Episode 75 – Russian OSA2 missile boats targeted in 1984’s Operation Nobilis

[Music] Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me, your host, Dear Slatham, this is episode 75. Recovering events in 1984 and various issues had arisen. The South Africans and the Angirlins had been jointly patrolling southern Angola in what was supposed to be a preamble to peace for Namibia. But the joint monitoring process had failed by July 1984, with Swapua continuing to occupy the southern region of Angola and the South Africans continuing to supply Anita. This JMC process was always doomed, some say, but at the start there were signs that Foupla and the SEDF could work together. Unfortunately, for the many hundreds and thousands who were still to die, that good faith faded away rapidly and there was no chance of a proper ceasefire. While the JMC continued operating in name on the ground, things were going from bad to worse. Eventually, the whole exercise would be terminated by Mint 1985. But before we get there, it's important to focus on some special operations of 1984. You've heard how the SEDF special forces, specifically the wreckies, had been tasked with disrupting Angolan maritime resources and last episode recovered what happened during Operation Boganville earlier in 1984. The next stop was called Nabilis, where sea-borne operators were going to try and blow up the ASO2 missile boats that Angolan Navy had secured from the Russians. Early in the war, the SA Navy was somewhat skating of Angolan capacity, but everything changed when the OSO2 missile boats arrived in 1982. They added a new and more deadly dimension to Lwanda's capability. By late 1983, there were six of these vessels deployed to ports like Soil, Lobito, Monchamides and Lwanda. The OSO2s were a threat and the first of their time to sink a warship with guided missiles. Destroying the Israeli Navy ship Elat, which was sunk on the 21st of October 1967 in the Mediterranean, international waters of Port Said in the Sinai. Three sticks missiles launched by Egyptian OSO boats had hit the Elat. Out of a crew of 199, 47 Israelis were killed or missing and around 100 wounded, so the OSOs were not to be tripled with. The OSO missile boats had the ability to pick up radar and radio transmissions, and it was their detection capabilities that turned them into targets for the South Africans. However, by the 1980s, these OSOs were not top of the range killing machines, the Soviets were farming them out to their allies in the Third World. They were wooden hulled and their defensive armament was rudimentary at most, two manually operated 25mm guns without radar, and in heavy seas, the missile box was vulnerable to damage by waves. Luanda could also call on a mixture of ex-Portuguese patrol boats and four Shershin torpedo boats. These Shershin were torpedo-cutter fast-attack craft cheap to build in the first slid-off production line in 1960. The torpedoes, though, were straight run only, no homing capabilities, so the Essay Navy was not too worried about them, and yet they were aware the Shershin's other threat was to submarines on the surface. Still, the old Russian warships didn't even have sonar or electric warfare systems, and were rudimentary, too. Eventually, four Recki was given the project to sink three OSO missile boats inside Luanda Harbor during the dark marine period. It was important to allow UNITA to claim the attack, so the mines were going to be attached to these ships at only around one meter below the surface. The South Africans used sophisticated underwater breeding systems, allowing them to approach much deeper, so they hoped the shallow attachment of the mines would convince the Russians and the Angolans that it was the rebel movement to not the Essay special forces. As you go to here, Moscow was not going to be fooled by this. The MPLA, as well, were going to figure out who was to blame for mining ships in the harbor. Commandant Hunis Fenter was appointed Ops Commander in the submarine that it was going to conduct an extremely complex series of maneuvers offshore was the Essay-SUH-Hana Panamera. Its commander was Steve Stead. As usual, strike craft would provide support. And the Essay-SUH Oswald Biddo, Commander by Jock Deacon, and the Essay-SUH Jim Fushi and Commander Fred Guitier were put to sea. The logistic support ship, Essay-SUH-Pretty, was also sailing in the north of South African waters just in case. The submarine would insert the special forces, then recover them later, and was the official tactical HQ for the ambitious attack. The site would conduct periscope reconnaissance during the afternoon of the 27th and 28th of July. The wreckies would be inserted on the night of the 28th if it is all deemed ready to go. It was also agreed that if the Ossas were out of the harbor or couldn't be hit, alternative targets would be identified. The two strike craft carrying the wrecky teams were to rendezvous with a submarine 100 nautical miles west of Luanda at 1900 hours on the 26th of July. And the men would board. The two strike craft would then head out to sea and await further instructions. South of the Canany River, close to where the Essay-SUH-Pretty was steaming about. Supposedly conducting a survey, or for Luzeritz. The Angoli Navy base was halfway along the Ile de Cabo, a peninsula which protected the harbor and a beach reconnaissance would be required to identify the best place to cross into the bay. The first point was just north of a brightly lit panorama hotel and the other near the club in Navale. Three of the zodiac and plaitable birds were going to be involved, each with two crew. Two of the zodiacs would take three divers and one had the mission commander and four wrecky doctor aboard. It was important to get to about one nautical mile offshore on board the submarine, then be let loose on the inflatables. This was pretty close, considering they were so close to Luanda. Five divers would each carry a mine containing five kilograms of torque ex-explosive. The fuses set with a delay of four and a half hours. The Seventh Mine was a dummy, which was set up to appear to have been built by Unita. So they set sail on the evening of the 15th of July for this ambitious undertaking, with the equipment loaded aboard the Johanna at night in Simon's Town Harbor. The subset off from the harbor the next morning at 1100 hours, and after clearing the bay dive to 200 meters, this was to test how watertight the search periscope was. Then it submerged once more and turned to sail up the Atlantic coast, surfacing west of Robin Island. She submerged once again and then began her journey up the coast to Angola, sailing on the surface at night, and during overcast days. On the 22nd of July, Oswald-Burrow and Jimfrasia's strike craft were each loaded with the Zodiacs and engines, as well as fuel at Donker-Hatt base. The next day, the operators and medical teams boarded the strike craft at 0900 hours. It took these craft three and a half days to reach the Runde Vu point, 100 nautical miles west of Luanda. There was a delay when one of the strike craft commanders took off and away, he was supposed to wait for six submariners to make space for the operators. There was total radio silence, so Commander Kutki of the Jimfrasia had to be contacted on a special H.F. Hopper scheduled call, eventually the six submariners were picked up. Complex operations can often be affected by some pretty basic mistakes. With the operators safe on board, the Johanna headed towards the coast on the surface in a light mist until just after 6.30 in the morning, when it was forced to dive, two vessels were approaching, they were thought to be fishing boats. And by late afternoon, they managed to conduct periscope familiarization. They needed to be sure where this hotel was, and also the fishing boats, which began switching on their lights as the sun began to set. Later that night, Johanna still submerged, sailed to the point position just offshore, servicing at 2200 hours 20. The sea, fortunately, was calm. There was no wind, and it was dark. There was also no moon. Two of the Zerdiaks were assembled at speed, and in 25 minutes they were heading towards the beach, with Captain Yabehe in command. The sub-dived and remained three nautical miles from the rendezvous position. The Zerdiaks meanwhile headed towards the Panorama Hotel, and laid up somewhere offshore so that the engines couldn't be heard above the sound of the sea. Corporals Rodríguez and Coimbra slipped overboard and swam the few hundred meters to the beach, coming ashore undetected near the rocks of a breakwater. As they appeared over the rocks, they were trying to assess where the divers would be able to cross the road on foot to the other side to enter the water of the harbor itself. The big problem was foot traffic on this breakwater, and vehicles were also traveling along the road. Each time they tried to lift their heads above the rocks, a car would appear, or a fisherman would walk towards them that had to sink back into the ocean. There was no way of doing a foot reiki. After hours of attempts, and at 0-200, they swam back out to the Zerdiaks and headed back to the Yane rendezvous point. But they didn't know, was in the meantime, the submarine was zigzagging between increasing fishing boat traffic, particularly from the southwest. These boats were heading back to their harbor after a nautical fishing, and the South Africans had miscalculated just how busy this harbor got at night. The Zerdiaks crew had an interesting way to signal the submarine. They had dropped an underwater grenade, and the sub would pick up the sonar blast, and then track towards the explosion. Eventually, at 0-310, the recon team was located. Zerdiaks recovered, the Johanna headed out to see once more. Time to decide what to do. The teams discussed the predicament. If they emerged from the ocean at the breakwater, carrying their minds and breathing equipment, it would be a dead giveaway. The new plan was to hit a run. found the breakwater and into the harbour using the zodiacs. This was going to be tricky. It were patrol boats operating throughout the night using searchlights. They were armed with cannons and machine guns. The harbour was also protected by heavy weapons and of course the warships were armed. They needed to take one more look at the breakwater and harbour before any final decision. The liner headed back to the drop off point again the next night and a twenty hundred hours fifteen surfaced off the panorama hotel. But during the off-loading of the three boats one codenamed K40 had been damaged and this operation could not be carried out with only two zodiacs. While they were busy they also spotted a large low flying aircraft. It was flying straight towards them with its landing lights on. The sea was lit up but it suddenly turned towards Luanda Airport. The wreckies knew then that they were close to the final approach area of the airport and were in real danger of being spotted. They headed back out to sea again. At 0630 the subreturned this time from the south-west trying to spot other possible areas to use to cross the breakwater or at least to enter the harbour. After some hours cruising back and forth searching by periscope one of their prey andosa missile boat was actually spotted closing in on them at sixteen knots from the northeast. The sub hastily submerged and headed back to open water. Tonight would be the final attempt. All agreed. That night the Hanna surfaced at the same drop of position off panorama hotel at twenty hundred hours fifteen. The zodiac engine had been repaired so the three inflatables were lowered into the water and the teams headed off on their dangerous mission. The sub slipped back to periscope depth and began cruising back and forth along the coast ready for any emergency. The three zodiacs rounded the breakwater point very slowly, trying to reduce the size of their wake. They headed towards a wreck to the north of the base and the dive is prepped their gear. Then Corp rules Rodrigo Shancómbra swam to the wreck which is going to be used as a tactical HQ during this mission if it was deemed stable enough. The rusty deck was checked, it was intact so the boats were secured alongside on the boarding ladder of that wreck. It was apparent immediately that the intelligence they'd been given had failed to assist the strength of the tidal current which was sitting in an northwards direction. This meant the divers would be swimming against a powerful current as they're trying to escape the harbor after laying their minds. The teams on the wreck agreed they'd never managed to out swim this current in time. Furthermore, they watched the Russian Krista-2-class cruiser called the Admiral Yumachev and a refueling tanker tied alongside at the naval key as well as a fuck-struck-class submarine. The crews all appeared wide away. There was also Russian Repairship and a patrol boat with a searchlight sailing up and down the naval area. Security was even tighter than expected. There was no way that they'd be able to man the Osomisal boats and get away, but all was not lost. The wreckies looked around the harbor and spotted two merchant vessels in the inner anchorage. Both were military vehicles on the upper deck. These seemed to be a juicy target and Captain Yobair deemed them worthy of sabotage. One of the wreckies thought the fuck-struck class sub lurking nearby was also worthy of sabotage, but Yobair restored sanity according to Doe-Stan in his book Iron Fist from the Sea and set about planning the mine laying. The six divers then set off towards the two merchant ships. Warrant officer Boat's butters somehow though managed to drop his mine as he swam the few hundred meters. One of the flotation pieces had broken off all the taping had come loose, but the others managed to attach theirs to the ships along with the dummy mine before withdrawing back to the rusty wreck in the pitch dock. It was a long and torturous swim, some of it underwater. While they were busy, a patrol boat had appeared at the wreck luckily from the other side and shun its light on the superstructure and the upper deck before turning away. That was a close call. Fortunately, the crew of the three zodiacs had pulled back from the wreck before the patrol boat pitched up, while that probably had been spotted. But by now, the zodiacs were back at the rusty wreck and the exhausted divers were swimming into view. Chief Petty Officer Brits had climbed onto the wreck, keep a look out and spotted them. The mission commander radioed for an early rendezvous west of the Ilad de Cabo lighthouse. Everyone clamoured back into the zodiacs and then made their way slowly out of the harbor, passed the breakwater and towards the lighthouse. Eventually, the Johanna found them 1.5 nautical miles north of the rendezvous position. The current was so strong it had pushed them off course. Things were now moving fast because the ship was seen sailing towards them from the north and the submarine had to take evasive action while the zodiacs were still attached. The vessel suddenly veered towards Johanna and the commander went to full speed still on the surface for 15 minutes it was cat and mouse. The patrol boat eventually gave up, turned and headed back to Luanda. A few minutes later, at 0400 hours 50, four bright white flashes could be seen back at the harbor, which was now more than 10 nautical miles away. The radio crackled into life with shouts of "Madee, madee, madee!" The Russian warships and the Angolo Navy vessels headed out to sea searching for the servitors. By 0517, bright lights could be seen heading towards the sub while the radar signal detected a ship of some kind heading towards them. It was going to be a close call. Time to go, Johanna's commander ordered a deep fast dive and everyone went silent. Almost four hours later, at 0915, the submarine rose to Periscope Depth, the commander looked around. The warships had disappeared. There were still only around 36 nautical miles offshore, so the Johanna remained submerged for the rest of that day, only resurfacing at 2,800 hours 30 at night to clear the air. Eventually, the rendezvous with the strike craft transferred their wrecky passengers and headed off. Later, at a marriage that four wrecky had targeted the 9,000 tonne Angolo vessel Lundorgi and the 7,500 tonne East German cargo ship called the Arancir. The East German vessel was carrying 28 heavy vehicles and artillery. Two explosions had shaken the ship, which went down by the bow. The engine room flooded shortly afterwards and the crew abandoned ship. None had been injured or killed. Its stern was still above water and a Russian tank called the Nioh Trasimu towed it to a nearby sandbank. So that, if it sank, it wouldn't be inside the anchorage. Lundorgi had just arrived from Brazil carrying food and military hardware. The explosions had caused massive flooding, but the captain had managed to reach the commercial key before she settled on the bottom. The cargo was almost all destroyed by sea water, but the Angolans managed to patch up and she was refloated, then towed all the way to rear the Genera for repairs and was back in service later in 1984. The Arancir was another matter. Russian divers discovered the unexploded dummy mine. Finally, on the 1st of August, divers removed the mine by pulling it off with a motorboat, then towed it to a nearby beach. Soviet and Cuban specialists examined the dummy, finally deciding to detonate the device. The Arancir, though, was too badly damaged to be restored to see where the condition and a month later, she was patched up temporarily, refloated, and in September towed out to sea and scuttled in 500-plus meters of water. So ended another sabotage mission, which had not gone exactly as planned, but proved that Fort Reki was still a thorn in the Angolans side. The Angolans quickly realized the mines had to be the work of divers. The defensive tactic introduced immediately after this involved squads of Cuban engineers. These men were provided with boxes of grenades, and were joined all ships docking in Luanda. They had lobbed four grenades an hour over the side at irregular times, and all the ship crews were also forced to remain on board so that the vessels could shift position at any time of day or night. The Cubans were also trained to fire at anything in the dock that moved inside the harbor. They were extremely jumpy after the sabotage of the two ships. Meanwhile, the unit had told reporters in the Portuguese capital Lisbon that their operatives had carried out their attack. The Angolan media, though, reported that the ships had been hit by American mines, with one editorial mentioning that the technique used was the same as the CIA in Nicaragua. The US of course denied this. The Angolans investigated further and then found out that fishermen had spotted a rubber boat with three men aboard, while a Soviet fishing crew confirmed their story. The Russians said they'd been at anchor when a small boat approached and then turned away. The South African dummy mine trick had backfired. It was so obviously different from the real mines. It was fitted with a big-foot safety fuse patented in 1831, and this fuse was seven meters long. Luanda authorities finally and correctly attributed the mines to what they called the South African underwater special forces. An SADF debriefing later led to all agreeing that they'd underestimated the professional ability of both the Russian and Cuban specialists when it came to analyzing their dummy mine. Better intelligence too would have helped in planning operation nobleness, particularly when it came to the location of the Osa missile boats and of course the speed and direction of the current. Meanwhile, back on the ground in southern Angola, three two battalion was involved in quite an interesting change in tactics by 1984, which I'll get to next episode. Then we entered to deploy something called Sudo Operations, made famous by the Saluzka. More about that in episode 76. Please rate the podcast on iTunes. It helps increase the series' visibility. If you want to contact me and email me through the website ABWordpodcast.com. com all direct message me on twitter at desleth. Until next goodbye.