the throne was Sher Ali Khan, the son of Dost Mohammad's second wife, who haad been officially nominated as heir by his father. His rivals were Mohammad Afzal Khan and Mohammad Azim Khan, the sons of Dost Mohammad's first wife. Sher Ali turned to the British for support, but the Governor-General of India, Sir John Lawrence, refused to recognize him as Amir, even acknowledging Afzal as the ruler when he seized Kabul briefly in 1866. Eventually, Sher Ali defeated his rivals in 1868, driving them into exile, but the lack of British support had cost him five years of civil war, and had rendered his position precarious. Lawrence's sucessor, Lord Mayo, realized that this policy might alienate the Amir, and received him in lavish style at Ambala in 1869. However, despite Sher Ali's demands, the British government refused to give him a formal guarantee of assistance in case of war, or to recognize his heirs over other pretenders to the throne. The Amir had to be content with an informal promise of support, and a generous gift of funds and weapons.

Meanwhile,

Operation Storm-333

Operation Storm-333 («Шторм-333») was, according to Russian sources (including the memoirs of the Alpha Group and other compounds' officers that took part in the seizure), the name of the special operation on December 27, 1979 in which Soviet troops stormed the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killed President Hafizullah Amin and his 200 elite guards. During the operation also other governmental buildings such as the Ministry of Interior building, the Internal Security (KHAD) building and the General Staff building (Darul Aman Palace) were seized.

Political context

Order of battle

Soviet units[2]

Afghan units

  • Amin's presidential guards: 200 men
  • Afghan security brigade: 2,500 men including an armoured unit with three tanks and an anti-aircraft unit with twelve 100mm antiaircraft guns)

Taking part in the operation were 24 troops from the , called and 30 troops from another special : . There were also 520 troops from the of the USSR Ministry of Defense (which ) and 87 troops of the .

In the operation Alfa group lost 2 troops, Zenith group lost 3 troops, Muslim battalion — 5 troops and the Air Landing company — 9 troops; more than 50 were wounded.[4] Alpha group's veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history.

References

  1. ^ Robson 2007, p. 33.
  2. ^ Article on Storm-333 at VPK-news.ru
  3. ^ the "Muslim battalion" consisted exclusively of the soldiers from the southern republics of the USSR
  4. ^ (in Russian) Baikal-79 by A.Lyakhovsky
  • Grau, Lester. "The take-down of Kabul: an effective coup de main". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2007-04-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

34°27′17″N 69°06′48″E / 34.45472°N 69.11333°E / 34.45472; 69.11333

commander1=Col. Robinson Risner
General Carl S.Miller(Commander 8th TFW-1972) commander2=Nguyen Van Coi(commander of the air defense of North Vietnam) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Battle of Omdurman

Order of Battle

Anglo-Egyptian Army

1st Brigade(Brigadier-General Wauchope)
2nd Brigade(Brigadier-General Lyttelton)
  • The Egyptian Division(Major-General Hunter)
1st Brigade(Colonel MacDonald)
2nd Brigade(Colonel Maxwell)
3rd Brigade(Colonel Lewis)
4th Brigade(Colonel Collinson)

The 1st and 2nd Brigade were composed mostly of black Sudanese soldiers. 20 Maxim machine-guns were distributed among the infantry.

  • Cavalry
21st lancers(Colonel Martin)
Camel Corps(Major Tudway)
Egyptian Cavalry(Colonel Broadwood)
  • Artillery:
7 Batteries with 44 guns
  • Gunboat Flotilla(Commander Keppel)
9 Gunboats armed with cannons and machine-guns

Mahdist Army

It was divided into large bodies of warriors arranged according to tribal affiliation, each lead by a prestigious emir and identified by a different flag:

  • Bright green flag(Ali-Wad-Helu): 5,000 men
  • Dark green flag(Osman-Sheikh-Ed-Din, Osman Azrak): 25,000 men including 12,000 riflemen
  • Khalifa's bodyguard: 2,000 men
  • Black flag(Yakub): 13,000 men
  • Red flag(Khalifa al-sherif): 2,000 men
  • No flag(Usman Digna): 1,700 men

Battle of Gazala

The Battle of Gazala was an important battle of the World War II Western Desert Campaign, fought around the port of Tobruk in Libya from May 26 to June 21 1942. The combatants on the Axis side were the Panzer Army Afrika, consisting of German and Italian units and commanded by the "Desert Fox" Colonel-General Erwin Rommel; the Allied forces were the Eighth Army, commanded by Major General Neil Ritchie under the close supervision of the Commander-in-chief Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck.

Prelude

Following Operation Crusader, in late 1941, the Eighth Army had driven the Axis forces out of Cyrenaica. But, by January 1942, Rommel had received reinforcements in men and tanks, and was able to mount an offensive, forcing the Allies to retreat across Libya to a strong position on a line between the loacality of Ain el Gazala on the Mediterranean coast, 40 miles west of Tobruk, and the oasis of Bir Hakeim in the south.

Balance of forces

Tanks: Allies 843

Axis: 560 tanks

Ritchie's armoured units were superior both in number and quality of tanks, but the germans compensated this by a crushing superiority in anti-tanks weapons.

British defenses

Stretching from Gazala in the north to Bir Hakeim on the south, the Allied units were formed into a defensive disposition known as the Gazala line.

General Auchinleck, in a letter written on May 20, had exposed to Ritchie his views of Rommel's coming attack. He believed that it would come in the coastal sector, accompanied by a diversion in the southern sector[1]. This led the Eighth Army headquarters to mass their troops in the north, leaving important gaps beteween the units deployed in the south, notably between the 150th Brigade at Gott-el-Ualeb and the Free French Brigade at Bir Hakeim.

relied on a series of defensive positions called "boxes". These positions were intended to be the British response to Rommel's Blitzkrieg attacks. They were each garrisoned by a single brigade, equipped with anti-tank guns and artillery, and protected by minefields. Thus provisioned, they were supposed to hold out against attacks by Axis armoured formations, but in reality, the box system suffered from several fatal drawbacks.

Rommel's plan

Rommel's plan was in fact the exact opposite of Auchinleck's predictions: he planned to drive round the British defenses in the south, while delivering a feint attack in the North. He decided to lead the main offensive himself, with a strike force composed of the 90th Light Division, the 15th and the 21st Panzer divisions, the Italian Ariete, Trieste armoured divsions and bypass the minefields south of Bir Hakeim. Simultaneously, Ludwig Crüwell was to lead the Italian infantry divisions, Sabratha, Trento, Pavia and Brescia in a diversion against the British defenses near Gazala.

First attack

When the offensive began on May 26th, Crüwells attack was hampered by a Khamsin storm, and it made little impression on his opponents.

Rommel's force departed at four o'clock and continued moving east during the night. His movements were reported to XXX corps by aerial recconnaissance flights and by the armoured cars of the 7th motor Brigade, who were operating west of the minefieds. However, the British commanders were reluctant to commit their forces on the basis of uncertain reports, and nothing was done until dawn, bar ordering the 4th Armoured Brigade to prepare to move at dawn. The direction of Rommel's advance was confirmed only at daybreak, by which time he was already inside the Allied defenses. At 6:45, the Axis armoured units came up against the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, which was in the process of digging into its "box". With its incomplete defenses and without a full complement of anti-tank guns, the Brigade nevertheless put up a stiff fight, managing to destroy 52 tanks, mostly Italian, before being overwhelmed. Their losses were 200 killed and 1,000 prisoners, among them Admiral Sir Walter Cowan, who was acting as Naval Liaison Attaché[2].

The next Allied unit to meet Rommel's onslaught was the 4th Armoured Brigade, who were given to believe they were heading off a "reconnaissance in force". Predictably, the Brigade found itself embroiled in a difficult fight with a wastly superior force, composed essentially of the tanks of 15th Panzer division. The Grant tanks gave a good account of themselves, destroying 30 panzers, but suffered heavily from anti-tank fire and the brigade was pushed north.

Meanwhile, 90th Light Division drove North-West and scattered the 7th Motor Brigade, who had not been able to organise the defense of the Retma box. The German Reconnaissance Unit 33 overran the headquarters of the 7th Armoured Division, capturing its commander, General Messervy. He later managed to escape, having hidden his identity, but this episode caused great confusion among the Allied units.

21st Panzer Division drove straight North from Hakeim, surprisng 22nd Armoured Brigade before they could deploy and inflicting a number of casualties.

In the afternoon, 15th Panzer was submitted to counter-attacks, one by 2nd Armoured brigade, the other by 44th Royal Tank Regiment. They inflicted heavy losses on the lorried infantry regiments of the Afrika Korps, but not without having lost 18 Matildas.

On the morning of the 27th, Rommel's position was becoming dangerous: he had lost a third of his German tanks, and had no supply route except the long and dangerous one round Hakeim. 15th Panzer was reduced to 29 fit tanks (and 14 others in various states of disrepair)and had run out of fuel and ammunition, while Ariete had to be called North from Hakeim, where they had vainly tried to dislodge the Free French Brigade. However, Rommel felt that by this time, he must have eliminated most of XXX Corps, and ordered 21st Panzer, who still had 80 tanks, to carry on with the offensive. Their thrust carried them North to a ridge overlooking the coastal road, having knocked out nine Valentines and overrun a South African company en route. The 90th Light was ordered to rejoin the DAK Headquarters near Bir Harmat, which they did, despite being pursued all the way by 4th Armoured Brigade.

By midday, Norrie, the XXX Corps commander, had begun to realise Rommel's predicament, and ordered 2nd Armoured Brigade and 1st Army Tank brigade to cut him off near Bir Harmat. The attack started in the evening, and the tanks found themselves silhouetted against the setting sun, which resulted in the loss of a squadron of Grants to 88 mm fire, without having achieved any result.

The only Axis success of the day was obtained by Trieste, who managed to clear a gap in the minefields at Sidi Muftah, near 150th Brigade's box. This meant an alternate supply route was now open for Rommel, who that evening had been directing supply convoys round the minefields south of Hakeim. It also meant that the 150th Brigade was completely surrounded.

At the same time, after an unsucessful diversion by the Italian infantry divisions, Crüwell tried to rejoin Rommel in a Fieseler Storch but his aircraft was shot down and he was taken prisoner by the 150th Brigade. He was temporarily replaced by Kesselring, who happened to be visiting North Africa.

Rommel now realised that by pursuing the offensive, he might face the detruction of his entire army, and decided to regroup his scattered units. 21st Panzer was recalled from the coastal sector and joined with Ariete west of Knightsbridge. This unexpected concentration of armour came as an unpleasant surprise to Lumsden, whose brigades once again found themselves outnumbered on the 29th, as they tried to link up with 150th Brigade. The fight lasted all day, after which the British tank forces were still further depleted. The one result of this engagement was to severely reduce Rommel's fuel and ammunition reserves, and he was forced to withdraw his units into an area that became known as the "cauldron".

The Cauldron

Destruction of the 150th Brigade

The "cauldron" area was delimited by Sidra ridge to the North and Aslagh ridge to the East. Rommel disposed most of his anti-tank guns on these ridges to ward off any British attack, liberating his main forces to eliminate the "boxes" blocking his supply routes, namely the 150th Brigade at Gott El Ualeb and the Free French Brigade at Bir Hakeim.

Rommel's withdrawal caused great hopes at Eighth Army Headquarters, as both Ritchie and Auchinleck, exaggerating their opponents logistic difficulties, believed them to be in full retreat. As a result, Ritchie ordered a general switch to the offensive, requiring a major reorganisation of both corps, and limiting all operations in the next days. On May 30, the only attacks were conducted by 2nd Armoured Brigade, who by the end of the day, saw their tank force reduced to thirty.

This relative inactivity enable Rommel to concentrate his forces against the unfortunate 150th Brigade, who had been joined in their box by the surviving Matildas of O'Carroll's 1st Army Tank Brigade. For two and a half days, the brigade held out aginst constant attacks, until their ammunition had completely run out. On June 1, the defenders were finally overrun, and their commander, Brigadier Haydon, was killed. Most of their number were taken prisoner, but not before they had inflicted severe losses on Rommel's infantry, and injured Colonel Westphal and General Gause, two of his staff officers.

Operation Aberdeen

Auchinleck and Ritchie had by now realised that Rommel was not retreating, but they hadn't abandoned their plans to cut him off, or at least drive him from the British defenses. A new offensive, codenamed Operation Limerick, was planned. Various options were considered: the first proposed by Ritchie consisted in a thrust through Segnali towards Mechili, to encircle the Afrika Korps from the North. The inconvenients of this plan were to uncover the route to El Adem, Eighth Army's main supply base, and to expose the force to counterattacks launched at short notice. The alternative plan was to send a force in a long sweep south of Hakeim, but this would have caused severe logistic problems. Finally, the simplest and most straightforward option was preferred: a frontal attack on the cauldron (codenamed operation Aberdeen).

Following Lumsden's advice, Ritchie's plan was to employ infantry, taken mostly from the Indian 5th Infantry Division, to attack by night and seize key features of the cauldron. 10th Indian were to attack Aslagh ridge, allowing 22nd Armoured Brigade, now reinforced to 156 tanks, to exploit westwards to Sidi Muftah. They would then be joined by 9th Indian Brigade, who would establish separate battalion defensive positions running from Aslagh ridge round Sidi Muftah. In the meantime, XIII Corps were supposed to attack Sidra ridge and hold the Axis units in that sector.The plan appeared sound on paper, but in reality it involved sending inexperienced infantry units into the open desert to establish widely separated positions, without adequate anti-tank defenses. Moreover, no allowance was made for the presence of 15th Panzer, who were mistakenly thought to be besieging Bir Hakeim.

The attack began at 2:50 on June the 5th, preceded by a heavy artillery barrage. The advance of the Indian brigades went smoothly at first, but only because they had not met any enemy. Worse, the position of the Axis units had been incorrectly estimated, and the artillery preparation had missed its target, serving only to warn Rommel of the Allied advance. As the Indian infantry dug in at their assigned objectives, the 22nd Armoured Brigade crossed Aslagh ridge, where they were met by the guns of Panzergruppe Army Artillery, and all the antitank guns that the Afrika Korps could muster. Suffering heavy losses, the brigade was driven North and then East and took no further part in the battle. The attack by Willison's brigade on Sidra ridge fared even worse, losing most of its tanks to anti-tank fire fom 21st Panzer Division, and from some minefields, whose presence came as an unpleasant surprise. By midday, the brigade was reduced to twelve tanks, from an original seventy.

Operation Aberdeen had now ground to a halt, and Rommel was free to launch a counterattack. While 21st Panzer attacked from the North, 15th Panzer conducted an enveloping movement to the south of Aslagh. Their drive surprised and dispersed the headquarters of 5th Indian and 1st Armoured Divisions, as well as those of the 10th and 9th Indian brigades. Several allied units were thus encircled inside the cauldron. They included most of the 10th Indian brigade, the motor battalion of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, a battalion of the 9th Indian Brigade and four artillery regiments.

Bir Hakeim

Main article: Battle of Bir Hakeim

Knightsbridge

The fall of Tobruk

Orders of battle

Allies

All units British unless otherwise indicated
Eighth Army (Ritchie)
XIII Corps (Gott)
XXX Corps (Norrie)

Axis

All units German unless otherwise indicated

^Note 1 : Strictly speaking Group Crüwell was part of Panzer Army Afrika, but as a practical matter Rommel temporarily split his Army in half, with Crüwell commanding the infantry units along the original front line while Rommel joined the mechanized forces in the flanking move.

References

  1. ^ Carver, Michael(1964); Tobruk; Pan Books; ISBN O-330-23376-9, p.
  2. ^ Carver, p.177
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