Amazing footage out of libya

[The Straight Story]

This might be the most amazing footage to reportedly come out of Libya. Feels like a desert war film at times
http://www.breakingnews.com/


Footage here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=115732065168086

[leveymg]

1. Thanks. Grimly fascinating.

[happyslug]

2. Shows the biggest problem with Desert fighting

That all two wheel drive cars and four wheel drive cars without special tires and other running gear, is stuck on hard pack roads. Such hard pack roads are few, thus are the choke points in any desert fighting.

The US shown you could fight in such conditions, provided not only the tanks can operate in the desert so can the trucks that carry the fuel, ammunition and other supplies to those tanks. At a bare minimum you need 2 1/2 ton Army style trucks (And then to get the truck drivers to reduce the air pressure in each tire down to 10-15 pounds per square inch, so to give the truck the maximum amount of traction even at the cost of wearing out the wheels prematurely. M35 series 2 1/2 ton trucks, like all trucks, could have their tires reduced to 10-15 pounds per square inch, and then increase back to normal tire pressure with the use of an internal air pressure hose. More modern army trucks can do this automatically. The problem here is the vehicles were either two wheel drive OR if four wheel drive of limited off road ability (i.e. no way to re-inflate the tires). Thus, like the German and British Armies of WWII in Libya, restricted to the use of those highways, but also means anyone on those highways are subject to a tank attack (Tanks CAN handle the desert sand) at any spot as the tank works its way around any blockade on the highway itself (Rommel's favorite tactic in Libya).

The second problem is the lack of any entrenching tools (Spades). No one had any. When you are leg infantry going against anyone, you need to take all the precautions you can, and the chief precaution is to dig in deeply (Even if you later have to abandon the position). A spade would be ideal in such locations. I notice no spade or any earth moving equipment. Armor, can use its armor to substitute for digging in, but unless you have Armor, you dig in (And even with armor you dig in, unless you are sure you will NOT be attacked i.e, you are the one doing any attacking, and even then I would still dig in.

I also saw no co-coordinated attacks, these all appear to be individuals attacking something without any over all plan. i.e. attack and see what happens. Thus any potential enemy can concentrate on any one attack, not have to worry about a coordinated attack from all sides (or from more then one side at a time).

As to the Air strike, looked impression, but had no affect on this battle, may have bombs dropped on a higher priority target, may have been bombs dropped just to drop bombs (Most fighter-bomber pilots do NOT want to land with any ordinance still on the plane, so most of the "Dumb" bombs are dropped before landing. "Smart" Bombs tend to be keep on the plane (More do to the cost of the Smart Weapon then anything else) so the bombing we saw may just be planes ejecting their load before landing. At the same time the bombs may be on some target.