Reply With QuoteThanks for posting. Never knew Egypt was involved in Yemen.
North Yemen Civil War - Egypt's Vietnam?
The North Yemen Civil War is perhaps one of the lesser known conflicts in the West but its scale and complexity make it an interesting subject of study. I am specifically interested in the Egyptian participation in the war on the side of the Yemen Arab Republic and the reasons behind its failures and substantial loss of life (approximately 26,000 Egyptian dead). Author Kenneth Pollack's analysis of the conflict in his Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 highlights several triumphs and failures on part of the Egyptians.
Egyptian involvement in the civil war began in 1962 and would last until 1967 when Nasser was forced to withdraw troops on account of the Six-Day War with Israel. At the height of Egyptian involvement it had approximately 70,000 men in theater and, highlighting one strengths of the Egyptian effort, were adequately supplied via the logistics train. As one of Egypt's first and only "overseas" wars this was an impressive accomplishment (when the material could actually get to the men in the field after arriving in Yemeni ports). Another accomplishment of the Egyptian force was the Ramadan Offensive of 1963 that was able to capture several Royalist settlements and scatter Royalist forces to the North. However this "success" highlights one of the ultimate failures of the Egyptian war effort.
The Ramadan Offensive was a successful conventional military operation but the Egyptians were not facing conventional forces. They were never able to develop an effective COIN strategy and because of this the gains of the Ramadan Offensive were ultimately illusory. The Royalist forces may have been scattered but they were not killed in large numbers and were eventually able to formulate more effective strategies in dealing with the Egyptian forces.
Other Egyptian failures included poor performance of the lower ranking Egyptian officers, lack of coordination of Egyptian forces due to the mountainous nature of Yemeni terrain, and misunderstandings on how to effectively practice combined arms warfare. Eventually the Egyptians would resort to such drastic measures as chemical attacks against Royalists towns. Pollack describes the Egyptian failure as primarily tactical and not strategic.
Do you agree? Were these weaknesses in Egyptian forces in particular or in Arab forces as a whole at the time? Would a better understanding of COIN have changed the outcome of the conflict or would the weakness in lower ranking officers derailed even an effective COIN strategy?
Thanks for posting. Never knew Egypt was involved in Yemen.
They were and were up to use CW in order to quell the unrest.Thanks for posting. Never knew Egypt was involved in Yemen.
To answer your questions first you have to remember that Egyptian army was a huge heavily centralized army WarPac style. It is simply not possible to think about a different way of organizing the whole thing. The weakness in lower ranking officers was (and still is) always the problem of arab armies. Arab armies are often scourged by clientelism, political loyalty and lack of intiative at lower levelsDo you agree? Were these weaknesses in Egyptian forces in particular or in Arab forces as a whole at the time? Would a better understanding of COIN have changed the outcome of the conflict or would the weakness in lower ranking officers derailed even an effective COIN strategy?
Second point is that modern COIN was not existing at that time in armies others than old european countries that had to fight colonial wars. Warpact didn't have the experience for that, arab armies didn't had the experience for that. Given that the formation of most of arab armies was done by warpact countries i can't see how it could have been better for the egyptian army.
Do not want to hyjack... but lots of conflicts are relatively unknown, unless you particpated, or know people who participated in them. For instance... I wonder how many people know the details of the war in Angola, UNITA, Joseph Savembi, the SA rangers ... against a 50,000 man Cuban expeditionary force including air, armor etc.
Sort of. The Egyptian armed forces of the early 1960's were a mixture of Warsaw Pact and western equipment. Likewise the officer corps was a mixture of Soviet and British trained (although the British side of things seems to have been along the lines of the pre-war Colonel Blimp).Originally Posted by Mordoror
But certainly counter-insurgency operations were not something that they were trained for.
I was aware of the conflict and the Cuban involvement but then again I tend to have an interest in lesser known conflicts. It is for that reason that I post about them. Here is another conflict that is rarely discussed in the West if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_war
Absolutely. Yemen prior to its military coup of the 26th of September 1962, was a retarded Kingdom ruled by the Tyrant EMAM ahmed hammid El deen. The man was the last rulers of Hameed El deen family which ruled Yemen since the year 900 AC.
These rulers kept the country one of the most retarded states in the world. They ruled Yemen with a mixture of religious & tribal power. As the tribes form the majority of the population, the rulers bribed the tribes leaders continuously with money & gifts to assure their loyalty to them.
The military coup of the 26th of September was established by officers who got the a chance to gain their education from the few missions that were sent to IRAQ in the fifties. The Yemen republic was declared.
When they declared the republic , the EMAM & his son fled to Saudi Arabia to collect their power & arrange to restore their authority. The majority of the Yemeni tribes declared support for the Emam. It was expected that the tribes led by the Emam would attack the capital in few weeks & would prevail.
Under these conditions, the Yemeni coup officers called Nasser of Egypt to support them & defend their new republic. Nasser responded positively by sending his troops to fight a 5 years war. The republic was saved.
.Wrong numbers. The losses were 6000 no killed & around 10,000 injured.
.The Eg troops reached 55000 no in 1965.
.Yemen war fulfilled its targets which were :-
1- Saving the Republic & the termination of the Hameed El deen family rule.
2- Setting Southern Yemen military resistance organizations against the British occupation. Under, the Saladin coded operation, the Southern yemeny resistance groups that were supported by the Eg troops at north Yemen, launched an independence war against the British in Eden starting from the 14th of October 1963. Independence was gained on 1968.
Accordingly, this Egyptian involvement has maintained its targets even with the negatives that may shape some of the military performance.
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