Battle of Lukaya

In 1971, Colonel Idi Amin launched a military coup that overthrew the President of Uganda, Milton Obote, precipitating a deterioration of relations with neighbouring Tanzania. Nyerere withheld diplomatic recognition of the new government and offered asylum to Obote and his supporters. He tacitly supported a failed attempt by Obote to overthrow Amin in 1972, and after a brief border conflict he and Amin signed a peace accord. Nevertheless, relations between the two presidents remained tense, and Amin made repeated threats to invade Tanzania. (pictured) aided Idi Amin's regime during the Uganda–Tanzania War. Uganda's economy languished under Amin's corrupt rule, and instability manifested in the armed forces. Following a failed mutiny in late October 1978, Ugandan troops crossed over the Tanzanian border in pursuit of rebellious soldiers. On 1 November Amin announced that he was annexing the Kagera Salient in northern Tanzania. Tanzania halted the sudden invasion, mobilised anti-Amin opposition groups, and launched a counteroffensive. Nyerere told foreign diplomats that he did not intend to depose Amin, but only "teach him a lesson". The claim was not believed; Nyerere despised Amin, and he made statements to some of his colleagues about overthrowing him. The Tanzanian Government also felt that the northern border would not be secure unless the threat presented by Amin was eliminated. After the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) retook northern Tanzania, Major General David Musuguri was appointed commander of the 20th Division and ordered to push into Ugandan territory. In-mid February, Libyan troops were flown into Entebbe to assist the Uganda Army. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi felt that Uganda, a Muslim state in his view, was being threatened by a Christian army, and wished to halt the Tanzanians. On 24 February 1979, the TPDF seized Masaka. Nyerere originally planned to halt his forces there and allow Ugandan exiles to attack Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and overthrow Amin. He feared that scenes of Tanzanian troops occupying the city would reflect poorly on the country's image abroad. However, Ugandan rebel forces did not have the strength to defeat the incoming Libyan units, so Nyerere decided to use the TPDF to take the capital. The fall of Masaka surprised and troubled Ugandan commanders, who felt that the defeat made Kampala vulnerable to attack. They mobilised additional forces and began planning for a defence of the city. The Uganda Army also showed first signs of disintegrating, as various high-ranking commanders disappeared or were murdered. One Ugandan soldier stated in an interview with Drum, a South African magazine, that "the situation is worsening every day and therefore our days are numbered". Meanwhile, the TPDF's 20th Division prepared to advance from Masaka to Kampala. == Prelude ==

The only road from Masaka to Kampala passed through Lukaya, a town to the north of the former. From there, the route continued on a causeway that went through a swamp until it reached Nabusanke. The swamp was impassable for vehicles, and the destruction of the causeway would delay a Tanzanian attack on Kampala for months. Though the TPDF would be vulnerable on the passage, Musuguri ordered his troops to secure it. The TPDF's 207th Brigade was dispatched through the swamp to the east, the 208th Brigade was sent west to conduct a wide sweep that would bring it around the northern end of the swamp, and the 201st Brigade under Brigadier Imran Kombe was to advance up the road directly into the town. The 201st consisted almost entirely of militiamen, many of whom had not seen combat. However, the unit was bolstered by a battalion of Ugandan rebels, led by Lieutenant Colonel David Oyite-Ojok. A plan to destroy the causeway was presented to Amin in Kampala, but he rejected it, saying that it would inhibit his army's ability to launch a counteroffensive against the Tanzanians. He also believed that with Libyan support the TPDF would soon be defeated, and thus destroying and then rebuilding the causeway later would be unnecessary. According to diplomats, Amin initially planned to make a defensive "last stand" at Mpigi, a town located south of Kampala and north of Lukaya. On 2–4 March, the Uganda Army defeated a rebel attack during the Battle of Tororo, heartening Amin. Along with his commanders' urgings, the victory at Tororo persuaded the President to order a counteroffensive. On 9 March over a thousand Libyan troops and about 40 Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) guerrillas belonging to Fatah were flown into Uganda. They reinforced the about 400 PLO militants who were already in the country. The Libyan force included regular units, sections of the People's Militia, and members of the Pan-African Legion. They were accompanied by 15 T-55 tanks, over a dozen armoured personnel carriers, multiple Land Rovers equipped with 106 mm (4.2 in) recoilless rifles, one dozen BM-21 Grad 12-barrel Katyusha rocket launcher variants, and other large artillery pieces, such as 122 mm mortars—and PLO fighters, to recapture Masaka, and a force assembled for the purpose at the northern edge of the swamp between Lukaya and Buganga. The Libyan and PLO commanders drew up plans for a counteroffensive in great secrecy due to fears that the Uganda Army included illoyal elements. With the exception of Amin, the Ugandan military leadership was informed of the battle plans only just before the operation began. Lieutenant Colonel Godwin Sule, an Ugandan paratrooper commander, was placed in charge of the operation. The PLO fighters were integrated into the Ugandan units, with Colonel Hamdan co-commanding tank and infantry forces, while Major Erekat assumed command of part of the artillery. The Libyan troops were briefed about the operation at Mitala Maria. Radio Uganda announced the counteroffensive's beginning at noon on 9 March, while the Ugandan forces present in Lukaya withdrew. ==Battle==

10 March (example in Libyan service pictured) and M4A1 Sherman tanks during the Battle of Lukaya. On the morning of 10 March the TPDF conducted a light bombardment of Lukaya, which had been deserted by the populace. The 201st Brigade then occupied the town to await crossing the causeway the next day, and they began to dig trenches as a precautionary measure. The Tanzanians and the Ugandans and Libyans were unaware of each other's positions. In the late afternoon, around three o'clock, The tanks on the Masaka road were instructed to advance and open fire on the Ugandan and Libyan positions. Their drivers were hesitant to do so without infantry support, so Musuguri dispatched one of his officers to the area to ensure that the order was carried out. Volunteers were recruited from the 201st Brigade to infiltrate Lukaya through the swamp and gather intelligence. Overnight the situation was dominated by confusion; the Ugandan-Libyan-Palestinian force and the TPDF's 201st Brigade were disorganised, and troops from both sides moved around in the darkness (there was no moonlight) along the road and in the town, unable to differentiate between each other. In one incident, Oyite-Ojok was leading a band of Kikosi Maalum (KM) fighters down the road when they heard other persons talking in Swahili. Oyite-Ojok and his group assumed they were allies, but then one of them said in Luo—a language not spoken in Tanzania, "Just wait until morning and we'll crush these stupid Acholi". Oyite-Ojok instructed his men to open fire, but in the dark they were unable to verify if they had struck anybody. The Tanzanian patrols were largely unsuccessful in verifying the Ugandan-Libyan positions, so their tanks' fire was ineffective. Over the course of the night eight Tanzanian soldiers and one KM fighter were killed. 11 March The 208th Brigade reached its flanking position at the Kampala road at dawn on 11 March and began the counterattack. The regrouped 201st Brigade attacked from the front and the 208th from behind, thereby putting great pressure on the Ugandan-Libyan force. His death prompted the collapse of the Ugandan command structure, and the remaining Ugandan troops abandoned their positions and fled. ==Aftermath==

Casualties and losses The Tanzanians later reported that 7,000 TPDF and Ugandan rebel soldiers participated in the battle. The Tanzanian government press claimed that two battalions of about 2,000 Ugandan soldiers were "annihilated". The historians Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz concluded that "after the Battle of Lukaya, the Uganda Army de-facto collapsed and ran". Sule was one of the Uganda Army's most competent commanders, and his death had a detrimental impact on the force. After the engagement, many Ugandan commanders withdrew from the front lines. After the victory there and the eventual success at the Battle of Sembabule, the TPDF held the strategic initiative for the rest of the war. Despite the favourable outcome, Tanzanian commanders felt that the Battle of Lukaya had been waged disastrously; had the Ugandans and Libyans pushed beyond the town after occupying it, they could have retaken Masaka and driven the TPDF out of Uganda. On 13 March Tanzanian Junior Minister of Defence Moses Nnauye and Musuguri met with veterans of the engagement to find out more about what happened. Those who had retreated from the Libyans expressed that they were stressed and wanted to be given a month's leave from the front line. Nnauye told them the war was too important for this to be done, as it would be detrimental to the TPDF's operational capability. The 201st Brigade was subsequently reorganised so that its ranks were no longer dominated by militiamen. Course of the war Shortly after occupying Lukaya, the TPDF launched Operation Dada Idi, and in the following days the 207th and 208th Brigades cleared the Kampala road and captured Mpigi on 28 March. Ugandan and Libyan troops fled away from the front line towards the capital. Meanwhile, Ugandan opposition groups met in Moshi. They subsequently created the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) as a unified umbrella organisation and established a cabinet. The successful formation of the UNLF government eased Tanzanian concerns about the aftermath of a seizure of the capital. Despite his troops' failure at Lukaya, Gaddafi further reinforced Amin with large amounts of equipment and 2,000 members of the People's Militia. The personnel and materiel were brought into Entebbe's international airport in a regular airlift. The PLO also sent a last batch of reinforcements, 75 guerrillas under the command of Mahmoud Da'as, to Uganda. Da'as divided the Palestinian fighters into two groups. One took part in aiding the defence of Kampala, whereas the other prepared evacuation routes through northern Uganda to Sudan. In early April Tanzanian forces began to concentrate their efforts on weakening the Ugandan position in Kampala. Tanzanian commanders had originally assumed that Amin would station the bulk of his forces in the capital, and their initial plans called for a direct attack on the city. But from the high ground in Mpigi they could see the heavy amount of Libyan air traffic over the Entebbe peninsula and a large contingent of Ugandan and Libyan soldiers. Musuguri ordered the TPDF to secure the peninsula, and on 7 April the 208th Brigade captured it. Many Libyan soldiers tried to evacuate to Kampala but were intercepted and killed. Tanzanian commanders then began preparing to attack Kampala. Nyerere requested that they leave the eastern road from the city leading to Jinja clear so Libyan troops could evacuate. He thought that by allowing them to escape, Libya could avoid humiliation and quietly withdraw from the war. Nyerere also feared that further conflict with Libyan troops would incite Afro-Arab tensions and invite armed belligerence of other Arab states. He sent a message to Gaddafi explaining his decision, saying that the Libyans could be airlifted out of Uganda unopposed from the airstrip in Jinja. Most of them promptly vacated Kampala through the open corridor to Kenya and Ethiopia, where they were repatriated. The TPDF advanced into Kampala on 10 April, taking it with minimal resistance. Combat operations in Uganda continued until 3June, when Tanzanian forces reached the Sudanese border and eliminated the last resistance. The TPDF withdrew from the country in 1981. Legacy The Battle of Lukaya was the largest engagement of the Uganda–Tanzania War.{{cite book| title = The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal| volume = 109 == Notes ==