Talk:Rhodesian Armoured Corps

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quotation sans attribution?[edit]

Odd that the mass of the article seems to be from page 6 of http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/quartz.htm

"The Rhodesian T-55 Tanks"

134.67.6.14 (talk) 19:09, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

French freighter lie/myth/distortion[edit]

The person who claims that the T-55 tanks the Rhodesians acquired were being transported on a French freighter cites a source that never mentions the word France or French, indeed the source cited clearly states that the T-55s were being transported on a LIBYAN freighter. Furthermore it makes absolutely no sense that the French would have Warsaw Pact tanks in their possession, let alone eight such tanks, and that they would be attempting to ship them to Mozambique. Furthermore the inaccurate and uncited statement that the tanks were headed for Uganda should be removed, as they were headed for Mozambique. The ship captain mistook Durban for Maputo and that is how the ship was seized by the South African authorities.

To address this issue for future comments: the ship was a French freighter, the Astor, if I'm not mistaken. The flag and country of register doesn't mean much these days, but that's precisely what it was - a Libyan freighter sailing around the Cape of Good Hope would have likely attracted much more unwelcome attention, given that Gadaffi was selling arms to all of South Africa's perceived enemies in bulk: SWAPO, the ANC, Angola, Mozambique, etc. So the Libyans used a French captain and a French facade. No different from South Africa using Israeli freighters and Israeli captains to get them embargoed parts for their Mirage aircraft.

The statement that they were headed for Uganda has also been sourced, accordingly. They were originally supposed to be sent via the Suez Canal, but for obvious reasons most of the Libyan traffic of this nature at the time was being diverted. --Katangais (talk) 18:13, 27 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]