Spyr
04-03-2008, 00:18
"We continue to live in the corners
of nothingness
between the north and south of the seasons.
We continue to sleep
embracing pillows of stone
like our parents did.
We chase the same clouds
and rest in the shade of the bare acacias.
We drink our tea with scorching sips
we walk barefoot so as not to scare off the silence.
And in the distance
on the hillsides of the mirage
we watch, as we have done every afternoon
the sun setting on the sea.
And the same woman that lingers
on the peaks at dusk
waves at us from the centre of the map.
She waves at us and is lost
in the eyes of a boy who smiles
from the lap of eternity.
We are still waiting for the dawn
when we can start over."
-Mohamed Salem, 'Children of the Sun and Wind'
---
Western Sahara
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/20/westernsaharamapbj4.jpg
The small village of Mhaires sat in the desert southeast of Smara, its empty buildings showing the wear that came from abandonment to the elements in the harsh environment that was the Sahara. It was an unremarkeable patch of dirt, sheltered by rocky outcrops, but to the nomadic Saharawi of years past it had provided shelter and vegetation as they made their journeys eastward from Smara into the deeper desert. Now, it might gain greater renown, for it was about to host a battle of no small significance, to which the Saharawi would lend it's name. Here, the mechanized might of the Saharawi would be expended against an enemy in a rare state of vulnerability, after which the fight would pass on from set pieces into the hands of guerilla bands.
Given the nature of the desert, the leadership of SPADEC and their Moroccan allies would know of the Saharawi approach before the battle was joined, though those who imagined the Sahara's west to be a mere sea of sand would find its terrain offered up opportunities for concealment, with which the soldiers of the Frente Polisario were intimately familiar. Still, commanders on the side of the SADR did not assume their attack would succeed due to stealth but due to the demands placed on the foe from elsewhere: the bulk of the Moroccan army had pushed southward into Mauritania, well away from Smara and the north, assault blunted before it met the Mauritanians as it was forced to divert troops to provide heavy guard for its growing lines of supply. The Spanish too had faced this difficulty, and in addition had scattered patrols across the desert to try and root out the hidden nests of Saharawi fighters, even as promised reinforcements were diverted to defense of the Iberian in the face of London's threats to bring war to the continent. Patrols and escorts could be rerouted, but that would leave vital supplies vulnerable even as it turned sides and rear to RPGs and machine guns taking aim from Polisario boltholes.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/714/saharawicolumncu1.jpg
SADR mechanized forces advancing on Mhaires
The Moroccan garrisons along the berm might muster closer to the fray, but they too faced difficulties... their reserves now fought in the south, while the minefields that defended the berm had been cleared at its most vulnerable points when Spain and Morrocco sought the freedom of maneuver needed for their attempt at blitzkrieg... the once-inassailable Wall of Shame was now vulnerable to attack and infiltration, and the last time Polisario had gained free movement in their land, they had held their own against an enemy both more numerous and more technologically advanced.
Polisario troops were not the only worry for Moroccan garrisons... war and atrocity had galvanized popular sentiments in the regions under occupation, had set mobs with placards into town squares and civilians pelting military vehicles with stones as they picked their way through the streets of the western cities. If the garrisons redeployed, they might well return from victory in the field to find SADR flags flying from their barracks.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/2427/elaman0524xf2.jpg
Protesters pelt a Moroccan army vehicle with stones during protests in the occupied Western Sahara
Polisario was certain that its heavy equipment would not survive long into the war... better to lose it striking at the enemy than bombed alone in the desert. If the enemy gathered their forces, then the battle at Mhaires would see great losses for few gains, but the enemy would bleed elsewhere from a thousand tiny cuts. If they tried to guard against such wounds, then the death cry of the SADR's regular forces at Mhaires would be left to exact a worthy price from the Spanish running homeward here.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/2395/saharawisignaturebu5.jpg
Mauritania
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3629/mauritaniamapgf4.jpg
Mauritania had offered little static resistance to the Moroccan invaders, for it had not the forces to do so. The attackers had been free to sweep east and south, halfway across the nation, small firefights and guerilla attacks from the rear being the greatest dangers faced for most of the invaders. The latter would be the greater danger, most likely, as the distance between Moroccan-held terriritory and the front line became ever greater, and there was much confusion over just who fought in the empty territory from the Moroccan berm to central Mauritania: militias in civil dress with ancient Spanish and Roycelandian bolt-action rifles intermingled with those wearing uniforms of the Mauritanian army, the Frente Polisario... Moroccans would even report sightings of uniforms from the United African Republics amongst those they encountered, the hand of Papa Africa reaching out even to the white Moors of the Maghreb. Of course, this diverse force had minimal coordination at best, and despite the ease of distinguishing Moroccan regulars from fellow guerillas there will be incidents of friendly fire, particularly with Mauritanians feeling ever-more distrust of foreigners. Still, facing a common foe, the very same who decades before was faced by shared hero Ma al-'Aynayn, keeps most accepting of retreating Saharawi... wether they will have the same tolerance for communist Celts or well-meaning Brits remains, for now, unanswered.
At the front itself, resistance was stiffening, as more forces were brought to bear and the land provided better defensive features for snipers and emplaced machine guns, as well as rocket-propelled grenades, though concentration of forces remained minimal: some might call the strategy one of 'defence-in-depth'.
However there were a few points where forces had achieved sufficient mass to make a stand. The largest was Nouadhibou, likely listed on French maps as Port Étienne. Here, the urban environment and the long iron-ore train whose halt had wrapped a mile-long wall around the city's northeast would constrict the movements of a more numerous foe. The peninsula stretching southeast was also home to fighting, less intense, between Saharawi troops with Combine equipment and the Moroccan forces who had pushed them kicking and screaming from Lagouira. Here would likely see the turning of the tide, if there was to be one, when Armandian aircraft and marines made themselves known on the Maghreb, but the Combine flotilla was still far to the South, with fleets from Europe and India clashing in between.
Another area where the invaders were meeting stiffer resistance was the Adrar Plateau, whose rocky gorges and shifting sands provided an advantage to defenders outgunned by their Moroccan foe. Most of the holy texts had been taken from the Five Libraries by refugees fleeing southward towards the capital, but a few dedicated warriors would make their stand outside Chinguetti to protect what remained, taking for their militia the name of the Gudfiyya Brotherhood. Still more had mustered around Atar to defend the water source recently discovered there, as trucks and camels were loaded for the journey to Nouakchott or to be squirreled away for later retrieval.
The approach to Nouakchott itself is open, but being flat is far different from being easy. Tidal flats dominate the west, flooded for part of the day and soft for the rest, the high-water mark reaching up to touch shifting dunes of sand that stretch inland some distance until scrub and rocky outcrops mark a return to the terrain typical of northwest Africa. Here, landmines have been scattered in an attempt to trip up a Moroccan push towards the city, the Mauritanians having accepted that they will slow, but cannot really stop, a determined advance by modern forces.
The city itself is home to a concentration of military assets, particularly of anti-aircraft defenses... they cannot claim heavier missiles, but they might well be compared to regions of the Ukraine or Dra-pol for concentrations of heavy machine guns and man-portable SAMs. When fighting comes to Nouakchott, it will certainly be intense.
The population of the city even in peacetime is far larger than its infrastructure can support, a half-million fixed inhabitants and a million more migrants living in tents and moving as they please. More may well pour in as refugees arrive from the north, and as French agents have discovered, security is hard to maintain in such an environment. Many of these nomadic residents already prepare to move again should the enemy come too close to the city, and such a large influx of Mauritanians may likely set already-burdened Senegal into even deeper difficulties. Mauritanian officials seeking to rebuild relations with the ECOWAS states could offer warnings about this likely scenario, but are limited in taking any actions requested by their southern neighbours: the government can attempt to sway the crowds using the potent sense of nationalism held by most, but no guarantees can be made.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/3356/mauritaniasignaturehz5.jpg
of nothingness
between the north and south of the seasons.
We continue to sleep
embracing pillows of stone
like our parents did.
We chase the same clouds
and rest in the shade of the bare acacias.
We drink our tea with scorching sips
we walk barefoot so as not to scare off the silence.
And in the distance
on the hillsides of the mirage
we watch, as we have done every afternoon
the sun setting on the sea.
And the same woman that lingers
on the peaks at dusk
waves at us from the centre of the map.
She waves at us and is lost
in the eyes of a boy who smiles
from the lap of eternity.
We are still waiting for the dawn
when we can start over."
-Mohamed Salem, 'Children of the Sun and Wind'
---
Western Sahara
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/20/westernsaharamapbj4.jpg
The small village of Mhaires sat in the desert southeast of Smara, its empty buildings showing the wear that came from abandonment to the elements in the harsh environment that was the Sahara. It was an unremarkeable patch of dirt, sheltered by rocky outcrops, but to the nomadic Saharawi of years past it had provided shelter and vegetation as they made their journeys eastward from Smara into the deeper desert. Now, it might gain greater renown, for it was about to host a battle of no small significance, to which the Saharawi would lend it's name. Here, the mechanized might of the Saharawi would be expended against an enemy in a rare state of vulnerability, after which the fight would pass on from set pieces into the hands of guerilla bands.
Given the nature of the desert, the leadership of SPADEC and their Moroccan allies would know of the Saharawi approach before the battle was joined, though those who imagined the Sahara's west to be a mere sea of sand would find its terrain offered up opportunities for concealment, with which the soldiers of the Frente Polisario were intimately familiar. Still, commanders on the side of the SADR did not assume their attack would succeed due to stealth but due to the demands placed on the foe from elsewhere: the bulk of the Moroccan army had pushed southward into Mauritania, well away from Smara and the north, assault blunted before it met the Mauritanians as it was forced to divert troops to provide heavy guard for its growing lines of supply. The Spanish too had faced this difficulty, and in addition had scattered patrols across the desert to try and root out the hidden nests of Saharawi fighters, even as promised reinforcements were diverted to defense of the Iberian in the face of London's threats to bring war to the continent. Patrols and escorts could be rerouted, but that would leave vital supplies vulnerable even as it turned sides and rear to RPGs and machine guns taking aim from Polisario boltholes.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/714/saharawicolumncu1.jpg
SADR mechanized forces advancing on Mhaires
The Moroccan garrisons along the berm might muster closer to the fray, but they too faced difficulties... their reserves now fought in the south, while the minefields that defended the berm had been cleared at its most vulnerable points when Spain and Morrocco sought the freedom of maneuver needed for their attempt at blitzkrieg... the once-inassailable Wall of Shame was now vulnerable to attack and infiltration, and the last time Polisario had gained free movement in their land, they had held their own against an enemy both more numerous and more technologically advanced.
Polisario troops were not the only worry for Moroccan garrisons... war and atrocity had galvanized popular sentiments in the regions under occupation, had set mobs with placards into town squares and civilians pelting military vehicles with stones as they picked their way through the streets of the western cities. If the garrisons redeployed, they might well return from victory in the field to find SADR flags flying from their barracks.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/2427/elaman0524xf2.jpg
Protesters pelt a Moroccan army vehicle with stones during protests in the occupied Western Sahara
Polisario was certain that its heavy equipment would not survive long into the war... better to lose it striking at the enemy than bombed alone in the desert. If the enemy gathered their forces, then the battle at Mhaires would see great losses for few gains, but the enemy would bleed elsewhere from a thousand tiny cuts. If they tried to guard against such wounds, then the death cry of the SADR's regular forces at Mhaires would be left to exact a worthy price from the Spanish running homeward here.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/2395/saharawisignaturebu5.jpg
Mauritania
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3629/mauritaniamapgf4.jpg
Mauritania had offered little static resistance to the Moroccan invaders, for it had not the forces to do so. The attackers had been free to sweep east and south, halfway across the nation, small firefights and guerilla attacks from the rear being the greatest dangers faced for most of the invaders. The latter would be the greater danger, most likely, as the distance between Moroccan-held terriritory and the front line became ever greater, and there was much confusion over just who fought in the empty territory from the Moroccan berm to central Mauritania: militias in civil dress with ancient Spanish and Roycelandian bolt-action rifles intermingled with those wearing uniforms of the Mauritanian army, the Frente Polisario... Moroccans would even report sightings of uniforms from the United African Republics amongst those they encountered, the hand of Papa Africa reaching out even to the white Moors of the Maghreb. Of course, this diverse force had minimal coordination at best, and despite the ease of distinguishing Moroccan regulars from fellow guerillas there will be incidents of friendly fire, particularly with Mauritanians feeling ever-more distrust of foreigners. Still, facing a common foe, the very same who decades before was faced by shared hero Ma al-'Aynayn, keeps most accepting of retreating Saharawi... wether they will have the same tolerance for communist Celts or well-meaning Brits remains, for now, unanswered.
At the front itself, resistance was stiffening, as more forces were brought to bear and the land provided better defensive features for snipers and emplaced machine guns, as well as rocket-propelled grenades, though concentration of forces remained minimal: some might call the strategy one of 'defence-in-depth'.
However there were a few points where forces had achieved sufficient mass to make a stand. The largest was Nouadhibou, likely listed on French maps as Port Étienne. Here, the urban environment and the long iron-ore train whose halt had wrapped a mile-long wall around the city's northeast would constrict the movements of a more numerous foe. The peninsula stretching southeast was also home to fighting, less intense, between Saharawi troops with Combine equipment and the Moroccan forces who had pushed them kicking and screaming from Lagouira. Here would likely see the turning of the tide, if there was to be one, when Armandian aircraft and marines made themselves known on the Maghreb, but the Combine flotilla was still far to the South, with fleets from Europe and India clashing in between.
Another area where the invaders were meeting stiffer resistance was the Adrar Plateau, whose rocky gorges and shifting sands provided an advantage to defenders outgunned by their Moroccan foe. Most of the holy texts had been taken from the Five Libraries by refugees fleeing southward towards the capital, but a few dedicated warriors would make their stand outside Chinguetti to protect what remained, taking for their militia the name of the Gudfiyya Brotherhood. Still more had mustered around Atar to defend the water source recently discovered there, as trucks and camels were loaded for the journey to Nouakchott or to be squirreled away for later retrieval.
The approach to Nouakchott itself is open, but being flat is far different from being easy. Tidal flats dominate the west, flooded for part of the day and soft for the rest, the high-water mark reaching up to touch shifting dunes of sand that stretch inland some distance until scrub and rocky outcrops mark a return to the terrain typical of northwest Africa. Here, landmines have been scattered in an attempt to trip up a Moroccan push towards the city, the Mauritanians having accepted that they will slow, but cannot really stop, a determined advance by modern forces.
The city itself is home to a concentration of military assets, particularly of anti-aircraft defenses... they cannot claim heavier missiles, but they might well be compared to regions of the Ukraine or Dra-pol for concentrations of heavy machine guns and man-portable SAMs. When fighting comes to Nouakchott, it will certainly be intense.
The population of the city even in peacetime is far larger than its infrastructure can support, a half-million fixed inhabitants and a million more migrants living in tents and moving as they please. More may well pour in as refugees arrive from the north, and as French agents have discovered, security is hard to maintain in such an environment. Many of these nomadic residents already prepare to move again should the enemy come too close to the city, and such a large influx of Mauritanians may likely set already-burdened Senegal into even deeper difficulties. Mauritanian officials seeking to rebuild relations with the ECOWAS states could offer warnings about this likely scenario, but are limited in taking any actions requested by their southern neighbours: the government can attempt to sway the crowds using the potent sense of nationalism held by most, but no guarantees can be made.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/3356/mauritaniasignaturehz5.jpg