Episode 92 – An indebted Pretoria fixates on Cuito Cuanavale

Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me, your host, Thais Latham. This is episode 92. At the beginning of October 1987, one wrecky moved into the southern Angola region, replacing five wrecky. And by the time the SADF Topras had decided the final course of action, a group of thirty wreckies flew by C-130 from Derwin Air Force Base to Rundu. It was at Rundu where critically important meeting had taken place on the 15th of October, and that's when Army Chief General Kat Limenbach had arrived to attend a briefing by staff officers. They had developed two alternatives about what to do next, other prevent fapler from withdrawing over the Chambinga River towards Guitua-Quanavali until the SADF reinforcements showed up in early November and destroyed them. Not much chance of that succeeding, the South Africans were too thin on the ground. Option 2 was really an extension of this first option. The first part of the plan was the same, to trap fapler, but then to send Forsai and the tank squadron west of the Guitua River and to take the time of Guitua-Quanavali from the north-west. Art flanked fapler's brigades in other words and hit their rear. The SADF battle group would then advance north and destroy the fapler brigades based east of Guitua-Quanavali, the 16th, 59th, 21st and 25th. Levenbach preferred option 2, and that's why the wreckies were flying in from Durban. These experienced operators were in for a bit of a shock. Usually they'd be dropped way behind enemy lines in small groups and silently go about their business. Then they'd be extracted once the reconnaissance was complete, and most of the time, fapler or Swapo had no idea they'd been there at all. This time the wreckies were based close to a very noisy group of 61 mech-tiffies or engineers who clanged and hammered at night, talked loudly, smoked, without an apparent care in the world. This was something of an operational shift for one wreckie. Major Frans van Dijk was the ops commander for the wreckies, and along with Major Dway Bikotseer's two IC, they landed at Rundu and met up with Brigadier Fido Smith from 2-0 Brigade. An officer Bruce Lang and warrant officer Rosie Dallabria set up a TAC HQ at a place they called Fort Foote. The wreckie teams and their signaler sergeant Abel Larasmus were then briefed at the forward HQ, and the comms were tested. Rations, ammo equipment was packed with fun deck-taking command of the forward tactical or TAC command HQ, and could see it the rear. Then the wreckie teams flew out at 94 pumes to 2-0 Brigade's HQ south east of Guido point of sight at two hour flights into Angola. When the pumes landed, the wreckies immediately recognized they were involved in something very different, as they jumped from the helicopters and took up their defensive positions in the dock. First they smelt the smoke from unita troops who dug fires into the ground. Then the sounds of battery charges been cranked for the HQ for radios. Typical sounds of a unita rebel army merged in with a newer metallic sounds of mobile warfare. When the sun rose, the wreckies saw the extent of the assembly area. Rattles recovered in camouflage, logistics vehicles nearby, all in a big logger. Five wreckies handed over their three caspers to one wreckie, along with radios and other core material and ammunition. Then one wreckie went over to 2-0 Brigade, TAC HQ to meet Colonel Ferrera and his staff, as well as the combat group leadership from Alpha Bravo and Charlie. This was not a full-scale conventional war, and the HQ had tables and chairs, boards with maps, intelligence officers, paring at documents, and looking busy. Alexander Strachan quotes an operator in his book One Reckie saying, "My first impotation was things are happening here. This is war." While all of this was going on, the Central Intelligence Agency was reportedly sending information to the SEDF. This has been contested by the Americans, although investigative writer Fred Bridglin says he has proof. He says the CIA had been conducting debriefing sessions with Cuban Air Force General Rafael del Pino Diaz, who had defected to the USA. Apparently, del Pino's advice to the SEDF was to cut off the Manonguito-Quanavali supply road, which would bring faplas advance to a grinding halt. The Pino warned against attacking Guito-Quanavali directly, saying it was a tactical mistake to concentrate firepower on this point. He said the clever option was to sever faplas supplies, then grind Guito-Quanavali down. This by the way, Hitler ignored similar advice when he was told to avoid attacking Stalingrad directly. His generals wanted to pass it by and starve the Russians inside, rather than take them on. Yes, I know hindsight, folks, is an exact science. But right now, the SEDF leadership was beginning to fixate on Guito-Quanavali, like Edel Hitler fixated on Stalingrad. And in sconce, within Guito-Quanavali were a few hundred Russian advisers, just to add a little irony to the comparison. There's an excellent book called Bush War the Road to Guito-Quanavali, edited by Gennari Shubin and Andrei Tokarev, all about Soviet soldiers' accounts of the Angolan war. I'm using these accounts in the next few podcasts, because they are unfettered diary entries, which offset some of the more prosaic commentary by both sides. They were excellent observers of warfare, monitoring the SEDF and faplas as well as Swapo. This book is full of illuminating descriptions of what went on inside faplas trenches between 1987 and 1989. So on the 15th of October, some of these Russians had taken up their new positions east of Guito-river along side faplas 21st Brigade, which had been so badly mulled trying to cross the lumber river bridge. Major Battista was group commander of the 21st Brigade, and as the Russians introduced themselves to him and familiarized themselves with the landscape, they heard planes flying past in the rumble of artillery as the SEDF shelled 16th and 59th Brigades from long distance. The SEDF right now was facing a few challenges. The generals knew that they had to force a military decision either at Guito-Quanavali or on the road to Manong before the 15th of December, because that date marked the end of the service period of national servicemen, the conscripts. The government of South Africa was also running into financial trouble. I'll deal with that in a few minutes. The SEDF were considering bombing the airbase at Manong, where the Angolan Air Force had withdrawn its migs and hines from Guito-Quanavali, but the Americans warned Pretoria this would lead to Oshikati coming under direct attack. Yani Heldon has confirmed this at a media conference a couple of years later, saying both sides were well aware that if that happened, the war would escalate through a full-scale war between the Russians, the Cubans, South West Africans and the South Africans. Furthermore, the Russian diaries I've read are very clear that they were going to help the Cubans, in particular, set up air bases far in the South of Angoda from where they did indeed plan to bomb northern Abambalan. No one was going to win a war with that place, least of all Pretoria. So the SEDF was vacillating. Should they launch a two-pronged assault on Guito and Bomb Manong using three two battalion to the East and 61 Mech, which would then link up with Forsai and the tanks from the South, then capture the Lomba River crossing March North, only Fubless 13th Brigade stood in the way, they thought. That was not true. There were four brigades waiting for the South Africans. The other concept, a fluid mobile battle between the Lomba and Guito rivers, then heading North West to do Chambinga, surrounding four enemy brigades, and destroying them one-by-one through fainting strike appealed to most of the SEDF commanders, except for Colonel Rina Spandarensberg of the SA Medical Services. At a meeting he pointed out that there would be hundreds of casualties, and because the Angolans controlled the skies, SEDF casualties would bleed to death before they were chazavacked. That comment shone a bright light of reality on the conversation going on at Rundo HQ, because the loss of many more young South African men would be a political horror show for the national party and PW Buddha. Something else caught their attention, but now their logistic challenges were significant. The SEDF material on its way north of the Lomba River began its trip in Pretoria, then was dragged overland to Rundo Vaya Kuruman and to Mavinga and finally the front. Pretoria to Khrutfantane was 2,300 kilometres, Rundo to Mavinga 356 kilometres, the last part of the route through Busch, Mad Road, Jungle, the road trip from Rundo to Mavinga took more than five days alone, while the SAF was could help, they could not provide enough strategic air lift to keep a full brigade supplied. The SAF was increased their bombing raids on Papua's 21st and 59th brigades on the 16th October, and the Russians on the other side of the Quito River experienced the full brunt of these bombings on the 17th. Once later Egor Jadokin was sitting at his table in a bunker under a tree at the 21st Brigade command post at O-650 that morning when a South African Mirage swooped down towards him. "Oh anti-aircraft troops failed to see it in time!" he wrote in his diary. The aircraft hit the forward positions of the Brigade's first infantry battalion, but there were no casualties. However, the fact that it had sneaked up on the Brigade unnerved the Russians, so much for the bristling anti-aircraft defence system, they thought. As they all recovered, the second SAF was attacked rolled in at O-815, and Fubla Gunners weren't able to react in time once more. The Russians realized that the Mirages were flying low along the bank of the Kunzambia River out of sight of the Sam 8 missile systems, then they turned 180 degrees at low [BLANK_AUDIO] to the north and flew back low over the river towards the brigade. But they were determined not to be caught napping a third time and trained all their weapons northwards. That was in time to catch the third wave of four Mirages at ten hundred hours, ten, as these swooped in to strike the area of the twenty-first brigade's third battalion. Shadarken wrote that at least one Mirage was shot down by the strait at ten anti-aircraft missile system and a second was hit by a ZU-23 anti-aircraft auto cannon. The SA Air Force denied this. The brigade commander ordered a search party to head off to bring back bits of the Mirage as proof, but when the search party returned they were empty handed. It's the nature of this war that the highest tech battles, those involving the aircraft, are the most contested. It's the same in the Forklens battle, the same right now in the Russian war in Ukraine. Taking out an enemy aircraft is the kind of boast you have managed to defeat their most advanced and expensive bit of kit. So we'll leave the claims right there. Shadarken swears he saw two Mirages hit. The SA Air Force swears all formatted home unscathed. The first casualty in war is truth, as they say. While the long logistics route hampered the South Africans, it was the same for the enemy. The Cubans and the Russians had already warned the MPLA government in Luanda that their logistics would be stretched and that the SA Air Force may target the supply lines as a tactic. On the 19th of October, Fublas 21st Brigade began moving towards the 59th Brigade east of the Guido River close to the headwaters of the Dala River, and their orders were to be ready to mount a counterattack against the South Africans. The 21st Brigade managed to make 16 kilometres that day, although the SEDF artillery and wreckies picked up their movement. On the 20th, when South Africa's G5 guns found the arrange, most of the shells fell short of the Brigade as it chundled along making another 26 kilometres. The Angolans in turn were having problems with their artillery. The Brigade commander grappled with this all day. There were two main challenges. Firstly, they couldn't work out from where the South Africans were shelling, and secondly, according to Russian advisers, Fublas 21st Brigade commander couldn't work out exactly where he was. The problem was complicated. They had to work out the shell calibers, the range of the shells, and the places where the SEDF had hidden themselves, and the Angolan artillery commanders just could not agree on all of the above. So, as the Russians and Fublas settled down for the night of the 20th of October, the SEDF continued shelling them, but there were no casualties. By now, one wreckie had moved into their position just north of Fublas 21st Brigade, close to a wide floodplain that lay east to west, and just north of the Quattir River. One wreckie had been broken up into six teams, each having its own area of responsibility, and then provided with a specific task. There was slightly higher ground north of the Chumbinger River, so this provided a better view across the Angolan flatlands westwards. But hundreds of vehicle and antipersonal mines had been laid by Fublas as both sides settled into the final positions for the start of these battles, and these minefields posed a serious threat to the wreckie. Fublas had also set up machine gun nests, so they could rake any area when a mine was triggered making it doubly difficult for the South Africans. Another real worry was the wreckies layup technique that would lie motionless on the felt, and their own combat groups may drive over these concealed men at night. By now, the wreckies had decided that the mechanized units alongside were making far too much noise and moved their tactical HQ a few kilometres forward of two zero brigades busy tense. While an artillery forward observation officer was initially tasked with joining the wreckies, he was later removed because the quick learning operators got the hang of doing forward fire control themselves. All the while the Russians, the Cubans and the Angodans were moving into their defensive positions and digging in. On the 21st of October, 21 brigades sent reconnaissance groups to find the river nearby and determine exactly where they were. The rest of the brigade remained behind, and then they were bombarded by a South African or Unita artillery. Russians were in sure which. A day later in the 22nd and the brigades on the move once again, by 1500 hours 30, they had reached their destination on the southern bank of the Quattio River, just north of them were elements of one wreckie watching their movement. Two days later the SID of Shelling had increased, but the faplers artillery helped by Cubans and Russians were starting to figure out where the G-5s were located. At 0830 on the 23rd of October, faplers artillery let loose with several solvows towards the South African guns using BM-21 rockets and D-31-22 millimeter howitzers from temporary positions. These were then quickly withdrawn and within an hour they SID have fired back. The technique used by the Angolans was to go completely quiet and to try and figure out the location of the G-5s based on their sound. Not very sophisticated, quite accurate if you have an air for that sort of thing. It was on the 23rd that the Angolans tactical group commander Major Batista ordered his artillery to open fire on the SIDF based near the 59th Brigade. They were almost directly south of where 21st Brigade were based and the BM-21 systems each launcher armed with 34 shells let fly. There was an almost immediate response from the SIDF and the BM-21 launches were caught in their position finding a difficult to move away. There were some casualties. Our wretched armored troop carrier shook and we felt very uncomfortable. Egor Shdalkin wrote in his diary particularly in view of the howling and whistling of the shells flying over our heads. Steadily this war was drawing itself towards itself. By the 30th of October Forsyre had arrived south of Movinga ready for battle. It was a powerful unit and mechanized battalion groups similar in size to 61 Mac including two mechanized infantry companies of Rytal-20s, an armored car squadron of Rytal-90s, a support company of Rytal-90s as well as Rytal-60s with Milan anti-tank missiles and a few Rytal-81s which was a self-propelled mortar 81mm system. The unit also called on 120mm mortar batteries, anti-aircraft troops or asterfarks, a pioneer platoon of Rytal-20s and a combat engineer troop. But by far the most important addition with the 13 Ulyfun tanks, 12+1 reserve and a murderized infantry company from 3 to battalion was added for good measure. This was the first time since the SA Army had fought in Italy in 1945 that tanks were going to support infantry in action. In command of the Ulyfun was Major Andrei Rytiff who was going to make a name for himself in the coming weeks as you'll hear. This battalion group of more than 1,000 men was led by Comandan Dio-Mare who had fought in both Operation Protein and Daisy. The artillery was also joined by another G5 battery and a troop of self-propelled guns. Remember I mentioned one broke down but they were really still in advanced testing mode. A Valkyrie mobile rocket launcher troop joined just in case. The tanks in particular gave the troops more confidence while the mechanized brigade officers were even more optimistic, having been forced to fight T-54s and T-55s with a rifle '90s that were really no match on paper. The reality however was that South Africans only had enough conscripts and professionals to fill a single tank squadron in the field. Days turned into weeks and Farpler had a chance to catch their breath as they faced the smattering of South Africans shelling them. Their wreckies during the monitoring, three two battalion and unit are snarping and deploying guerrilla tactics once more. The SED of veterans of the Lomba battle, earlier in October, we're still recovering. The enemy had been thrown off balance by the defeat of 47 Brigade and the hammering taken by the 21st. But the Angolans were quickly regaining their composure as evidenced by the Russian descriptions. It is now that we must consider something that had been eroding steadily through the last 10 years of war, South Africa's economy. Years of war had drained the country exacerbated by the collapse in the value of exports in 1987. It's hard for some to remember if you were around then, but the rate of inflation was 15% in the third quarter of 1987. Still, better than 1986 when it was 26%. However, as I record this in 2023, it's just under 7% to give a listen to some idea of what was going on economically. You see, by 1985 already, South Africa was mired in crippling debt of over $24 billion, mainly owed to Swiss banks. In 1987, we were being accused of propping up the apartheid system by eroding over interest on the debt which Pretoria could not pay. South Africa sent head out the cook, the head of its central bank, to meet foreign creditors, but they were generally reluctant to extend loans. And the first step towards resolving the essay debt problem, representatives of 29 banks of all five major industrial countries, had met in London to begin negotiations on rescheduling Pretoria's massive foreign debt. Within the next year, the government of P.W. Boerter was facing an internal uprising, economic headwinds, growing numbers of conscientious objectors refusing to serve in its army, and Foupler's determination to crush Unita. In 1986, international banks extended about $515 million U.S. dollars and short term loans to South Africa's state-owned corporations, mainly to its power entity Iskim. Yes, the centrally planned and agronistic state power company was being bailed out in the mid-80s already. So by now, In 1987, Switzerland, by all intents and purposes, had become South Africa's bank. The country's gold was sold in the world market by Swiss banks during apartheid, and Switzerland was the lifeline for South African exports. The apartheid government opened a financial consulate in Zürich in 1987. It was so important. It was after that many South African companies transferred their foreign assets to Switzerland, giving the country a gateway to the rest of the world. In 1987, for example, the Rembrandt Corporation set up company financier Rishmung in Zug, Switzerland, and it's still there. All of this was going on as the tanks arrived from the South, the Ulyfans, and the men were going to bleed some more. Victoria was hemorrhaging cash. It was inside southern Angola and over its head, but this didn't stop the soldiers on the ground from fighting tooth and nail over the next few months, often turning imminent defeat into victory, as you're going to hear. Please rate the podcast on iTunes, it helps raise the visibility of the series. If you want to contact me, head off to abwarparkars.com, there's a contact form in the homepage, or direct message me on Twitter @dearsladen. Until next, Perspect. [Music]