Episode 109 - A Bosbok survives a missile near miss as both the SADF and the Cubans gear up

Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me your host Dez Latham, this is episode 109. We left till last week hearing that the Cuban 50th Division had been moving towards the South-West African Border. A clear message to Pretoria that Fidel Castro was no longer going to tolerate the losses that he and Pablo had endured in southern Angola. All this as the South Africans, Cubans and Golands Americans and Russians were negotiating the future of Namibia. Time was running out. And in particular for a small group of men, a platoon, if you like, it was going to take the brunt of a meg bombing close to the Colquidam just across the Cutline. Sent to deal with this threat was Commodan Jan Hohot, who by now had discovered that the biggest threats seemed to lie around the small town of Tejipa around 50 kilometres inside Angola. Besides thousands of Cuban soldiers, it had also begun to sprout radio antennas in what appeared to be anti-aircraft positions. Because the South Africans were stretched so thinly, the South African depensable's top bros could only send 500 soldiers who were planned assault on the town all 3 to battalion men. The idea was to send a second conventional force which would be set up and moved to Rokana for much larger incursion. This duty fell on 61 Mac, its weary men now slightly recovered out of a bit of Ahranara back in South Africa. And the equipment was repaired, in particular the battered tanks. There was no other conventional battalion posted in Avambaland and the order came for the battalion to get ready to move once more. The Cuban threat had led the SCD to call a general mobilisation of citizen force troops, and our general Janik Halenhaus was prepared to go full PR. The Rokana falls hydroelectric scheme was in danger, and the Cuban build up on the lower reaches of the Kanani River meant this strategic point needed protecting. This single scheme powered most of Namibia, while it also sent water to Avambaland. It was not going to be an easy task, by now thousands, some say at least 10,000 and possibly as many as 11,000 Cubans had shifted South. Mini within 55 kilometers of the Katlan, in the West and Theatre, around Tachipa. There were also around 2,000 Swapov fighters alongside the Cuban Allies. Facing these were just 500 members of 32 battalion initially. Shortly after June the 9th, 1988, Hocha sent the first three companies across the Colquered Bridge on board 10 Macidi's Unimogs. They were armed with 81mm mortars, 14.5mm machine guns, and their 106mm recoilless guns. These were the only real protection from Cuban D55 and T64 tanks. Hocha wanted to avoid a direct scrap with a large Cuban army. These three companies were going to conduct guerrilla operations to harry the Cubans, blowing up the infrastructure, mining the roads, and trying to target Swapov in particular. I told them just maintain the situation until 61 Mac gets her, said Hocha. The three were split, two headed off up the conenny towards Tachipa, the third north-easterly to the area just south of Zangonga, where it was thought the main Cuban assault would be launched. They were the early warning. The Cubans were in fact going to do just that. The Cubans had started deploying in the classic Russian style conventional approach with their own company supported by a dozen tanks. These would move south as close as 12km from the Colqueredam and Reurkana. The artillery laying down a barrage ahead of the movement to chase away any South Africans then to push forward with migs in support. By now the Cubans were driving between Tachipa and Zangonga in single vehicles, sometimes jeeps, sometimes just a diesel tanker. They were obviously no longer afraid of the SADF in this part of Angola after so many years of being forced to conduct large convoys. The Cubans were sending one or two companies ahead of these assault groups, who were digging a few kilometres ahead of the main body, and three two battalion reconnaissance picked up these point trenches quite quickly. Hochak was upset that the Cubans and the Angolans were running around in the bush so openly. It was time he said to "Rath them up". The commandant had no idea that his order was going to lead to a marathon run for some of his men through the Angolan semi desert. The companies outside Tachipa reported that there were two main Cuban outposts south of the town, one to the west, the other to the east. There was a dirt road between the outposts that headed south and after consulting company Commander Captain Maurice Devanish, Hochak decided to prod the south-western outpost first. They had received a little mortar fire just to warm them up, then three two would monitor the road, hoping that reinforcements would be sent from Tachipa and Devanish's men would ambush them. Three two moved into position during the night, 90 men in Unimog, along with two 81 millimetre mortars, two heavy machine guns and one of the 106 millimetre recoilers guns. It was early June, a cold morning awaited, but soon the mortars were in position, ready for action. Moments later, five Cubans sappers were spotted walking along the nearby road, sweeping the surface with mine detectors. The three two section heard vehicles in support of these men, but decided to shoot them anyway in one sustained burst. Missed later, Fuplar Company ran into view and the small sections stood up and attacked the enemy, shooting as they went. Things were waited against three two, however, because armored cars could be heard nearby, and the assault was stopped dead in its tracks, then the three two men turned to escape the danger. They radioed their mortars, which had been set up around two kilometres in the rear, asking them to open fire, and they dropped a curtain of shells in an arc around the retreating three two section, which was now sprinting back to the Unimog. A BRDM burst from the bush, and three two shot dead its Cuban commander as he stood in the open hatch. The other BRDM's withdrew, and at that moment the South African soldiers heard the tanks. What they hadn't realized was that there was a third Cuban outposts, and the South Africans had started their mortar-backed assault less than a kilometre from this position. It was heavily defended, now they were caught in open country. It was at this moment that their sprint was going to turn into a marathon. Punishers ordered to his men on the trot was to make it to the Unimogs, track the equipment in the back, particularly the all-important radios, and then high-tail it out of there. There were being attacked by two groups of tanks, around 20 and all, zeroing in on them from two different directions, but somehow they made it to the Unimogs and threw the gear in the back of one. The driver took off as the men began to swing themselves aboard, but then drove straight into a whole dug-bar water. The second Unimog plowed into the back of the first, and that was that their transport was damaged beyond repair as the second radiator was pulverized. Leave the vehicles was the call, run for it. The Unimogs were in fire as they fled, Devonish hoped the radios would be burned to a crisp before the Cubans got their hands on this vital device with its co-s and frequency hopping technology. The first inkling ho-hard had about badly things had gone wrong, was after Devonish had run his first ten kilometres through the Sandy Bush and then radioed an update. Dead update was interrupted by the arrival of a T-55, Devonish ran off again, and the next call was later that afternoon, but then he'd been running for quite a few hours. Ho-chot was worried, how many men were dead, how many had escaped? He knew how much propaganda had emanated from your hunt, pop-ups was being wounded, and then wheeled out in the Havana, he didn't want another man going through this humiliation. Pretoria's politicians were going to have a cadenza, they cared less about the soldier and more about the bad press that were going to receive. At least 11 men were missing, according to Devonish, 11. This was terrible, where they alive, wounded Ho-chot. By the end of the day, Devonish had outrun the Cubans despite their tanks and tracks. Quite a feat. But the South Africans had been at the receiving end of what they used to call a contact, where Swapper would be detected, and they would run through the Bush trying to escape from the SDF Special Forces tracking them down with buffels and caspers and choppers. The worm had turned. One piece of good news, Devonish was now joining his fellow Marathon runners, who told him that no one had been seen going down, it appeared all three two men were alive. Ho-chot then fixated on the equipment tossed into the back of the Unimogs, hopefully the stuff was melted and burnt out. Devonish reported, he tracked back and found the Unimogs were gutted, nothing was left, but he didn't know is that the Cubans had already found some of the equipment. A boss walk light plane was ordered up, their spotter aircraft, nothing could be seen, no sign of the missing men. The end of the first six arrived at dawn the following morning, still carrying the weapons, but down to only a handful of rounds. They had fought their way out, a miracle really. Five others walked into the Reurkana base that night, exhausted but unscathed. People had run the equivalent of a marathon in their quest to avoid being shot up by T-55s and B-I-D-M's. The original plan to move on to Chippa was shelved after the South Africans ordeal, and now it was back to poor war tactics of hit and run. They'd start with the outposts, take them out one by one and hopefully using their mobility avoid being trapped as the Cubans sent their powerful mechanized forces south from Sangong or in response. Cat and mouse was back. But Ho-Hot and the SDF didn't know was what was waiting for them and it was going to be a big shock. As usual, first things first, time for the Reckys to head into the area to gather intelligence about what lay on the road east of T-Chippa. The Reckys were duly sent out and radioed back with some news. They had seen large missiles glistening in the sun alongside the road, but had no idea what these were. Commander Dick Lord, South African Air Force Head, was adamant that these had to be taken out as marigers and impolars would be in danger in the coming assaults around Tachiba. The reggae's were told to help direct the first bombing run on the missile systems at seven the next morning, using flares and marker beacons. Remarkably, the men crept into position during that night and placed their markers despite the heavy presence of Fuplar and the Cubans. It was early the next morning that Lord radioed Hohart with some bad news. It was too dangerous to bomb this missile system. The migs were flying all over the show and he was calling off the salty. Then a sort of communication and strategy mismatch took place. After telling the reggae's to put out their beacons and return to base, Lord contacted Hohart saying they'd be back that night for an attack. But now the reggae's had switched off their high power radios and Hohart could no longer reach him. If you could fly onboard a boss book climbed to higher altitude, you may just be able to reach these reggae's on their smaller low power radios. Lord gave permission and Hohart joined the boss book pilot who'd received strict instructions to stay below 1,000 feet and not to stray too far north over the Angolan border. Both orders were going to be disobeyed with an almost disastrous result. They flew below 1,000 feet into Angola roughly 20 kilometers across the cut line from Rheukana, no sign of the reggae. Although Hohart sitting alongside the pilot was trying every frequency he could. Nighthead fallen. He was reading the codes by torchlight and yelled, "Man, go higher for god's sake or we wasting our time." They climbed above 1,000 feet, a GL, and close to 30 kilometers into Angola. When in the dark, the pilot shouted he'd spotted a flare. It wasn't a flare. It was a surface to air missile that had been fired at the boss book. Curving into the air, then turning and flying straight towards the aircraft. The pilot dived straight down and the binoculars and torched smashed into Hohart's face as the G's turned everything upside down. It screamed over their head, missing by around 20 meters, making a giant, frushing sound, and then headed over Rheukana where it exploded, breaking windows and causing consternation. The pilot wasn't quite a bit of trouble, courtesy of Hohart's insistence on flying higher and further. But the Mirage and the pilot attack was cancelled. The Sam gang on the ground was alert, and the near miss had shaken up the SA Air Force top-cross. Still, the attack was rescheduled for the next morning, although quite how they thought this was going to be possible with everyone now wide awake down there. I don't know. The poor boss book pilot had no rest. He was ordered back up the following morning. Now Hohart was joined by three two battalion intelligence officer Captain Hermann Mulder. They made contact with everyone, the SA Air Force, the backup units, but not the forward wrecking group. Hohart again ordered the pilot higher, apparently he hadn't learned his lesson. Apparently the pilot hadn't either, because he followed the order. Still, they thought they were facing Sam III's, which had a much more limited range, but they were wrong. By now the first two impolars had taken off from Ondungwa, and their boss book had climbed above 4,000 feet, flying east into the sun, when they spotted a flash from the edge of a shunner about 35 kilometers away. They thought it was a windshield of a car, said Captain Mulder, to author Fred Bridgland. Next moment I saw a blue welding flare which seemed to hover above the ground for a second, then it was coming in our direction like a streak of lightning. Mulder yelled a warning and for the second time in 24 hours Hohart experienced aerobatics as the boss book went into a vertical dive. The missile missed, the equipment bounced off everything and the flares they were carrying pierced the canopy, cracking the glass. It was the hand of God that saved us, said Mulder, more like the hand of the pilot. They landed shortly afterwards, everyone trembling. The pilot was in for another bulking. Meanwhile, the impolars were forced to break off their bombing run. When the SAF was completed its analysis, they realised that the boss book and their impolars weren't flying against Sam 3's. They were taking Sam 6's far more advanced weapons that were long-range up to 60 kilometers. They could fire well into a vumberland if the Cubans chose to do so. They could aim at the SA Air Force aircraft in South South Africa. The impetus and tech war had shifted to favor the Angolans. This was clearly not a position from which the SAF could easily recover. It was imperative for the South Africans to get rid of these missile systems as they had early in the war in Kahama during the preamble to operation Pratir, for example. Easier said than done. While this was going on, the Cubans were analysing the intelligence they gathered from the captured SEDF vehicles and concluded that the South Africans were planning a major attack on Tachipa. The actual attack was to take out the surface to air missiles, but once again, the SEDF was hedging if the Cubans retreated to Tachipa, the SEDF would have followed up. Fidel Castro's 50 division and the Foupler Allies spent much of the next few weeks into June 1988 reinforcing the defenses around Tachipa. They laid more mines, built bunkers, and dug anti-tank barriers, which had worked so well against the South Africans and Unita around Guido-Quanavali during Operation Packer. There was also a buildup of Cuban forces around the town and aggressive patrolling by Svalpa and Fidel forces to establish the positions of the South Africans. There was something else being put together. Castro planned an operation consisting of two parts. In the first, a two-pronged attack would be carried out. The one thrust from Zangongo to capture Kormato, then a three-column advance from Tachipa to capture Kalkrei and to be joined by forces that had gone through to Kormato. That moved to the second part, which was an air attack on Rilcona if Tachipa came under pressure from the SEDF. Castro sent a highly secret memo to both England and Russia explaining this coming operation. The South Africans were busy. On 30th of May, in the 1st of June, operational instructions for Operation Hilti were released to the officers who were planning South Africa's invasion. The app was renamed Prone Later, the development of a conventional and counter-insurgency plan for Northwest South Africa and Southwestern Angola. The instructions also called for a subphase, called Operation Exit, to regain military control of South West Angola about August 1988. Following Operation Exit, Operation Faction would begin, its aim, the restoration of SEDF influence, and all areas of dispute within three weeks. The last app was called Florentine. As usual, it would be the installation of UNITA in the area of dispute, as HQ called it, and to support them against a far-planned Cuban attempt to retake the area. On 27th of May 1988, Brigadier Chris Serfentine was appointed 1-0 SA Division Commander, while Colonel Roland De Frist was appointed his Chief of Staff. These SEDF plans were like a mechanized woodpecker, same idea, repeated over and over. The plan would make use of 1-0 SA Division, as well as elements of the SA Air Force, the SA Navy, operating off the Angolan coast, and the insertion of SA Special Forces deep in the far-planned Cuban area. To counter the immediate threat of the Cuban advance to the South-West African border, the 1-0 SA Division T moved to South-West Africa on 7th of June 1988, and that was two operational headquarters at Oshikati. It worked on the blueprint for the next ten days. General Keldinase ordered 61 mech to mobilize immediately across the Canany River, at Co-Gradam towards Tejipa. Mark Müller and his mechanized units had recovered from the battering at Tumpo, spending four weeks in May, reconditioning their outfit. The plan was formulated to send the SEDF's all-important Ulyfun tanks across the dam and deeper into Angoda to deal with the Sam Threte. The hitch was a low-level bridge that lay west of the wall could only take the weight of a rattle and then only just. It would crumble under the weight of the heavy Ulyfun tank. It was also rowed along the top of the dam wall, and that structure was deemed strong enough, but the wall had put paid to the plan of building approaches on both sides. Müller intended sending his entire force into Angoda in one batch overnight, so these approaches had to be built somehow and quickly. The Cubans had got wind of what was going on, and they expected some kind of SEDF response. Too far field engineer Squadron was called in, the team that had been based on the eastern theatre of operations, they were highly experienced in laying mines and building bridges, digging trenches and bunkers and mines sweeping. They would use bulldozers to create earth-ramp ramps up to the dam wall, but this was a job to be completed at night, to make it more difficult to collect intelligence. But it also meant the sound travelled further, and would have been monitored by the Cubans or Foupler. Still, they were hoping this would possibly escape notice, and the South Africans began building the ramp immediately, pushing sand and earth against the dam wall during the night, then hiding the large bulldozers and graders during the day. The HQ for 1-0 division, now in Ushikati, began to look at the order of battle, and the order of battle included one tank squadron of 11 Ulyphons, as part of 61 Mech, four science-3-2 battalions, along with 81 armoured brigade. That was large, including a G-2 battery armoured cars, anti-aircraft sections, engineers, signolers, medics and a field worker. 71 motorised brigade was comprised of two mechanised infantry companies made up of the Cape Town Highlanders, field regiments, signolers and medical platoons, a parabbat battalion group of three companies, one-zero artillery brigade and reserve. On the other side, the Cuban 50th Division was led by Brigadier General Bâtrescio de la Guardia Front, and made up of three special forces battalions known as Spetsnas, three tank battalions of around 110 tanks, and artillery regiment, six infantry regiments of up to 2,000 men each. Three! Cuban and Swapo raiding battalions and missile air defense batteries, including a range of Sam's, with more than two dozen helicopters and about the same number of MiG-23s. The SADF was going to be surprised by the organization that faced him, but as you'll hear next episode, peace moves were well on the way and this 23 year long war that had killed so many was not going to last much longer. Please rate the podcast on iTunes, it helps raise the visibility of the series. If you want to contact me, you can head off to the website abwarpodcast.com. There's a contact form on the homepage or direct message me on Twitter @dislay. Until next, first page. [MUSIC]