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Some people asked in Replies as to why the Turkish Armed Forces and Police operated the BTR vehicle series, so I decided to do a short look at some of the weaponry Turkey acquired from former East German stocks in the 1990s.
لمحة من الماضي القريب، كتب سامر القسيس:
قبل انفجار اليوم الكارثي، كنت اتكلم مع صديقي Marsh Gelbart في بريطانيا الذي شكرني على كتبي التي وصلته اليوم ، وهو من أهم الخبراء في العالم في مجال الاليات العسكرية في الشرق الأوسط.
كتب هذه الكلمات عن كتبي ونحن نعيش مصيبة كبيرة .
هذا هو قدرنا، نواجه الازمات بالأفعال الكبرى ونتحدى الموت والخطر كل يوم .
شكرا مارش غلبرت .
Thank you Marsh Gelbart
I rarely do book reviews but will make an exception for this, Military Vehicles in Lebanon 1975-1981, by Samer Kassis.
Just as I have always turned to books by Michael Maas and Robert Manasherob, when wanting more information on Israeli AFVs, I now rely on books by Samer for the Lebanese perspective.
Samer has produced a great, historical photo record of the different military vehicles used by the Lebanese army and the myriad competing militias, during one of the most turbulent periods of Lebanon’s tortured history. The book details the various AFVs and soft-skins, used not only by the bewildering number of private armies and militias, but by the Lebanese army. In addition, there are interesting photos of foreign military vehicles operated by the Israeli and Syrian army.
The photos in the book have not been published previously to the best of my knowledge. Some of them, taken by amateur photographers, lack may lack clarity. However, this is more than compensated for by their sense of immediacy and the fact that they have never been seen before. I highly recommend purchasing this book if you have an interest in the history of the Middle East and military vehicles.
I think Samer has produced a fascinating historical overview of military vehicles in training and combat. Thanks to his generosity, I now have a copy of his beautifully produced and highly detailed book 30 years of military vehicles in Lebanon. I am looking forward to reading this even more comprehensive and detailed work
Egyptian Army T-54E (T-54, in this case T-54A upgraded with West German-built AEG-Telefunken XSW-30-U infrared/white searchlight and Yugoslav-built Iskra laser rangefinder) during the Yom Kippur War in October of 1973.
Lebanese Armed Forces have shared a photo of an unexploded US made GBU-39 Small Diameter bomb reportedly dropped in the suburbs of Beirut by the Israeli Air Force.