War in Angola - The Final South African Phase - Helmoed-Romer Heitman
War in Angola - The Final South African Phase - Helmoed-Romer Heitman
Publisher: Ashanti Publishing Limited
Date Published: 1990
Publication Place: Gibraltar
First Edition: Yes
ISBN: 9780620143707
Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition, with a small discolouration mark to the head of the book-block. The DJ has some edge wear and several, small fixed tears but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.
In August 1987 South Africa sent a force into south-eastern Angola in support of Unita. The last South African soldier crossed the Kavango to return to South West Africa on 1 September 1988, this force had irrevocably changed the strategic situation in the region.
The South African force was originally intended merely to halt an impending offensive by the Angolan Army (Fapla) against Unita base areas. This was ultimately stopped on 3 October 1987 when the 47th Brigade of Fapla was destroyed on the banks of the Lomba River. South Africa then decided to extend the operation to prevent a renewed offensive in 1988. The intention was to gain time for new political developments to take effect in the region. To that end they drove the Fapla forces back to their jumping-off points and created the most formidable minefield barrier in Africa in recent years in a bid to hinder any future operations by Fapla.
In the process, South Africa and Unita inflicted a serious defeat on Fapla and their Cuban and Russian advisers, with the result that the strategic situation in south-western Africa was totally changed. Moscow and Havana were faced with the reality that their Angolan surrogates could never hope to defend themselves against Unita; a fortiori when backed by the powerful South African military establishment. Further expansion of their own military participation would be expensive and politically embarrassing. Having considered their options they decided to seek a negotiated settlement instead.
The South Africans were in south-eastern Angola for twelve months, with a weak brigade of never more than three thousand. The campaign that followed shifted the future of the region from the battlefield to the negotiation table. It accomplished in less than 12 months what years of intensive diplomacy had failed to achieve; the future of the region was now to be settled by word rather than by shot and shell.
These operations in 1987 and 1988 in South Angola were an excellent example of Von Clausewitz’s definition of war as a tool of politics. A determined and carefully scaled increase of force had ended a quarter-century of conflict.
The operations of this campaign offer much of military interest. Perhaps the best known aspect is the remarkable use that the South Africans made of their artillery. The 155mm G-5, with a range of forty kilometres in particular, dominated the battlefield throughout the campaign: it inflicted severe damage on Fapla, hampered their tactical and logistic movement, pinned down brigades for attack by South African mechanised forces and Unita infantry, and made the important air base at Cuito Cuanavale unusable. It is not widely known that the Mirages and Buccaneers of the SAAF flew 782 strike sorties against Fapla brigades and their supply routes with the loss of only two aircraft. They did that in the face of some of the most modern air defence equipment in service anywhere and a large number of MiG-23s.
This fighting also saw the first operational use of the Olifant, a modernised version of the Centurion battle tank. Several of the latest South African weapons underwent operational testing in this fighting: the Seeker RPV, a new anti-tank missile, and the ‘smart bomb’ that destroyed the bridge at Cuito.
Helmoed-Römer Heitman has written widely on defence matters for South African, British, American, German, Austrian and Australian journals. He is the author of South African War Machine and A Concise Guide to South African Arms and Armour. He has an MA in war studies from King’s College, University of London and BA and BSocSci (Hons) degrees in economics and public administration from the University of Cape Town. As a Citizen Force infantry officer his present appointment is to a planning post at Defence Headquarters. Previous assignments include duty as a staff officer with 71 Brigade, with the headquarters of Western Province Command and a period of detached duty with HQ Sector 40 of the SWA Territory Force in Windhoek.
