Episode 51 – Xangongo the target as Operation Protea begins and the story of a freak smoke rocket shot

Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me, your host, T.S. Leifin, this is episode 51. The air strikes on the targets for Operation Protea have ended and now the mechanized units will begin their move on the targets, Zangonga and Pupil. Three two battalion has already cleared the bunkers and trench positions in the north of Zangonga as you heard last episode. The taking westward on the northern flank of Battlegroup 2-0 was Battlegroup 4-0 and a command of Commandant Dion Ferreira. They were to far through the most northern Fubler defences at Zangonga and capture the old Portuguese fort, overlooking the river. The fort was situated on high ground with an excellent view of the critical bridge across the Kineni River and the main road leading from Humbé into Zangonga. Remember control this fort could influence the course of the battle with direct fire, small arms and short range mortars. The high ground at the fort into the south of the main road adjacent to the river were important tactical features either for defense or attack. And it included a high rise water tower just to the south of the main road next to the river which was an excellent observation post over the tower. The South Africans left its standing book as they were going to use it. This high rising stretch of ground adjacent to the Kineni formed the most western edge of the Zangonga defenses. Later on Battlegroup 1-0 would use the river and the high ground in combination for the defense of Zangonga once it was taken. The small town of Pupu 10 km to the north also nestled alongside the Kineni River and Battlegroup 3-0 was due for a stiff fight there. It was in Pupu that Fumler could deploy half a dozen T-34 tanks which were intercepted though as they started heading south to intervene in the battle for Zangonga. The Angolans at Pupu were defeated in large quantities of enemy stock and ammunition were captured. However it took two days of fighting for SAD of Battlegroups 2-0 and 4-0 to secure Zangonga. Dipponon's 2-0 battlegroup began to storm the trenches from an easterly position but found them empty at first. The Airstrike had shaken Pupler and Plan and they had moved into concentrated areas further to the west and to the south. The SADF objectives were focused on Pupler's deep layers of defenses to the south and at the airfield. Remember the South Africans had initially begun the assault from the east and the north as well as the north west not from the south which was what Pupler and Plan had expected. While the Angolans were quite aware that a large SADF invasion was imminent before Operation Portia, there had no idea exactly where the first assaults would begin. To the south of Zangonga, Fapler had laid a system of defensive minefields, calculating that a deliberate attack would come from there. The layouts of the phalanxes of interlocking trenches and reinforced concrete bunker systems faced the wrong way. The imparletes had already attacked anti-aircraft sites around Pupu with rockets. Then they focused on the time of Humber which we heard last episode was seized by the SADF shortly after it. As the mechanized units moved forward, machine gun and AK-47 fire increased until suddenly, the chatter of a single Soviet 23mm anti-aircraft gun stopped Battle Group 20 dead in its tracks. This weapon was extremely effective in the hands of a trained crew and that's what faced the SADF at this moment. Two pairs of Mirage 3's were scrambled to attack these pockets of Fapler resistance including the anti-aircraft gun holding up to zero's progress, but the first pair only took over to 1400 hours 30 and that was to try and take out the 23mm gun. That was more than 40 minutes after the ground assault had asked for help and Commodan Dippinar was angry about that and somewhat disappointed when the Mirages missed their target. As 2-0 sheltered in place, troops watched the AA gun traverse in fire of rounds, bouncing across the felts and through the bush, then swirled to fire at the SAAF's Mirages and even a spotter plane. Twenty more minutes elapsed before a second group of Mirages attempted to take out the single target once more they failed. Flying around overhead was a boss book spotter plane piloted by Captain Donny Lobcher who thought he could lend the hand. They say ignorance is bliss because he thought he'd be flying towards a 14.5mm anti-aircraft weapon far less accurate and less effective than the 23mm. As related by historian Leopold Skoltz, South African Air Force Mobile Air Operating Team leader Spaker Jakobs asked Lobcher to see what he could do. Lobcher arrived to witness another attack on the gun by Mirage and realized that the flammies, as they were known, the jet pilots were shooting blind and the rockets were missing the gun by hundreds of meters. Lobcher knew that the forward air controller or FAC wasn't sure where the target was, so the boss book pilot decided he had intervened by firing a smoke rocket at the 23mm. These are extremely inaccurate devices that travel at a leisurely 120 knots. Adding insult to injury, the boss book rocket missed the spot. Lobcher tried once more and missed once more. The Mirage's were diving in at over 400 knots and the rockets were landing all over the felt as we watched from our vantage point down below. The 23mm was on a slide rise and had an excellent view over the flatland above. It was growing into a big problem, the 23mm would have caused multiple casualties had it been attacked head on what to do. Above, Lobcher was circling at 6,000 feet, the 23mm ignored him for the moment focusing on the ground forces. He had four smoke rockets left and at first was thinking about firing all simultaneously, but that would have created even more confusion on the ground, so instead, Lobcher put the boss book into a steep dive determined to head directly at the gun. There was a moment of madness really, this weapon tears tanks and rottles to pieces and how he was diving point blank into its position. He survived the dive, fired the rocket and pulled up. Later he said, looking back at the target, I noticed that the smoke of the rocket was coming out of the pit where the act was deployed. Lobcher then confirmed to the Mirage's that the smoke was spot on the target, but he had no idea that his little smoke rocket had killed the crew. When the South African ground forces arrived at the 23mm position, they found the gunner sitting in his chair with a 68mm hole through his chest where the smoke rocket had entered. It was a freak shot. Lobcher told Skoltz off to the wall that the SAA force wanted to quote Marshall him for putting his plan in danger, while the army wanted to give him a medal. He said the army won the debate. He was awarded the honorous crux. It was now two and a half hours after the attack had begun and battle group two zero were way behind time. As the mechanized force moved towards their targets, they took out three more 23mm guns and three T-34 tanks. The troops were on foot now, conducting fire and movement attacks effectively advancing until all resistance ended. They seized control over the airfield, but SAADF casualties were also increasing. The bunkers were stormed and cleared along with the trenches. Then the SAADF moved into town. The heavy fighting had slowed two zeroes approach, and battle group three zero was ordered to reinforce Stepanar, whose own reserve force had already been deployed. By dusk, battle groups two zero and four zero were in control of most of their positions around Zangonga. Two hundred, fapler and plan had died, and three South Africans. More than a dozen or three two battalions men had also died have been wounded in the assault, although the exact number remains disputed to this day. It was now time to push cautiously towards the Konenny River, clear the area of possible enemy remnants, and then consolidate the position for the night. There was to be no rest for the wary just yet from both sides of the fence, so it seemed. As the SAADF units approached the river, some fapler and swapper soldiers were scrambling across the bridge and others swam across the crocodile-infested river. The enemy was picked off by a rattle machine guns, including the quartermaster of a fapler unit who was caught in the lethal crossfire, with complete ledger book under his arm. Many of the fapler soldiers in full retreat were running across a flat floodplain to the west of the Konenny River, and the SAADF needed to ensure that these men had withdrawn completely. After some of the retreating troops were cut down, the intelligence officers moved in to check on the bodies. One enemy soldier was alive. He was a platoon commander who dragged himself under a tree after being hit in the chest, and the hand, but he was alive. Former 61 mech commander Rola and Tafri said later that "he was badly wounded in the chest and his thumb was shot off, but he showed amazing tenacity I could not help but admire the man." The fapler commander was evacuated on a rattle and survived the battle and ended up in a POW facility. As the intelligence officers ruffled through the pockets of the dead enemy soldiers, they found photos of their loved ones, letters from home, and also military postbooks logging leave. This was exactly as the SAADF managed their troops and brought home to the men checking the bodies how professional soldiers worldwide were managed. I realized that there were soldiers and human beings just like us said the Fries. Who belonged to be with their loved ones and who also looked forward to passes to go home as weeded. That they also could not wait for a letter from a special person to arrive. It became plain to me that we were reviving human beings with families and feelings just like us, and not necessarily evil and indoctrinated communist inspired socialists who were hell-bent on destroying South Africa. The same thing was going through my mind as we treated dozens of popular wounded that day. First we blow them up, shoot them, then we keep them alive. And many would turn into expert soldiers fighting for the South Africans. This is how wars worked, particularly the Bush War back in the 1980s. As ups medics we were very busy that day. When the airfield was being stormed we received a radio call that an officer was done along with other SDF troops. We rushed to the position where an officer was already in a body bag that was Captain Louis Harmser. A second officer was wounded in the same incident that killed Harmser. They had triggered a booby trap at the entrance to a trench. For those who listened to the series from the start I mentioned way back in episodes covering up Savannah in 1975 that the Harmser family paid a high price during the border war. First Colonel Des Harmser died on board a reconnaissance plane during Operation Savannah. And now his son had perished Ed Zangongo six years later during Operation Prateria. For a man had survived the air drop into Cusinger 1978 and conventional and non-conventional combat. It was a booby trap that finished off one of South Africa's top soldiers. Some of his colleagues told me that they had pleaded with him not to enter the trench and wait for reinforcements but he was watching the schedule and trying to hurry up the assault which was already out by more than two hours. So it was now dusk on D-Day the medics were drafted in to set up the Commandant's tent. The engineers were tiffies as they're known. It also set up their own camouflage nets nearby and their generators were humming along as they began to work on some of the vehicles that had broken down or taken hits. The officers gathered in the medic constructed tent, drank coffee and focused on all around defense and interlocking acts of defensive fire. They were also generating the passwords, setting up radio watches, posting centuries and planning how they would react to an early warning of impending enemy counterattack. Finally the logistics plans for the next 24 hours were drawn up. It had been an extremely long exhausting night and day that's for all of TASC Force Alpha, grueling wear and tear on man and machine. Some of the soldiers lay dead on the other side of the canany. The gladding news from across the river was that battle group 3-0 had captured pupew, TASC Force Alpha with battle groups 2 and 4-0 had partially taken Zangonga. As darkness drew in, occasional shots were fired, machine gun fire rippled at times and huge explosions continued to be heard, tremors rolled across the river. The bridge over the canany river by now had been secured from both sides by the South Africans. Major Leon De Blanche and the engineers from 25-field engineer squadron were already placing the demolition charges onto the pillars and the surface area of the 800 meter long bridge which span the canany. The sappers were wasting no time. So let's step back for a moment and assess the overall plan and how things were going. The main attacks on Zangonga Hume and pupew were supposed to be completed by the 24th of August 1981. Fall of Injiva was supposed to follow only a few hours after the defeat of Zangonga as the next phase of the attack and at the same time the enemy towards Kahama would be isolated. This though was going to take a little longer as Zangonga was proving difficult to overcome completely. Only after the destruction of Onjiva and secondary targets nearby would the SADF withdrawal back south, but that could take up to two weeks. So the various battle schemes of the task forces were the following. D-Day plus one, the 25th of August would see the bridge over the canany river at Zangonga prepped for demolition. This was already done. Zangonga they needed to be defended until the end of upspoture because this was the exposed western flank of the entire task force Alpha and Bravo. Then Onjiva should be taken by D+3 and defended until at least D+14. The mechanized units would then withdraw from Angoda. Following this the final phase was the counter insurgency ingredient of the operation to be conducted solely against Swapu by task force Bravo. They had focused on the bases along a line formed by Evali Nahoni Dover and Yandere and code named Tanga. Special forces including those I mentioned last episode were based on the enemy's rear at an unspecified bridge which was to be blown. Eventually it was decided not to go ahead with this major act of sabotage because the political leadership back in Pretoria had changed their mind. There was already a growing chorus of international condemnation and blowing the bridge was seen to be unnecessary. The operators as we call them were not very happy when they found this hard much later as I recall. They had set up charges on the bridge then laid up overlooking this strategic point for more than a week only to be told to stand down. And so back to Zangonga D-Day 24 August. The sun was setting fast and 2.0 and 4.0 began to settle down for the night. We dug foxholes and in my case I had joined a rifle come on close to the Kinnini River. We were just below the crest of a small rise looking down at the bridge in the river with the main road winding past through thick bush. Little did we know what it was to install for us before dawn the next morning. We learned that the town of Pupu had been taken by battle group 3.0 and that led to the Angolan's retreat leaving a vast array of material. Concluded was 120,000 liters of diesel and 90,000 liters of petrol, 300 tons of ammunition, 3T34 tanks about half a dozen armoured cars and about the same number of armoured personnel carriers were destroyed along with several anti-acroft guns. Then as the armoured column prepared for the night and unusual scene unfolded an elderly Angolan man rode towards Rola and Taflis' battle group 1.0 on a dilapidated moped. He was not afraid and rode right up to where Daflis stood with his officers drinking coffee. As he rode run through the S.A.D. of mechanised units, soldiers merely stared at him and he was not challenged. The reason why was that he was riding along with a little Portuguese boy. The moped halted and the old man climbed off. He didn't formally announce who he was but he was dressed in a suit and had spectacles. He said he was from Humber and had survived the 140mm shelling he'd taken by the S.A.D.F. He said this matter effectively without any trace of anger. Shock does strange things to people. On the motorcycle in front of him sat a small white boy who was dressed in tatted shorts and trousers. The old man said he was a school teacher who lived near Humber and he was taking the child to safety. He had become the boy's stepfather after his family had been killed during the civil war. His Portuguese parents had died in fighting between Unita and the MPLA. The old man said that the local population along with a military in the police had fled Humber ahead of the air strikes after they read the pamphlets dropped by the S.A.F.s. Before leaving, Daflis took a photograph of the child and the old man who then popped a little Portuguese boy back on the moped and then drove off back to Humber. Explosions continued to rend the air automatic weapons fired off at times but nothing seemed to worry the two as they wound their way into the distance. Back at my buvewack I found that the sandy and golden soil ended about six inches deep and my position was under large trees. Their roots were in the way. So I made a somewhat foolish decision to cease digging exhaustion had set in. We hadn't slept for 24 hours. Maybe my webbing which I placed in front of the pathetic little hole would suffice. I was to regret that laziness later that night. But that's for next episode. It's time now to halt and secure the perimeter. Please head over to my website abwarpontcost.com there's a link to send emails if you want to chat. We can direct message me on Twitter and there's life. Until next, dot seeds.