Eyewitness Report

An interesting article to read is the excellent eyewitness report found on Pierre Bayle’ s blog about key dates in the modern history of Lebanon. The author’s personal journal covers a period of time between the 14th of September 1982 till the 11th of October of the same year. The journalist exposes the facts which happened those days as well as his personal experience. The text is supported by a very nice number of photos taken within this period. Some of them are the following:

A remnant of the Battle of Beirut, a toyota Land Cruiser BJ43 armed with an SPG-9 belonging to a Lebanese Leftist militia

IDF Magachs in Ain El Maraysseh sector next to the Hotels.

IDF Merkava Is in front of the PLO offices in Beirut.

Another view of the same vehicles

An IDF M579 and Bardehlas in front of Cadmos Hotel, Ain El Maraysseh sector

Another IDF Bardehlas

An IDF Bardehlas next to the Lebanese Ministry of tourism, Hamra sector.

IDF vehicles in Beirut Seaport, note the rarely seen M725 Ambulance. A Pikoud and an M151A2 can be seen on this picture.

An M113 of the Italian Battaglione San Marco of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.

An Italian Bergeleopard 1 of the MNF

French VABs of the UNIFIL/MNF in Beirut.

When an Italian Fiat AR76 Campagnola meets a French Hotchkiss M201 in Beirut.

An US Marines M274 Mule of the MNF

A US Marines LVTP-7A1 of the MNF

A Lebanese ISF Harley Davidson FLH next to French MNF troops.

Lebanese Army M113 next to the old Moscow Narodny Bank building, Hamra sector.

Other views of the same Lebanese Army convoy. Vehicles are M35s, Dodge D600 and M113s

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A Lebanese Army M113 of the same convoy

Lebanese Army M113 of a Defense Brigade in the Ring sector.

A Lebanese Army Dodge D600 truck

the URL of Pierre Bayle’s blog is : http://pierrebayle.typepad.com/pensees_sur_la_planete/septembre-82-beyrouth.html

Other pages of his blog covers the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 as well as the First Gulf war in 1991 with magnificent photos as well.

“A Summer of Fire in Lebanon”

For French language readers here is a recently published book written by General (2s) Alain Pellégrini, Commander of the UNIFIL from 2004 till 2007:

Un été de feu au Liban

2006

Les coulisses d’un conflit annoncé

The book relates on a daily base what happened during the 34 days war in southern Lebanon. The author describes in a clear narrative way the details of the asymmetric war. General Pellégrini, being the first hand witness tells us everything, from how all that actually began with the Hezbollah ambush  and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers till what happened after the crisis, with the introduction of a new order in southern Lebanon. Someone can read in details  the conflict progress from day to day, the unknown actions of the peacekeepers to help south Lebanon people, the hidden strategies of the belligerents, what Israel really wanted, what was actually doing the Hezbollah, new combat tactics and unexpected losses and victories. Some nice testimonies on Lebanese soldiers are available as well. The book reveals also how major countries react to such crisis and how the UN  resisted to the pressure to withdraw UNIFIL.

A must have book written by a French military known to be one of the best connoisseurs of Lebanon A man approached by the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, as soon as elected, to be one of his advisers after having discreetly advising the Lebanese armyduring the battle of Nar el-Bared in northern Lebanon in spring 2007 .

More details on the book are available in French on the editor’s webpage:

http://www.guerres-et-guerriers.com/un-ete-de-feu-au-liban