Ztum - Setum Online News

The only independent source for news on the wars in Ztumsia/Setumsia and the surrounding area.

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1/11/82

ZOGs launch daring raid on WARTZ supply depot

WARTZ Marine Corps and GORFs suffer heavy casualties as they fail to trap ZOG column.

A raiding column of ZOGs captured the WARTZ (Western African Republic Trans-Ztumsia) supply depot at Xangongo this week, capturing several tanks and armoured cars and large amounts of miscellaneous stores. Having destroyed all equipment that they could not carry away and setting fire to the depot the ZOGs found their withdrawal route blocked by WARTZ-Marine forces reinforced by a GORFs column. These troops were easily brushed aside by the religious fanatics whose morale was sky high after the success of their raid. The ZOGs made it safely back to their stronghold in Setumsia's Nannan Province with several captured armoured cars and tonnes of supplies carried on WARTZ-Marine lorries..

Losses to the WARTZ and GORFs forces were heavy. The WARTZ-Marines lost a large number of tanks, while a company of the Legion Etranger from the GORF column was destroyed when ZOG Ghost Warriors stormed a fortified outpost dominating a crucial road junction. ZOGs losses were smaller, but still significant - several tanks, including several Centurions they had captured at Xangongo, and some technicals.

It seems likely that the ZOG raiders had inside help as many of the the depot garrison were incapacitated at the time of the raid and were unable to put up a fight. WARTZ security police are working on the theory that a ZOG agent or agents poisoned the troops by putting a JuJu Berry derivative in the garrisons water supply.

Legion Etranger troops from the GORF column defend their strongpoint. This fortified barracks was the critical point on the battlefield.

The Legion are supported by WARTZ Marine Corps tanks and a GORF Super Mystere jet. A Centurion tank captured in the ZOG's raid on Xangongo can be seen at the bottom right of the picture. It was destroyed along with several other tanks shortly after this picture was taken.

Large numbers of ZOG tanks, armoured cars and technicals destroyed the armour supporting the legion who were badly shot up by long range fire before they were finished off by this charge of the ZOG's Ghost Warriors

Analysis: Our military correspondent believes the ZOGs are weaker than they appear.

The raid on Xangongo looks initially be a demonstration of ZOG strength, but it may in fact have been an indication of their long-term weakness. Their daring raid, which involved highly mobile troops in a lightning dash across hundreds of miles of unfriendly territory, was most likely made made with the aim of capturing modern armoured vehicles to replace the ageing vehicles of WWII vintage they have relied on until now.

Our sources in their Nannan heartland suggest that these vehicles are breaking down with increasing regularity and that significant numbers have been lost in recent fighting with PISSOF and the ZITs (See recent issues of Ztum-Setum Online News). The major local powers, in particular the ZSA Alliance, are wary about providing modern weapons to these religious fundamentalists, even though the ZOGs are engaged in a fierce struggle with the ZSA Alliance's own long-term enemies.

On their day the fanatical Ghost Warriors, on whom the ZOGs rely for their infantry strength, and the large numbers of technicals they manufacture in local workshops can make their columns formidable fighting forces. But the fact remains that without armoured vehicles to back them up these troops are extremely vulnerable.

The long-term survival of the ZOGs as a power outside their mountain fastnesses in the Nanaan hinterland depends on them being able to source new armoured vehicles. The question is, will anyone supply them?.

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