Episode 83 – The most ambitious Op involving SADF special Forces hits Namibe

[Music] Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me, your host, Thessalon. This is episode 83. 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 essay police were largely responsible for dealing with the ANC and PIC internally, although the essay dearf was going to get much more involved later. The unrest would barely calm down before the essay dearf was involved in a much bigger war in southern Angola, while special ops were increasing against the ANC MK targets in countries other than Angola during this period. The South African military establishment had drawn clear lines between mutt they regarded as terror activities and politically motivated unrest that was violent. That's an important distinction and it had a bearing on how they'd conduct some of the external attacks on ANC countries. Terror was defined by the essay dearf as actions conducted by infiltrators who committed political murders, lay minds on rows and blew up substations and other infrastructures. Unrest was burning down schools and government buildings, barricading streets, large groups of people on streets who'd attack others and sometimes including the terrifying necklace-killing technique which was a car tire filled with fuel thrown around the neck of the victim. The South Africans were not tracking infiltration routes that included insurgents from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lissu and Zambia. After South Africa and Mozambique signed the Incomati Accord in 1984, there were very few reports of infiltration from the Eastern neighbour. But new routes included Swaziland and the Botswana insurgency also escalated. Pretoria tried to convince Khabaroni to inform a joint security committee but this failed. The United Democratic Front was launched which was really the ANC in South South Africa by another name. New revolutionary committees were launched as well as regional military structures and street committees which were dominated by youths were picking up with their parents at Left-Orff in 1976. The S.A.D.F. began to also pick up reports that the ANC was planning to turn 1986 into a year when their party system would crumble. There was a particularly vicious and dirty covert war that broke out internally with security forces death squads, ANC MK Gorillaz murdering administrators, and the average citizen dragged into supporting one side or the other. The National's party passed a series of emergency regulations at the same time negotiations about a peaceful solution to the future of South Africa and Namibia were on the go. In November, ANC's armed wing plan stepped up attacks on administrative officials. In March 1986, South African President PW Butter proposed an parliament that resolution 435 be implemented by August but wanted the Cubans to withdraw from Angola first. In fact, the opposite was going on as we know. Back in Angola, Russian general Constantine Karochkin who was a veteran of Moscow's failed push into Afghanistan had instituted his own set of changes. We heard about some last episode, the improved Russian weapons systems, new aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft and missiles. As these built up the S.A.D.F. began to focus its attention on Fubla's logistics and weak points. One of these was the port of Namibia in southern Angola. It lay almost directly due west of Mavinga and Guito Kwanavari. The S.A.D.F. had picked up intelligence that Fubla was planning a new offensive in May 1986 following up on operations second in Congress. And this was called Operation Alpha Centauri. A column was to depart from Guito Kwanavari towards Mavinga and Jamba in a few weeks using the same approach route as they had for the previous up the previous year. So the RECKies were ordered to Namibia and Lobito to try and find out what kind of equipment was being collected and to report back on any possible targets. They called this Operation C-Day. On the 16th of February 1986, S.A.S. Yohanif and the Merva, the sub, sailed from Sarmanstan under Commander Yandarabi and picked up four RECKies members at Donkohat. Major Pierre Lundberg led this group, who were to spend the next eight days with the submariners as they headed 1,500 nautical miles up the coast to Lobito. Two inflatables were launched on the 27th of February at Nutt and the four RECKies aboard gathered as much information about Lobito Harbour as possible by 0400. They were back on the Yohanif. They were in some danger. It was a few days after the full moon, not an ideal time to take reconnaissance actions at Nutt because of this the submarine waited further offshore than usual. A day later they headed back south to Namibia where they arrived on the 4th of March. They discovered a few interesting things including that two OSA missile boats were based in the harbour. The bay at Namibia is great for shipping. The harbour had two keys that a large disused iron ore warehouse to the north and another key further south. The RECKies orientated themselves using these concrete keys and took note of where another primary target lay, the fuel storage tanks. The submarine picked them up at 0400 again both information gathering missions had been successful and the Yohana then returned to South Africa with the RECKies. After a thorough debriefing it was decided that an attack on Namibia was feasible. There were vessels in the harbour that could be mined. This could kill two birds with one stone. If the RECKies could sink a number of these ships then the key side would be virtually unusable. They'd also go after the fuel depot. Eventually in May 1986 SADF Topros gave the order for Operation Throsti to go ahead. Pretoria had given up on the latest round of political negotiations. The raiding teams were to land somewhere between the 2nd and 12th of June with Commodant Fenta Ups Commander and Major Doe Stain Mission Commander. For the somewhat ambitious project four RECKies needed help and one RECKie members were drafted in. The submarine SAS Yohana van Amarva was involved once more and was ordered to take up a position off Namibia and three striker would ferry the raiders to a point of shore where that would be launched. The striker included P1561 Captain Barbraan Duncan, Kwebi Kutser led by Khad Engelbrich and the Henderec men's under Johnny Kammermann. The SAS Tafelbag and a Captain Chris Moon would take up its usual position south of the Kineini River ready to offer medical and logistic support. By the 15th of May the up got the Green Knight for a start with a few tweaks. The SADF now went to the RECKies to target the four oil storage tanks as primary and then the three ships as secondary. Two of these were anchored alongside the commercial key and a third at the iron ore key near the Fule Depot because the South Africans wanted to cause maximum damage and instruction was also passed along that the strike craft could use their 76 millimeter naval artillery guns in support of the RECKies if required. Seven operators from one RECKy were sent to join four RECKy led by Captain W.J. Bason and they were going to be carried by two strike craft Kwebi Kutser and Henderec men's which had been refitted to allow them to carry more special forces on board. The Tafelbag meanwhile was joined by two Puma helicopters and a medical team. Ops commander Venta and his tactical team would be based aboard the P1561 which was also carrying two more of the Barracuders. This was going to be the largest special forces raid of the border wall. You can see how both on land and in the ocean the wall was ratcheting up the amount of material being thrown into this conflict on both sides was escalating alarmingly. A total of 58 special force members including their chaplain were heading north towards Namibay. 32 operators would take part in the raid itself and included divers while 14 others would remain in the six Barracuders. A reconnaissance team under major Pierre-Lundberg would be tasked with the land and sea intelligence gathering before the raid could go ahead. With so much on the line they didn't want unpleasant surprises. They'd check out how best infiltrate the Sun and Gold Fyldepo and to pick up any security force routines on the Angolan side. The divers would be working in pairs using Cressy sub-re breethers, team 1 taking aim at any ships on the iron or key and fishing boats to the east, while teams 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were going to swim into the commercial key and see what they could sink there. Each diver was carrying two polyp mines filled with 5 kilograms of pet and explosives and these would be fused to detonate at 0530 in the morning, almost two hours after they'd left the scene hopefully. The land-based attackers would hit the fuel storage tanks and the locomotives nearby perhaps. It was also an electric substation and other important infrastructure that tried to take out. Yeah, they'd use their soda mines and pea charges on the fuel tanks mainly because these explosives are high in aluminium and work as incendiaries. Just to be certain of success, some members also carried RPG7s for a possible standoff attack. That was fortunate. There was a threat posed by the access points so at least four members would be based near the Barrow River bridge to warn of approaching Faktor or Cuban vehicles. If the code Alpha Alpha was heard on the radio the oppers cancelled and for the divers two underwater grenades would be detonated three minutes apart which would be their signal to call off the attack. But the South Africans appear to have forgotten was what the Cubans were doing in the harbors of Angola at night, secure. 3D teams were dropping hand grenades around their ships at odd hours to ward off saboteurs. This was going to catch out the South Africans as you'll hear. So it was the morning of the 30th of May when the SES Johanavaneman of Oroz to Periscope Depth off Nr. and the crew monitored shipping and fishing movements. At 1400 they slowly entered Nr. Its mouth is around 5km wide and Johanac crept in that Periscope Depth taking note of the ship's docked and those at Anchorage. They were no OSA missile boats, they'd sailed off at some point since the last wrecky visit. Then the sabote drew to just off the bay and remained there until 0400 the next morning. On the afternoon of the 31st of May, P1561 strike craft run dear food with the sab and by 8pm all food and other material had been transferred. P1561 then headed back south to join up with the SES Tafelberg off the South African coast. Meanwhile the crew we could see an Hendrik Men's strike craft had set sail for the 3-day journey to Namibia and by the 2nd of June were in the target area all the way from Durban. The weather had an effect on these vessels. Back off the Angolan shore, the recon operators had conducted their standard pre-raid checks on the beach, landing special force operators who noted the extraction points and any new developments that may star me the attack. By 0400 this wrecky was complete, everyone was back on board the sabote. The Hunder then headed back into the bay at 0945 to confirm the targets were still alongside the two keys. There was one at the Iron O' Dock, three on the commercial key and two more were anchored in the bay. So by the night of 3rd of June the two weather-beaten strike craft had made it from Durban and were waiting west of Namibia. That night as the six barracuda were launched a hydraulic fault on the ramps of Kubi Kutsia held things up. The cutoff time of 21 hours 30 passed and it was decided to try again the next night. The next morning Yohana cruised back into the bay using her periscope once more and now noted that an LPG tanker had docked at the Iron O' Key and four other ships were now tied up alongside the commercial key. The gas carrier was julie noted as one of the prime targets. That night the hydraulic lift fixed all boats were launched before 2100 hours and the teams headed to shore in calm conditions. Boats 1 and 2 were carrying the raiding group who were going to hit the fuel depot and locomotives. Boat 3 would cover these two other barracuders and land with them while boat 4 would provide fire support for the diving teams who were on boats 5 and 6. 4 was commanded by Sajan Nivot who was armed with a lot of machine guns. They all made it to the splitting positions which lay directly between the two keys. Boat 3 turned north boats 5 and 6 headed south to the commercial harbour. That was also where the main town is so they expected more activity. When Boat 3 arrived at the Iron O' Key they were in for a shock. The gas tanker had sailed. Worse for the raiders there was no alternative target anchored at this key side. It so happened that the tanker had left 30 minutes after the raider flattilla sailed into the bay and happened to pass three of the strike craft in the dark. By now Boat 3 joined Boat 1, 2 and 4 heading towards the landing beach where the shore raiding party would set off. A couple of small fishing boats responded but they were avoided. Moments later two wrecky swimmers slipped overboard and swam to the beach directly opposite the electrical substation. Beach secured. The remaining teams had to unload in the waves because the shore was so steep. Major Doe Stain spoke quietly to the 15 operator assault team and then they headed off towards the fuel depot. Apart from the explosives they were each armed with the silenced AK-47 and a pistol and the teams shared the extra load of five RPG-7 launchers, trapods and rockets. Back in the bay Boat's 5 and 6 were now approaching the commercial key at slow speed. The area was well lit so they had to stop almost one and a half kilometers away where the divers slipped into the sea. Three large merchant ships could be seen at the dock, a fourth looked like a tiger. The divers were arranged in six teams of two and all remained together initially as they swam towards their targets. They hoped to reach the ships by 0-200 hours then spend around half an hour placing the charges. The fuses would trigger at 0-530 so theoretically they had more than enough time to swim back to the barricuters and make it back to the strike-craft. The water was warm, the conditions great, the current only slight. There was no wind, it was one of the common nights they had experienced. At around 800 meters off the key they broke up and began their dive approach around 8 meters down. Every few hundred meters they would surface to check their bearings. The divers were aiming at the stern of the ships hoping to place their minds close to the engine rooms. Team 6 had a sudden scare, a tiger loomed into sight and they had to deep dive, then spent crucial minutes recalibrating their position. Too much time was lost, so they are borted and swam back to the boat rendezvous position, dragging themselves on board still carrying their minds. The rest of the saboteurs closed in on the ships in the dock, hearing the sounds of machinery on board through the water. The hulls appeared through the murk, all was going well. Diver team 3 of Captain Hector and Sergeant Benji boat reached their target which was the ship in the middle, they swam under the props and were ascending to conduct a much shallower observation when an explosion shattered the water. A hand grenade had been lobbed into the ocean from the deck. There were in shock had they been seen, Hector darted for the bottom dragging boat with him. They were separated down there. The standard defense against divers was for the props to be activated, which usually caused the divers to be spat out from underneath the ship, but the props didn't move. Team 5, who was some distance away, focusing on the own ship, thought the grenade explosion under the water was the alarm warning they had discussed before and aborted their dive, heading back to the barricuters. The rest of the teams realised it was the security tossing their grenades as usual and got back to work. They gingerly removed the mines off each other's backs, placing these on the hull around 4 metres apart. This took only a few minutes and once complete, they beat a hasty retreat, diving down to 8 metres on their way out back to the barricuters. They had around 3 hours left before the detonations began. Most managed to swim back to the rendezvous point all the way underwater, but a couple suffered from nausea and had to surface early. But finally, all divers were accounted for and the barricuters then made their way north east to join the other boats, waiting off the river moth, watching for the return of the land raiders. On the land, Stain and his wreckies managed to move into position quickly. There was less lighting than they thought, but the fubblers guards were active. Periments of foot patrols could be seen even at this hour, all moving around a central point which was the guard house to the north of the depot. And really caught their attention with a vehicle patrols including a motorbike. After some time they realised the patrols were following a set pattern. A couple of wreckies had checked out the locomotives mean time and said they weren't worth blowing up, and they were quite well lit. With all the patrols and activity, Stain then decided to use the RPGs instead of approaching the tanks with the explosives. This is where the innovation of special force ops comes to the fore. The five char part mounted RPG 7s were aimed at different fuel tanks and the pumping station from around 200 metres away. Each of the rockets had an adapted emergency launch system which was activated by a timed initiator. The RPGs were going to fire themselves and then self-destruct. By 0-230 all charges were set and ready and the teams headed back to their pickup point on the beach. In the way, Stain was looking for infrastructure to blow up with their P charges. They spotted a roll-way line, power parlance and a bridge and Julie placed explosives on these as well as one that was taped to a substation. All 12 charges were going to explode at 0-530. Finally, they made it to the beach, but the barracuders were waiting further offshore because of the swell which had built up. Some of the wreckies had to dump their ammunition so they weren't dragged under as they swam out. Eventually all were pulled on board and they headed back towards the strike craft which were 25 nautical miles offshore. The barracuders were winched aboard, the craft turned and sailed away from Namibia. Oddly enough, a friend of mine who worked at Capital Radio based in the Trance Car was the first to break the news of this attack to people back in South Africa. And it was a unitter, the report said, who claimed responsibility for the raid that it caused the huge amount of damage. The S.A.D.F. was delighted. The air political minders were still supposed to be playing a diplomatic game with a view to ending this war. Sabotaging your negotiating partners, merchant navy would have been seen as an extreme act of diplomatic suicide. The Russians, however, would not be fooled. As the raiders headed home, the S.A.S. Jharnade won more dangerous task. The commander went back to Namibia to a position where he could raise the periscope and spotted the flames leaping from the tank form. At the commercial key, He, the Cuban-registered cargo ship was listing to port badly damaged, sinking. Behind her, two large Russian cargo ships were also listing to port. At this point and further out to sea, the strike craft began picking up flashing radar, the Angolans were searching for them. The S.A. as Johannes commanded then saw a helicopter take off and fly over Namibia, heading south. Then a fixed winged twin engine aeroplane took off and flew a similar path. The hunter turned and exited the bay at 0800 heading into deep water. Had a last look around, then turned south at their speed and sailed home. The strike craft monitored the radios, then heard that the migs had been scrambled. The 76mm anti-aircraft gun crews set themselves up in readiness, but by now they were close to 50 nautical miles offshore and there was no sign of the Russian jets. The raid left Namibia's port and its fuel depot in a ruin. The town restored power within two days, but the manor in which they had been attacked shocked those in power. The Russian merchant ships Kapitan Shokov and Kapitan Vizlo Barkov had been holed and resettled on the harbor bottom. While no crew were hurt, the Russians were shaken. The Cuban vessel, ironically called the Habana, was ordered from the key into the bay, a standard procedure to ensure that the key side remains open, but it didn't make it as it began moving it capsized. The Russians ignored the harbor master's order and let their ships sink at their berth, blocking the key but saving their cargo. They'd also been saved by the wreckies placement of the mines. Two, recurring tens of thousands of tons of explosives and armaments, had the mines been placed in the centre of the ships. They would have detonated and the carnage would have been biblical. The ships would have disintegrated and probably most of the key side too. There was a lot of finger pointing going on. The Habana had been forced to wait earlier in the week as an Italian and then a Greek cargo vessel all flooded so the Cuban crew began to mutter about conspiracy involving a number bay harbor master. He had delayed them and now look. But the wreckies didn't know at this moment is that the Russians had taken the sabotage very personally. The report of the sinkings reached the top echelon of the Soviet hierarchy. This party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was in Poland when he heard about this and pondered cutting short his visit. The Russian navy mobilized and the chief of staff instructed the northern fleet, which was responsible for Angola and waters, to ensure this never happened again. A salvage tug set sail from Riga while a repair ship made its way south. The Black Sea shipping company, Russian state-owned, sent a tug to Angola. On the 11th of June, Russian deputy minister of the merchant marine Boris Unitsen flew into Luanda. The Russians knew South African subs had been involved, scoffing at unit's claims and quickly identifying wrecky divers as the culprits. They knew about the barricuters and they also came to the conclusion that daffinic class submarines were involved. They just needed proof. A Soviet cash and mod class guarded missile destroyer called "Stroining the Anchored At-Nambe in June 1986. Shortly afterwards two unexploded mines were found still attached to the hulls of these ships. A month later, they were forced to settle for one of the mines. Both had anti-lift systems which would trigger. The second, they removed using the blunt, tow rope and fast boat system, tugging it off the hull and miraculously this one didn't explode. After making it safe, they found components from Japan, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This clinched it. Only the advanced weapons production capacity back in South Africa could manufacture this ordnance and only the wreckies could deliver it and specifically for wrecky. And they were right. Next episode we back on dry land, Fubla's renewed offensive against Anita at Mavingo was developing fast. Please rate the podcast on iTunes. It helps spread the word. You can also head off to the website abwapodcast.com and email me there or direct message me on Twitter @deslaven. Until next, dot cns. [BLANK_AUDIO]