South African Border Wars

The first phase of Operation Modular has begun. 32 Battalion, the Recces and UNITA are facing 8 FAPLA Brigades in southern Angola, four of these have advanced towards Mavinga. As you hear last episode, FAPLas 21 and 47 Brigade of about 3000 men were on their way to the Lomba River, north west of Mavinga. Chief of the Army Lieutenant General Kat Liebenberg had written in his report before August 19...

The SADF was now facing a crisis as the MPLA government in Angola was growing increasingly determined to crush UNITA in the south east. The Apartheid government was also facing an internal uprising and new organisations had been developed to deal with these. In this episode we hear about Colonel Piet Muller who commanded Sector 20 in SWA. He had considered the threat posed by FAPLA which was now a...

We are traveling with 5 Recce and they are planning to attack the SWAPO base that was discovered by some systematic sleuthing by Koos Stadler and Jose da Costa as you heard last episode. The base was north of Tethamutete, east of the Cubango River - and from Menongue, heavily armed, a few hundred SWAPO cadres, perhaps as many as 350 were training at what was the Eastern Front HQ. The troops gather...

We’ve heard about the 1 Recce and 4 Recce and the covert war throughout this series, and at times, I’ve included the voices or the individual stories where possible. Unfortunately there is just not enough space and time to include everyone’s personal views or their memories. However, in this episode, I’m going to concentrate on two specific Special Forces members because they epitomize two differe...

It’s early 1986 and the SADF had learned a great deal through 1985, particularly what FAPLA were up to. In the time of the Joint Commission you heard about, both sides were actively collecting intelligence about each other - their operating procedure, their weaknesses and their strengths. After years of strategy and diplomacy, the protagenists in this war had moved firmly from attacking the oppone...

By January 1986 internal unrest in South Africa that had started in 1984 was in full swing – with the security forces hard pressed to cope. The SA Police were largely responsible for dealing with the ANC and PAC internally, although the SADF was going to get much more involved later. The unrest would barely calm down before the SADF was involved in a much bigger war in southern Angola, while speci...

It’s September 1985, and the SA Air Force and ground forces have already shot down two Russian helicopters and an Antonov transport plane. That was an attempt at slowing down an MPLA ground assault using it’s PLAN troops against UNITA at Mavinga. If you remember, this was the Angolans Operation Second Congress. On the 29th September, 32 Battalion ground team near Cuito Cuanavale radio’d the SA Air...

By mid-1985 air traffic between Lubango on the Atlantic coast and Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola had grown exponentially. Since the railway line running east had been rendered useless by UNITA, the MPLA was relying heavily on transport planes to get their logistics to the front. Daily flights of the Soviet Antonovs could be seen carrying troops and material to Menongue in support of the MPLA’s...

We’re picking up where we left off in Episode 79 with Captain Wynana Du Toit captured, two Recces dead, and six others hiding in a coastal thicket surrounded by FAPLA intent on capturing or killing them. Operation Argon in 1985 was one part of a two-punch with the plan to send nine operators were heading to oil storage tanks at Cabinda enclave – they’d been dropped off by a submarine but had ended...

Last episode we covered one of 32 Battalion’s darkest days, the mauling they received at the hands of SWAPO on 11th February 1985, where Charlie Company walked straight into one of the better prepared SWAPO bases after taking what some say was a short cut. The death toll on the South African side was heavy, 13 soldiers from 32 Battalion’s Charlie company died either during the firefight or of thei...

We’re traveling with 32 Battalion’s Echo and Golf companies which had entered Angola and were deployed in pseudo-operations – something called Operation Forte was on the go in 1984. When we left off, the convoy of vehicles had headed directly north and were heading towards Savate about 50km into Angola. Colonel Eddie Viljoen led this unusual operation. It was early September 1984 and after crossin...

By the second half of 1984 the Joint Monitoring Commission was virtually on its last legs and the SADF Special Forces were involved in a number of missions both by sea and across the cutline. The first we’re going to hear about was an the audacious plan to blow up Angolan railway rolling stock, including locomotives at the shunting yard at Lobito in Benguela province on the Atlantic Coast north of...

It’s 1984 and the special forces have been busy as you heard in the last episode. The waterborne operations were on the go, but so too were ops into southern Angola with 32 Battalion changing its colours so to speak. They began to patrol the area dressed in SWAPO uniforms, so much for the SADF’s promise to adhere to the terms of a Joint Monitoring Commission where they’d promised to pull all their...

This is episode 75 and we’re covering events in 1984 where various issues had arisen. The South Africans and the Angolans had been jointly patrolling southern Angola in what was supposed to be the preamble to peace in Namibia. But the Joint Monitoring process had failed by July 1984 with SWAPO continuing to occupy the southern region of Angola, and the South Africans continuing to supply UNITA. Th...

We just finished hearing about Operation Askari, and a quick note. I said that the Eland armoured would no longer be used for cross -border operations after Askari, but that’s incorrect. A listener who was on board an Eland much later in 1987 explained how he was part of an operation called Firewood, where the Eland was used to head across the cutline once more. Apologies for that, and thanks Ian...

Operation Askari has ended but not the recriminations. While on the surface the SADF gave off a great deal of positive propaganda, the loss of 21 men and equipment including three Ratels, and the haphazard manner in which the planning had taken place, was a sign that all was not well. The morale of the Citizen Force units was unacceptable said the permanent force officers – and they were right. 61...

The Battle of Cuvelai two was a blood letting of note, with FAPLAs 11th Brigade now bottled up in the town, with the SADF Task Force Victor and X-Ray on their doorstep. 32 Battalion had pulled off a bloodless takeover of Techumutete during the last days of 1983, which at the time was regarded as a momentous achievement. However, they’d also doomed some of the Angolans and South Africans because on...

It’s the first days of January 1984 and Operation Askari has hit a few hiccups. Task Force Victor failed to take Cuvelai in the first Battle for the town at the end of December as you heard last episode and Combat Team one had been mauled. Both Combat Team 1 and 2 retreated two kilometers north west of the town then turned and headed south west where they bivouacked about 17 kilometers away from t...

It’s operation Askari, and 61 Mech’s has fulfilled the first part of the plan, driving FAPLA out of Quiteve and now were approaching Cahama, which is 96 kilometers north west of Xangongo. This was going to be a tough nut to crack. FAPLAs second Brigade was ensconced in strongly fortified positions to the north and south of the town. The defenders had become used to SADF and SA Air Force attacks, i...

By November 1983 the SADF was prepping for the significant operation called Askari, and the Air Force was playing its part. The original plan was for the op to start on the 9th November but political negotiations had led to a postponement to the 9th December. Meanwhile, the SA Air Force had sent up their remotely piloted vehicle or RPV– in Xangongo under Major Jinx Botes. The aim was to monitor th...

By April 1983, SADF intelligence picked up that SWAPO had begun improving its military position in Angola and that their armed wing PLAN had managed a major incursion into Ovamboland. Then things went very quiet and intelligence reports suggested there seemed to be a link between SWAPOs special Unit being withdrawn, the signs of a large incursion into SWA which was to follow in 1984. At the same t...

By now, 32 Battalion had setup their HQ at Ongiva airport, a few kilometers outside the town, and 40 kilometers north of the cutline. But the Battalion was going to move their mobile Task force HQ further into Angola to Ionde as you’re going to hear and the signs were all there for what would become a pivotal year in the Border War. It was during this period that SWAPO would be driven out of much...

We heard last episode about Operation Meebos and the shooting down of a Puma with the loss of 15 men. The SADF was now determined to follow-up the company of SWAPO who’d been based near the Mui river and who’s Anti-aircraft guns had delivered such a potent message. The Alouette gunships were circling the area on that day in August, 1982, and they reported the location of a SWAPO section about 10 k...

We’re back in 1982 after a hiatus covering the seaborne operations and an update from the SA Air Force which had had a busy May as you heard in Episode 64. Things on the ground in SWA showed that SWAPO was almost fully recovered from the hammering they took during Operation Protea – their own Operation had killed three farmers and 8 security force personnel. 32 Battalion continued to carry out a n...

It’s 1980 and in February Robert Mugabe’s ZANU movement was about to win the first Zimbabwean election - managing to scape a small majority – they won 57 seats out of 100. Not exactly a landslide then. In April, Mugabe would officially be declared prime minister and the country would become independent from the United Kingdom. ON the 1st April, the Southern African Development Coordination Confere...