Military fans and friends know that the defeat of the US military in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 is called "Black Hawk Down", which is also a very rare major defeat of the US military in Africa. Recently, Russia's Wagner armed forces have also experienced a major defeat in Africa, because in this Wagner defeat, a Mi-24 helicopter nicknamed "Hind" was shot down, so perhaps this Wagner armed defeat can be called "Hind Fall". Moreover, it is worth noting that compared with the U.S. military that collapsed in Somalia more than 20 years ago, Wagner's performance this time seems to be far inferior to that of the U.S. military back then.
So, why did the brave and combative Wagner armed forces "capsize in a small river ditch", and why is Wagner's performance "inferior" to the US military? In this issue, let's compare Wagner's "Hind Fall" in detail with the "Black Hawk Down" of the U.S. military that year.
First, let's review the process of Wagner's defeat in Mali. According to what is known so far, this matter is roughly like this:
Wagner has a deep cooperation with the Malian authorities in Mali, and there are many nomadic tribes in the Tuareg desert in northern Mali, which have been at odds with the Malian authorities, and have formed an armed group called "Azawad" in an attempt to "stand on their own" and break away from the control of the Malian authorities in Bamako, Mali, which of course the Malian authorities and their partners, the Wagner armed forces, do not allow. Therefore, in this case, Wagner decided to dispatch a small number of elite troops to launch an attack on this "Azawad" together with the Malian Army, which is the general background of Wagner's "Hind Fall".
However, this time, Wagner is likely to be too underestimated and overly supportive (which is very similar to the time when the US military was in Somalia), and only a few dozen people were dispatched with a group of Malian troops to drive directly over. And just like that, they also went all the way along the road directly into the Mali-Algeria border area in northern Mali, which is no longer the territory of the Malian authorities, and any shepherd on the side of the road may be the eyeliner of the "Azawad" organization. This actually laid the groundwork for the defeat of the Wagner forces.
Sure enough, soon the members of the local "Azawad" forces launched attacks on the convoys of Wagner and the Malian Army, and the "Azawad" forces were clearly prepared, and soon organized thousands of people (some say thousands) to launch a large-scale attack on Wagner, and soon formed an overwhelming advantage over dozens of Wagners and hundreds of Malian Army.
Although Wagner is indeed brave, in the case of the opponent's absolute superiority, it is difficult for individual bravery to change the outcome of the battle. So, Wagner hurriedly asked for help from the rear, and reinforcements did come. Malian authorities and the Wagner Group each sent a Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship to the scene, ready to provide fire support to the trapped Wagner and Malian army and pick up the wounded. As a result, what people never expected was that it stands to reason that the local tribal armed forces should quickly panic when they saw such a "big guy" as a helicopter gunship, but they did not expect that these people not only did not drop their weapons and fled, but also directly counterattacked them - using individual shoulder-fired missiles to successfully shoot down a Mi-24 in one fell swoop, and wounded another. Moreover, after the other plane was injured, it had to find a place to make a forced landing, and the forced landing operation also failed, so the two "Hind" helicopters that went to the rescue this time can be said to have "fallen".
At this point in the battle, there is actually no suspense. In the end, the Wagner forces were defeated, the Malian army was scattered, a large number of Wagner members (some say dozens, some say dozens) Wagner members were killed on the spot, and even one of Wagner's important high-level personnel, the famous "Lotus" - Elizarov was unfortunately captured.
To sum up, no matter from which point of view, this "Hind Fall" was a very humiliating defeat for Wagner, not only the loss was very large, but even a legend like "Lotus" was captured, and it was indeed very faceless from the results.
If we look at the results alone, 30 years ago, in 1993, the performance of the US military in Somalia was actually far better than Wagner's. The "Black Hawk Down" in 1993 was considered by the U.S. military to be the biggest defeat since the Vietnam War. At that time, the US military took advantage of the remnants of Saddam's huge million-dollar Soviet-style mechanized army in the Gulf War, and did not pay attention to the local armed forces in Somalia at all, which is somewhat similar to the current Wagner mentality. As a result, the U.S. military back then, like Wagner this time, only dispatched more than 100 people, and drove into Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, on a Humvee.
As a result, the arrogant US troops also encountered strong resistance from the local armed forces, and the armed forces in Mogadishu immediately mobilized at least several thousand troops to attack the US troops after learning that the US troops were so "crazy." Immediately, more than 100 U.S. troops surrounded Mogadishu's urban jungle by thousands of lightly armed local tribesmen, killing 19 and capturing one.
If we only look at the casualty comparison of Wagner's "Hind Fall" and the US military's "Black Hawk Fall", the US military's performance is indeed much better than Wagner's. After all, the situation faced by both sides is similar, both are caught off guard by the number of local African forces that are far more numerous than their own, and even because of the fact that after 30 years, many of Wagner's technical equipment are better than the US military. However, if we analyze carefully, we can see that there are many reasons why Wagner suffered such a big defeat this time and seems to be inferior to the US military.
First of all, there is a big difference between the operational environment of Wagner and the US military. From what is known, the area where Wagner was attacked this time was in the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, and Wagner had almost no shelter and no terrain to use except for the light armored vehicles he drove to. In the endless flat desert, even if Wagner has the ability to reach the sky, it is difficult to use it, and for the "Azawad" forces on the attacking side, they only need to dump ammunition on the convoy.
On the contrary, the U.S. military was able to hold out in Mogadishu because of the complex urban terrain that could be used as cover in the middle of the city. In the urban terrain, no matter how large the number of people, in the actual battle process will become a squad-to-squad battle (thirty years later, the huge number of Israel Defense Forces lost to Gaza for the same reason), and because of this, although the Somali Aideed armed forces have a numerical advantage, but they cannot play a role, and eventually fight with the US military individual soldier quality, and the Somali armed individual soldier quality is obviously inferior to the US military, which is an important reason why the US military seems to perform far better than Wagner.
The second is that Wagner did not prepare a reinforcement reserve, or the reinforcement reserve could not come up. One of the biggest reasons why the U.S. military was able to escape from the concrete jungle in Mogadishu without suffering greater losses was that the U.S. military's follow-up reinforcements were quickly dispatched to meet the U.S. troops. After the US troops were trapped in Mogadishu, they immediately organized a large number of rescue troops, including the well-equipped 10th Mountain Division of the US Army, and the Punjab Regiment of the Pakistan Army, which participated in the peacekeeping of Somalia with the US troops at that time.
In contrast, this time Wagner is completely "alone", except for two weak Mi-24 helicopters, there is no trace of the ground heavy troops. Just imagine, this time Wagner held out all night under disadvantaged conditions, if the Malian Army or Wagner's troops could send even hundreds of reinforcements at this time, then the result is likely to be very different, and even give these "Azawad" forces a "counter-encirclement", and finally succeed in turning defeat into victory is not necessarily impossible.
Finally, there is another factor, which is that the "Azawad" forces are likely to receive help from Ukraine. This is basically an "open secret", and now the so-called "Ukraine military advisers" have been circulated on the Internet with the "Azawad" armed group photo, and these people also generously displayed the flag of Ukraine, the "Azawad" armed forces after capturing Wagner members also said that they would hand these people over to Ukraine and so on. Therefore, the author believes that perhaps it is these Ukraine "advisers" who have suppressed and trained the "Azawad" armed forces to a certain extent, and they have not "dropped the chain" at the critical moment.
Therefore, it can be seen from the above that the performance of Wagner's armed forces this time is "not as good" as the US military at the time of the "Black Hawk Fall" in 1993, in fact, there are many subjective and objective factors, and it is unscientific to deny Wagner's combat effectiveness on the basis of one thing alone. Now there is news that at present, Russia and the Wagner armed forces are mobilizing troops from Central Africa, Burkina Faso, and Libya to Mali to prepare to "find the field", and there is even news that the Russian army in Syria has signs of mobilization. The next northern part of Mali is likely to become a "sub-venue" for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and we will wait and see.