Place of origin Rhodesia Used by Rhodesia
Zimbabwe | In service 1978 - present Length 6.6 m | |
Type Armoured personnel carrier Wars Rhodesian Bush War
1981 Entumbane Uprising
Mozambican Civil War
Second Congo War | ||
The MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier is a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean 4x4d heavy troop-carrying vehicle (TCV) first introduced in 1978 based on a Mercedes-Benz truck chassis.
Contents
History
The MAP45 Armoured Personnel Carrier (‘MAP’ stands for mine and ambush protected in Rhodesian military jargon) was developed in 1977-78 by the Rhodesian Army Workshops as a light version of the MAP75 TCV. Production started early in 1978 at Army Workshops but in order to meet the increasing demand, manufacture was contracted out to the Rhodesian private firm Zambesi Coachworks Ltd of Salisbury (now Harare).
General description
The MAP45 consists of an all-welded body with a cut-down troop compartment built on a modified Mercedes-Benz 4.5 ton Series LA911B truck chassis. Adapted from the MAP75 TCV, the open-topped hull or ‘capsule’ is faceted at the sides, which were designed to deflect small-arms’ rounds, and a flat deck reinforced by a v-shaped ‘crush box’ meant to deflect mine blasts. Three inverted U-shaped low ‘Roll bars’ were fitted to protect the fighting compartment from being crushed in case the vehicle turned and roll over after a landmine detonation. Due to the shortened top hull, their reduced height presented less of a problem since it did not hampered movements inside the troop compartment as in the MAP75.
Protection
The hull was made of ballistic 10mm mild steel plate; front windscreen and side windows had 40mm bullet-proof laminated glass.
Armament
Rhodesian MAP45s were usually armed with a FN MAG-58 7.62mm Light Machine Gun (LMG), sometimes installed on a locally-produced one-man MG armoured turret to protect the gunner. Vehicles assigned to convoy escorting duties (‘E-type’) had a Browning M1919A4 7.62mm medium machine gun mounted on an open-topped, cylinder-shaped turret (dubbed ‘the dustbin’). For ‘externals’ twin Browning MG pintle mounts were sometimes fitted, placed behind the driver’s compartment. The Zimbabwean vehicles after 1980 sported single pintle-mounted Soviet-made 12.7mm and 14.5mm Heavy Machine Guns (HMG) instead.
Variants
Combat history
The MAP45 TCV soon became a popular vehicle among the elite units of the Rhodesian Security Forces – including the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR), the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), and the Rhodesian SAS – who employed it late in the war in their cross-border covert raids (‘externals’) on ZIPRA and ZANLA guerrilla bases in the neighboring Countries, such as the September 1979 raid on the ZANLA's New Chimoio base in Mozambique (Operation “Miracle”). After the war, the converted MAP75s went to serve with the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) forces in Mozambique during the Mozambican Civil War, guarding the Mutare-Beira oil pipeline from 1982 to 1993.