MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier

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MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier
TypeArmoured personnel carrier
Place of originRhodesia
Service history
In service1978 - present
Used byRhodesia
Zimbabwe
WarsRhodesian Bush War
1981 Entumbane Uprising
Mozambican Civil War
Second Congo War
Specifications
Length6.6 m
Width2.28 m
Height2.9 m
Crew2+12
Armor10 mm mild steel
Main
armament
one 7.62 mm, 12.7 mm or 14.5 mm machine guns
Secondary
armament
personal weapons through gunports
Engine6-cylinder 5.67L Benz diesel OM352
110 hp
Power/weighthp/ton hp/tonne
Suspensionwheels, 4 × 4
Operational
range
600 to 700 km
Maximum speed 80 km/h/60 km/h km/h

The MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier is a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean 4x4d heavy troop-carrying vehicle (TCV) first introduced in 1978 based on a Mercedes-Benz truck chassis.

History

The MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier (‘MAP’ stands for mine and ambush protected in Rhodesian military jargon) was developed in 1977-78 by the Rhodesian Army Workshops as a light version of the MAP75 TCV. Production started early in 1978 at Army Workshops but in order to meet the increasing demand, manufacture was contracted out to the Rhodesian private firm Zambesi Coachworks Ltd of Salisbury (now Harare).[1]

General description

The MAP45 consists of an all-welded body with a cut-down troop compartment built on a modified Mercedes-Benz 4.5 ton Series LA911B truck chassis. Adapted from the MAP75 TCV, the open-topped hull or ‘capsule’ is faceted at the sides, which were designed to deflect small-arms’ rounds, and a flat deck reinforced by a v-shaped ‘crush box’ meant to deflect mine blasts. Three inverted U-shaped low ‘Roll bars’ were fitted to protect the fighting compartment from being crushed in case the vehicle turned and roll over after a landmine detonation. Due to the shortened top hull, their reduced height presented less of a problem since it did not hampered movements inside the troop compartment as in the MAP75.

Protection

The hull was made of ballistic 10mm mild steel plate; front windscreen and side windows had 40mm bullet-proof laminated glass.

Armament

Rhodesian MAP45s were usually armed with a FN MAG-58 7.62mm Light Machine Gun (LMG), sometimes installed on a locally-produced one-man MG armoured turret to protect the gunner. Vehicles assigned to convoy escorting duties (‘E-type’) had a Browning M1919A4 7.62mm medium machine gun mounted on an open-topped, cylinder-shaped turret (dubbed ‘the dustbin’). For ‘externals’ twin Browning MG pintle mounts were sometimes fitted, placed behind the driver’s compartment. The Zimbabwean vehicles after 1980 sported single pintle-mounted Soviet-made 12.7mm and 14.5mm Heavy Machine Guns (HMG) instead.

Variants

  • Troop-Carrying Vehicle (TCV) – is the standard IFV/APC version, armed with either a single LMG (Rhodesian SF 1978-79) or HMG (ZNA 1980-present) and capable of carrying 12 infantrymen.
  • Convoy escorting version – designated ‘E-type’, this is a basic IFV/APC version fitted with the Browning MG ‘dustbin’ turret.
  • Command vehicle – command version equipped with radios and map boards.

Combat history

The MAP45 TCV soon became a popular vehicle among the elite units of the Rhodesian Security Forces – including the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR), the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), and the Rhodesian SAS – who employed it late in the war in their cross-border covert raids (‘externals’) on ZIPRA and ZANLA guerrilla bases in the neighboring Countries,[2] such as the September 1979 raid on the ZANLA's New Chimoio base in Mozambique (Operation “Miracle”).[3] After the war, the converted MAP75s went to serve with the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) forces in Mozambique during the Mozambican Civil War, guarding the Mutare-Beira oil pipeline from 1982 to 1993.

Operators

  •  Rhodesia – some 200 or 300 vehicles in service with the Rhodesian Security Forces in 1978-1980 passed on to successor state.
  •  Zimbabwe – Still in service with the ZNA.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Locke & Cooke, Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80 (1995), p. 58.
  2. ^ Locke & Cooke, Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80 (1995), p. 58.
  3. ^ Touchard, Guerre dans le bush! Les blindés de l’Armée rhodésienne au combat (1964-1979), pp. 65; 73.

References

  • Laurent Touchard, Guerre dans le bush! Les blindés de l’Armée rhodésienne au combat (1964-1979), Batailles & Blindés Magazine n.º 72, April–May 2016, pp. 64-75. ISSN 1765-0828 (in French)
  • Peter Gerard Locke & Peter David Farquharson Cooke, Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80, P&P Publishing, Wellington 1995. ISBN 0-473-02413-6
  • Peter Stiff, Taming the Landmine, Galago Publishing Pty Ltd., Alberton (South Africa) 1986. ISBN 9780947020040
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