After spending about a month, the heavenly troops from France finally completed the assembly. The French high-level officials did not intend to invest in elite heavy-armed troops, so the only French army that arrived in N'Djamena was a dissatisfied cavalry regiment from the Foreign Legion. and a paratrooper regiment.
These two units are not equipped with AX30 tanks, but they have a lot of VAB wheeled armored vehicles and AL armored vehicles, as well as attached 82mm mortars. The parachute regiment also has an additional 120mm heavy mortar, and these two units have certain Amount of Milan anti-tank missiles.
In addition, eight Gazelle helicopters provide air support and firepower!
This kind of force size is simply not enough to compare with the regular forces of a serious land power. Lightly-armed troops have no way of surviving when encountering heavily-armed troops. But this is Africa, and what is most lacking here is well-matched opponents. .
Although when they learned that the French sky soldiers were preparing to die in person, the Libyan frontline troops dug a large number of defenses under the command of Soviet instructors, including but not limited to anti-tank trenches, mine arrays, tank shooting bunkers and other defenses, but in France Under the bombardment of the combined punches of man, air and ground, the defense line was still penetrated like an A4 piece of paper.
The tanks parked in the defense line and the machine gun positions set up in the desert were bombed by bombs falling from the sky without almost any reaction.
Then, the French army and mercenaries penetrated all the way along the breach, and the task of filling the frontal line was handed over to the thousands of Chadian National Army. Under the leadership of Chief of Staff Deby, they advanced horizontally in a long formation, firmly attracted positive Libyans.
In this case, the Soviet advisers immediately proposed to retreat across the board and back to the original line of control. In this way, the Libyans could still occupy a large area of Chadian land, which would not be a loss.
The Libyan generals also very much agree with this strategy. There are more complete and solid defenses along the line of control, as well as a complete transportation network. The Libyan ground forces can receive support from the air force and anti-aircraft missiles. As long as they hold on firmly and achieve the established facts, then even if Even France and the United States can't help it.
However, as the supreme commander of Libya, Mr. Gaddafi has always had a problem, that is, he does not like to eat beef! Ah no, he didn’t listen to others’ advice. Gaddafi’s life span was comparable to that of a Japanese two-dimensional protagonist. He once visited a country in East Asia and wanted to buy a nuclear bomb. He once flew to Moscow late at night just to import Stalin’s favorite mineral water. .
Now, faced with the advice of advisers and generals, Gaddafi rarely showed his persistence as the leader of the country.
"No retreat is allowed. We have hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles on the front line, nearly 10,000 soldiers, and countless artillery. We can hold the line of defense!"
Thanks to his control of power when he started, Gaddafi has always been consistent in Libya, so his orders are the final decision.
As a result, a large hole was opened in the defense line. The Libyan army, which could not block it at all and was unable to prevent the French army from outflanking, could only continue to fight with this kind of leakage in the defense line and the escape route was blocked.
The Yandel team of Shadow Company was the first group to follow the French and rush to the rear of the Libyans.
"Not to mention this tank, it's really fun to drive!"
The driver, Corporal Pashina, who was almost lying on his back in the driver's seat on the left front of the vehicle, had only driven a 60 in the army. Fortunately, he had also served as a test driver of an HSL tank before, so driving this car was only ten years old. Three tons, but for a little guy with a 650-horsepower gas turbine engine, it is easy to handle.
At this moment, he was wearing goggles and a helmet, sticking his head out of the car body, and driving the No. 1 car along the winding desert road in front of him.
It had been twelve hours since they set off. During this period, they met up with the supply convoy midway and filled up the tanks with fuel. Each vehicle also carried eight 20-liter fuel tanks. After all, gas turbines consume fuel. Big house.
These fuel tanks are fixed around the body of the tank, and even two are inserted into the upper armor position. In addition, the crew also carries twenty additional loose 75mm ammunition. Although this practice is illegal, But it can extend the combat time of the crew to the maximum extent. After all, the magazine of hsl can only
Can carry 26 artillery shells.
In addition to the two tanks, the team also has six similarly modified armed pickup trucks, three pickup trucks with machine guns installed as reconnaissance vehicles, and an anti-tank support vehicle equipped with TOW missiles. The last two carry a The infantry of the combat group is used to support and cover tank battles.
The reconnaissance pickup truck ran far ahead of the team, responsible for exploring the road and detecting the enemy's situation. After all, the French were not magical conchs. The information they could obtain from aerial reconnaissance was pitiful. When it was sent to the mercenaries, the timeliness was greatly lagging behind. In this case, it is better to use eyes and telescopes.
Each reconnaissance vehicle is packed with local guides, the kind whose average age is forty or fifty years old and who have lived in the desert for most of their lives. However, this is still not safe. The fleet also carries double the number of radios and satellite phones, and ensures I can contact the rear every two hours.
In order to ensure the smooth operation of these vehicles, Sandmann's air fleet also arrived in Chad, including one Chinook, four Hueys, and two Cessna cargo planes enthusiastically presented by fellow Latin Americans, always at the rear. Waiting to provide support to the fleet, GM's engineering team also remains on standby.
However, Yandel did not have the sense of urgency of being ready for the rear. He was still obsessed with feeling the integrated information operating system of this HSL tank, including advanced hunter-killer fire control, black and white thermal imaging, and carbon dioxide laser range finders. These are things that were almost hard to see on tanks in the past.
Even though Yandel spent a month getting familiar with it with the help of engineers, he still had a lot of troubles, so he did not forget to study with various data manuals on the way.
Sitting side by side with him was gunner Geddy. Neither of them had as much practical experience as the driver, so they did not forget to study harder on the road to ensure that there would be no problems when the fight actually started.
While everyone was busy, the team's radio buzzed.
Then, the voice of the reconnaissance team commander Rambo came out.
"Echo 1, this is Falcon 1, heading northwest at eleven o'clock, three kilometers away. We found an armored convoy approaching. There are three BPs and multiple trucks. Do we want to avoid it?"
"Falcon 1, don't get out of the way, we'll go straight to them!"
Yandel's eyes lit up as he held the book, and he answered without hesitation.
