The Border War

The man with the MGL

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Infantry section seen here during South West Africa and Angola Border War. This is a SADF patrol final inspection (thought to be 5 SAI), this task was usually performed by the section leaders before the platoon moves out. His job was to check that every man’s kit is in full order. Here he checks the ammunition and kit of the man allocated the 40 mm multiple grenade launcher.

Infantry sections like this were made up of 10 men comprising a section leader – usually a corporal, two machine gun groups – LMG (Light machine gun) and one man on the multiple grenade launcher (MGL) in the rifle group.

Three Infantry sections made up a Platoon headed which report to a HQ group of 5 men, including a Platoon Commander (usually a Lt or 2Lt) and a Platoon Sergeant. Total platoon strength 35 men.

The MGL (Multiple Grenade Launcher) is a lightweight 40 mm six-shot revolver-type grenade launcher (variations also fire 37/38mm) developed and manufactured in South Africa by Milkor (Pty) Ltd. This MGL was the world’s first mass-produced multi-shot 40mm hand-held weapon.

The MGL was demonstrated as a concept to the South African Defence Force (SADF) in 1981. The operating principle was immediately accepted and subjected to a stringent qualification program. The MGL was then officially accepted into service with the SADF as the Y2. After its introduction in 1983, the MGL was gradually adopted by the armed forces and law enforcement organizations of over 50 countries. Total production since 1983 has been more than 50,000 units.

The MGL is a multiple-shot weapon, intended to significantly increase a small squad’s firepower when compared to traditional single-shot grenade launchers like the M203. The MGL is designed to be simple, rugged, and reliable. It uses the well-proven revolver principle to achieve a high rate of accurate fire which can be rapidly brought to bear on a target. A variety of rounds such as HE, HEAT, anti-riot baton, irritant, and pyrotechnic can be loaded and fired as fast as the trigger can be pulled; the cylinder can be loaded or unloaded rapidly to maintain a high rate of fire. Although intended primarily for offensive and defensive use with high-explosive rounds, with appropriate ammunition the launcher is suitable for anti-riot and other security operations. A newly patented modification allows the MGL to fire less lethal (very low pressure) rounds.

Photo copyright John Liebenberg, sources Wikipedia and Defence Network.

Lost MiG – pilot Lt Vinez never “defected” to South Africa

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Much has been speculated and written regarding the circumstances under which this Angolan MiG-21bis (C340), piloted by Lt Vinez landed up on Schneider-Waterberg’s farm near Otjiwarongo, South West Africa (now Namibia).  However this is the true story.

On 14/12/1988 a MiG-21bis Fishbed of FAPA, took-off from the airfield at Lubango (FNBU position 14:56South 13:35East). Lt Vinez at the controls of the aircraft climbed to altitude on a general heading of 090 degree for a routine ferry flight from FNBU to the airfield at Menongue (FNME 14:39South 17:41East). The aircraft encountered clouds along the route, and Lt Vinez continued eastwards as planned. However on a number of occasions the aircraft entered clouds and upon regaining visual contact with the ground, he no longer could orientate himself as to where he was. After a while, he elected to divert to Cuito Cuanavale (FNCV), South East of FNME.

According to Lt Vinez, he had lost all his visual queues, he had been used to use when navigating between these airfields.

After setting a South Easterly heading, he continued believing that he would soon pick up the beacons of FNCV, this never happened (he was way to the west of the planned route) at this time. The only maps carried in FAPA aircraft were standard ‘Shell’ road maps, these maps are near to useless in the aviation environment, let-alone use it during an Instrument Flight Rules mission!

He continued, after approximately 20 minutes, he had crossed a major river (the Cubago), which he believed to be the Cuito River. The area to the East of the Cuito River was UNITA occupied territory. Continuing on his present course, the aircraft began giving the pilot a ‘Low Fuel’ warning. At that time he elected to attempt an emergency landing, after preparing the aircraft for the Forced Landing, he selected an open field, and executed a near prefect ‘normal’ landing. The aircraft only sustained minor damage.

Fuelled by National Party propaganda and state owned media in South Africa – this event was set up as “defection” to South Africa – in much the same way that Soviet and Cuban Communists defected to the “West” during the Cold War. The truth of the matter is Lt Vinez had no intent on defecting to the Republic of South Africa/South West Africa. During discussions at the accident site with him, his greatest concern was that he was indeed in UNITA occupied territory. It took some time to convince him otherwise.

Content courtesy of the SAAF forum

SCOPE Magazine – any troopie’s ‘must have’ reading material

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SCOPE magazine – the ‘must have’ reading material for any troop serving in the SADF during the 70’s and the 80’s, many a SCOPE centre-fold model adorned signal/Ops rooms, tents and bungalow walls during the Border War.

By today’s standards SCOPE would be seen as a pretty tame mens lifestyle magazine, but then it pushed the barriers of soft porn and allowable content banned by the government of the day’s censorship board.

The magazine was launched in 1966 by Winston Charles Hyman and Jack Shepherd Smith became the long-time editor. Scope magazine would achieve iconic status in South African media as a publication that petitioned for freedom of the press with its censorship-defying content. The magazine was also known for placing strategically placed black stars concealing certain body parts of the nude female models per the censorship regulations.

The magazine had an on-going battle with the National Party’s Apartheid era policies of media censorship.  In 1972, the censor board of South Africa banned the weekly magazine, but this was overturned by the Supreme Court. This marked the seventh time in four years that the board had banned the magazine. The censor board had taken exception to a photograph published in May by the magazine, that showed a black man in New York embracing a white woman. They also took exception to a semi-nude shoot of a model in the forest and at the beach. In other attempts, the board had formerly attempted to ban the magazine because of a cover article on abortion and a story on test tube babies. In 1975, editor Shepherd Smith maintained that fair censorship was impossible in South Africa because of the cultural diversity of the nation “Whose particular way of life are the censors going to help to uphold?”. In May 1976, again the censor board issued a notice banning the magazine.

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However believe it or not, SCOPE also had excellent editorial content and investigative journalism receiving a number of industry awards.

The magazine also covered important crime stories. In 1984 the weekly published a telephone interview with South Africa’s most-wanted bank robber Allan Heyl of the Stander Gang who was in hiding in Britain at the time. The newspaper has also covered political stories and interviewed figures such as the spy Craig Williamson.

Stories also appeared during the South African Border War that celebrated the military training of SADF soldiers and contributed to a sense of heroism. The weekly also published a series on the experiences of Horace Morgan, an ex-psychiatric patient who spent 37 years in mental institutions. Scope conducted interviews with Morgan (who had been admitted in 1937 after losing his memory) and reported the hostility of the institutions and Morgan’s inability to escape the fate of a “wasted, tragic life in a cage”.

Several notable journalists have contributed to the magazine. In 1990, former Sunday Times writer, Jani Allan launched the self-titled Jani Allan column at Scope.  An article written by Allan on 5 October 1990, volume 25, number 20 in the magazine was presented to the South African parliament in 1991 in support of a legislation issue.

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As the apartheid policies and governance crumbled in the 1990s, so too did the magazine.  Ironic considering it had played such an iconic role in countenance to Apartheid and it’s policies.  In a sense its success lay in the ability to challenge the status quo and to sensationalise it – it was taken up and enjoyed by thousands of young white South African men seeking an avenue to express their sense of independence and individualism. It was especially appealing to those serving in the armed forces where conformity and censorship was the order of the day.  With no status quo and censorship laws left to challenge, the magazine found itself without a mission.  It suffered from heavy circulation losses and the final issue was published in 1996.

For a great insight into the magazine in its heyday, order ‘The Journey Man” a biography by Chris Marais, Chis was a contributing journalist and his insights into the magazine are second to none – here’s a link The Journey Man by Chris Marais

Researched by Peter Dickens. Source wikipedia.  Photo copyright John Liebenberg

South Africa’s “Vietnam” – the tactical use of the helicopter during the Bush War

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South Africa’s ‘Vietnam’ in a Bush War photo not too dissimilar to a Vietnam War image, an elite South African rapid response unit prepares to be debused from a South African Air Force Puma helicopter somewhere on the Angolan and South West African Border. What a great photo by Peter Marlow.

Not interested in keeping permanent “firebases” in Angola to stem insurgency,  similar to the American tactics used in Vietnam the South Africans extensively used the helicopter to shuttle reaction forces directly to an identified target and take them back once their “search and destroy” mission had been completed.

Image copyright – Peter Marlow

Border War Characters – Major Tickli Kessler

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Famous characters of the Border War – Major Helmuth Adolf (Tikli) Kessler, who flew a PA28 Cherokee which he converted to have fire power and bombing capability in support of operations.

Major Kessler from the SWATF (South West Africa Territorial Force) – 1 SWA Squadron used the PA28 primarily as a spotter and also engaged combatants with his improvised weapons system. He was tragically killed whist supporting ground operations in 1982.

Major Kessler had a ” tube” which he used to drop grenades from between the seats and the two RPK’s (each with two 40 round RPK magazines welded together) under the wings.

He experienced an engine failure (attributed to a bent valve) whilst in support of ground operations and called in a forced landing. On landing the plane up-ended and the grenades in the tube fell out and exploded.

Major Kessler was regarded as a bush war a legend with a larger than life personality and he is sorely missed by all who knew him.

SADF mass armed incursions into Angola – not an occupation, there’s a big difference.

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Political cartoon in Die Burger 17 January 1984 which quite accurately captures the mood felt by the readership base and South Africans serving and/or in support of the Bush war’s objectives.

Operation Askari, launched in December 1983 was the SADF’s sixth large-scale cross-border operation into Angola and was intended to disrupt the logistical support and command & control capabilities of PLAN (SWAPO’s military wing) in order to suppress a large-scale incursion into South West Africa/Namibia that was planned for the beginning of 1984. The communist Cuban backed FAPLA army of the Angolan governing party MPLA also became involved in some of the skirmishes and where heavily defeated.

The operation was highly successful and severely contained PLAN (SWAPO) armed insurrections into South West Africa/Namibia for some time to come.  The political cartoon also quite accurately captures the SADF policy with regard to Angola at the time, which was not one of occupation, but one of massed armed incursion into Angola to tactically destroy predefined SWAPO targets, conduct a search and destroy mission for other targets, gather intelligence and then the safe and orderly return to their bases along the South West African border once all the mission objectives were attained.  The duration of these operations were usually limited by the extent that logistics – supplies of food, water, ammunition, troop support etc – would allow.

These large armed incursion operations into Angola were branded by Cuban and MPLA propaganda as one of SADF “occupation”, of Angola, the SADF’s return to base branded as “beaten back” by brave Cuban and MPLA troops resisting the subjugation of Apartheid and preventing an invasion –  which is entirely untrue as the return to base was always part of the SADF’s logistics planning.

The belief that the SADF intended occupation and was “defeated” was complete gibberish then and it’s still utter gibberish today.

Annals of wars we don’t know about: The South African border war of 1966 – 1989 By Robert Goldich

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It’s rare and quite refreshing to see insight like this on the Border War from foreign Defence analysts, or even contemporary South African Defence analysts (due to political bias) – but this one by an American, Robert Goldich is particularly good – enjoy – Peter Dickens.

By Robert Goldich

Best Defense panel of consulting historians

There aren’t many truly unknown wars these days. Military history writing, scholarly and popular and in between, has mushroomed over the past several decades. But military events under the Southern Cross receive much less attention, because the vast majority of the developed countries are well north of the Equator.

Reading South African accounts of the 23-year long Border War between South Africa and the Angolan liberation movement UNITA on the one hand, and the Angolan government and army, supported by large Cuban forces on the other, is almost hypnotically compelling. This is not only because for most of us north of the Equator it is so distant. The names of both natural features and people involved, and the range of cultures they represent, sound exotic to our ears, and hold one’s attention.

The tactical and operational lessons from the Border War are mostly variations on usual military themes — solid and relevant training, doctrine, and attitudes — but that the most significant lessons of this conflict for the United States are far broader, and sobering, in nature.

What happened?
South Africa came under steadily increasing foreign criticism and isolation beginning in the 1960s due to its policy of apartheid, or racially discriminatory separatism. Armed resistance by black Africans took two forms. One was isolated acts of terrorism in South Africa itself mounted by black liberation movements based in bordering countries, mostly under the direction of the African National Congress (ANC) and its military component, Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK). The MK’s attacks were mere pinpricks at best.

Far more formidable was a guerrilla movement against South African rule in Southwest Africa (SWA), later independent Namibia, beginning in the late 1960s, by the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO). The latter would also have remained insignificant had not Portuguese colonial rule collapsed in Angola, directly north of SWA, in 1974-1975. This left a military vacuum from which SWAPO forces could train, equip, and debouch into northern SWA without any hindrance. Interestingly, nothing similar developed on the other side of Africa. Mozambique, where Portuguese rule had also evaporated, had close economic ties with South Africa and was not willing to see those vanish for the sake of anti-apartheid military campaigns. Furthermore, South African special operations forces, both covert and clandestine to varying degrees, severely crippled the MK’s ability to build up and sustain forces capable of attacking South Africa from all of the black African states which bordered South Africa.

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The Bush War – UNITA captures Cuban pilots

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October 31, 1987 South Africa’s Angolan ally in the Border War – The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, known by its Portuguese acronym UNITA, captured two Cubans after shooting down their MIG-23 jet over Angola’s eastern province of Moxico. Cuba, in an unprecedented public admission, confirmed the incident identifying the Cubans as Lt. Col. Manuel Rocas Garcia and Capt. Ramos Cazados.

Photo courtesy of the Russian Angolan Veterans Union.