And it gets better, with the moment you guys have been waiting for:
A WAR ON THE STRAITS: DAY 4: JULY 20TH 2002
Today the tide turns. Despite their air superiority and some isolated victory like the one at the Battle of Congress Island, the Spaniards have been losing ground under the steady pressure of the Moroccan army. Alhucemas and Velez fell on surprise strikes. Melilla was surrendered to prevent civilian deaths, and the defenders of Ceuta are exhausted and falling back towards the sea. The Spanish army has needed two days to prepare his men and the fleet for a full fledged invasion of Morocco. But, finally, everything is ready. As outlined in Plan Blue, at dawn, preceeded by a large naval and air bombardment, tanks, soldiers and marines will land in northern morocco and hopefully push the invaders south. Meanwhile, in the Western Sahara, the Polisario is about to backstab the Moroccans in a desperate push to achieve freedom for the Sahrawi people…although they’re actually working for Spain’s hidden interests.
0.00AM: The Russian freighter Rostov becomes the last civilian ship to cross the Strait before closure is official. The Spanish fleet is already taking positions. Task Force Serrano is already in front of its landing area west of Ceuta while Task Force Prim is still heading for its final position. [Generals Prim and Serrano lead the Spanish army in the first Morocco war in 1859-60]
In Rabat, the Moroccan leadership is awaiting the invasion. Their only hope to win the war now is to push as deep as possible into Ceuta before the invaders can hold a big beachhead. What remains of the Moroccan airforce will be sacrificed if necessary. However, they have failed to predict the true scale of the Spanish attack. The Spaniards have decided to drop two days worth of missiles in only 4 hours in a not very large area already very punished by constant bombardment. It will be Shock And Awe… at the limited scale the Spanish resources allow.
In Washington, Moroccan diplomats have finally managed to convince the US government that they have nothing to do with the Madrid bombings. Surprinsingly, the Spanish diplomats confirm their counterparts’ claims.
In the Berm, the Polisario soldiers are deploying for their surprise attack. In the Moroccan side of the wall, the now reduced Moroccan garrisons, mostly made up of conscripts and unexperienced soldiers, are in alert in case the Polisario is up to something, but they cannot suspect that the Sahrawis are about to start a full attack, not that they have somehow managed to get antitank and antiair weapons, nor that they somehow have gotten precise, up-to-date maps of the Moroccan deployment and the minefields that border the Berm.
In America, people is staring at the TV’s, ready to witness history’s first amphibious invasion in prime time.
In Ceuta, night doesn’t stop the combat. The availability of night combat gear gives a certain advantage to defenders, but they’re too outnumbered to effectively stop the attack.
In Spain and Morocco, almost nobody sleeps tonight. While the Spaniards mourn the dead of the last morning terror attack on Madrid, people meets at bars and houses to witness the invasion live.
0.30AM: Spanish special forces teams are inserted via light boat in Moroccan territory. Their task is to designate targets for the bombardment and cause as much mayhem as possible in the Moroccan rear guard.
1.AM: Task Force Prim (two Pizarro class amphibious ships escorted by frigates and patrol boats) has reached its position southwest of Ceuta. Fighting inside the city is clearly visible since there.
At the Strait Air Command bases planes start to take off…
At Gando, more planes take off for a very risky mission that will push them to their combat range limit.
1.15AM: Admiral Barberá gives authorization to start the bombing as the planes are arriving.
1.16AM: The entire Spanish fleet starts firing over the Moroccan coast without further warning. The primary targets of the bombardment are coastal positions around the landing zones, transportation hubs in the rear zones and especially command positions and supply depots. The Spanish know that they will be hopelessly outnumbered so they want to face an enemy as unorganized as possible.
Observers on civilian ships describe the view as “morbidly beautiful”. The image of a missile hitting an ammunition depot near Tangiers, producing an enormous mushroom cloud in the clear summer night, becomes another of the media icons of the war.
In Spain, despite the mourning for the terror attacks, the reaction to the attack is scarily similar to the one after La Selección scores a goal at an important match.
1.25 AM: The airforce joins the bombing attacking specific targets deep inside the Moroccan rear.
1.27AM: the Moroccan commander for Northern Morocco is killed when a missile salvo blasts his command bunker near El Fendek.
In Rabat, the reports are extremely worrying. Not only are the Spaniards throwing amazing amounts of High Explosive into the Moroccan positions, but they have managed to damage the Moroccan chain of command.
1.50: The planes off Gando reach the African coast south of Tarfaya, flying at very low height to avoind being detected by any remaining Moroccan radar.
2.15AM: Spanish planes attack a Moroccan command post next to the Berm, while other planes use missiles to attack the wall itself.
2.30AM: at both invasion fleets, soldiers and tanks start being hurried into the landing boats. The bombardment has lowered intensity since the first wave of planes is heading back to airbase while the second has yet to arrive.
In Rabat, every effort is now being made to retrieve communication with the front. This will lead the Moroccan strategists to make some fatal mistakes dismissing reports of other attacks in the Western Sahara giving greater priority to any operation in the North.
In Ceuta fighting resumes after some minutes of chaos. The situation kind of mirrors the one in Perejil 3 days before, but at a much bigger scale.
In the Western Sahara, fight breaks loose when Polisario units attack Moroccan positions with mortar fire and light rocket launchers mounted on pickups [the Polisario used those with great success during their war with morocco in the 80’s. They were called “the poor man’s Tank”] . Polisario soldiers cross the Berm at several places, avoiding the minefields. What Sahrawis will call Third War of Independence has just begun.
2.45AM: First reports of something wrong going in Western Sahara arrive to Rabat. Fortunately for the Polisario, they are dismissed as the activity near Ceuta claims all attention. Reports about Spanish planes striking that far south are also dismissed.
3AM: the Polisario spearhead has crossed the Berm after destroying several Moroccan outposts. Instead of a single push towards Smara and El Aaiun, the sahrawis know that they are too few and lightly armed to wage a conventional war,so they will resort to good old hit-n-run guerrilla warfare. To counter the Moroccan air superiority, they can now rely on their brand new AA equipment, occasional Spanish air support and the fact the Moroccan airforce will be pinned down and hopefully destroyed in the north.
5AM: after 4 hours of continued missile raining, the bombing ends.
Spanish paratroopers land near the invasion beaches, at the villages of Dar el Kerroub, Afersigoua, Fahama and Aaliyine. [You can check all those names in Google Earth, I’m not making them up.
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6AM: 72 hours after the war began, the first troops from the Spanish Marine Corps land at Mendieta Beach supported by Pizarro APC’s and helicopters. They find no resistance and advance inland to get to the important Road 416 that links Ceuta and Tangiers. [The landing beaches have codenames after Spanish football players. For the sake of the timeline, let’s assume this is the small beach next to the village of Ksar-El-Srir. Use Google Maps in hybrid mode to see it clearly]
6.15AM: shortly after, a 2nd landing takes place at Casillas Beach 5 miles north of Mendieta Beach. This beach is protected by a pier, so Leopard Tanks can be safely landed. The invaders find some heavy resistance here.
6.25AM: The Spanish helicopters and tanks make an easy job of the defenders at Casillas Beach and seize the small port while advancing south towards the road.
6.30AM: first, confuse news of the landings arrive to Rabat.
More landings take place at Puyol Beach, assigned to Task Force Prim, south of Ceuta. [Puyol Beach is the long beach at the village of Restinga, in the Mediterranean side of the Straits] The Moroccans had accurately predicted that this beach would be scenario of a landing, but their forces have been crushed by the bombing.
At H+1 hour, the Spanish army has around five thousand men in Moroccan soil, supported by tanks and helicopters and holding 3 small beachheads around Ceuta that expand slowly while more soldiers are poured onto the beaches. They’re facing an enemy that greatly outnumbers them but that has been decapitated by the initial Spanish bombardment. Time is running out for the Moroccans.
Meanwhile, chaos has broken out in Western Sahara, with the cities going in Intifada mode and the Moroccan garrisons and MINURSO blue helmets completely overwhelmed by the situation and the swift polisario attack.