At the age of 27, Muammar Gaddafi overthrew an entire oil kingdom in two hours, and his rebel command vehicle was a tiny Volkswagen Beetle.

In the summer of 1969, Libya was ruled by 79-year-old King Idris I, a frail monarch who had just abandoned the country to soak in mineral baths and get medical treatment in Turkey and Greece.

Back home in the barracks, a 27-year-old army signals captain named Muammar Gaddafi saw his opening.

Together with a small circle of about 70 junior officers calling themselves the ‘Free Officers Movement,’ he launched a secret plot named Operation Jerusalem on the morning of September 1, 1969.

Because Gaddafi worked in the military’s signal corps, he knew a fatal weakness in the kingdom’s defenses: whoever controlled the radio waves and telephone lines controlled the country.

In just two hours before dawn, his small rebel units surrounded the royal palaces, cut off military communication hubs, and seized the main radio stations in Tripoli and Benghazi without a single major battle.

There was just one embarrassing problem when it came time for the new leader to rush to the Benghazi radio station to announce the revolution to the nation.

Gaddafi didn’t have a tank or an armoured presidential limousine, so he hopped into his personal, beat-up beige Volkswagen Beetle and drove to the microphone.

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For days after the broadcast, foreign intelligence agencies and Libyans alike had no idea who was actually running the country because the young officers kept their identities a complete secret, ruling from the shadows as an anonymous ‘Revolutionary Command Council.’

When, much to NATO’s horror, 27-year-old Gaddafi finally stepped into the public eye and promoted himself directly from Captain to Colonel, he turned that humble Volkswagen Beetle into a sacred relic of the state by mounting the tiny car on a marble pedestal so citizens could worship the vehicle that toppled a monarchy.

Could you imagine waking up to find out your entire government was just overthrown by a 27-year-old driving a Volkswagen Beetle?

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