Battle of Dire Dawa
The Battle for Dire Dawa were a series of battles that took place since 17 July to 17 August 1977 between Ethiopian Armed Forces and Somali Armed Forces near the town of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and adjacent to the airfield of the same name during the Ogaden War. For the first time since the beginning of the war, Soviet and Cuban military assistance was provided to the Ethiopians. Somali forces were defeated for the first time during the war. Battle. The first attempt to storm the Dire Dawa by the Somalis was made on July 17  at 04:30 with attacking forces totalling three mechanized battalions. The attack was repulsed at the cost of 79 Ethiopian soldiers dead; Ethiopians estimated the loss of Somalis twice as high. As a result of the attack, Somalis breached the Dire Dawa airfield destroying an F-5E aircraft of the Ethiopian 9th Air Force with an RPG. The second phase of the assault was launched on 17 August 1977, with Somalian forces totalling a Infantry battalion and 32 tanks. On the outskirts of the city, three Somali tanks were destroyed by mines. Somali tankers managed to pass the Ethiopian resistance and break  through to the airfield near the city, during the assault the entire airfield was damaged as well as the flight control tower. Nine aircraft were destroyed and at least one more damaged, one Ethiopian M-41 tank and a fuel storage facility were destroyed as well. Ethiopia began an emergency transfer of reinforcements from Harar consisting in more militias, tanks and gun-mounted BRDMs, but only massive Ethiopian air raids were able to stop the Somali tanks, destroying 16 T-55s. Losses. During the assault on the airfield, ten Ethiopian aircraft were destroyed: one Northrop F-5E, eight Saab B 17s piston dive  bombers, and one T-28 Trojan. A civilian Boeing 707 was also damaged. An Ethiopian M41 light tank was also destroyed. According to the Ethiopians, the Somalis lost during the battle 21 of the 32 T-55 tanks involved. As proof, the Ethiopians showed Western media journalists 11 wrecked Somali tanks, some of which were abandoned because they were stuck in the mud. Other vehicles lost by attacking Somali forces were thirty military trucks, five armoured personnel carriers, three BM-13 launchers and a howitzer.