On 30 September 1985 the Angolan and Cuban forces operating in Angola suffered a spate of helicopter losses that effected their ability to support their troops. For a long time they were not able to understand what had happened to their valuable helicopters and...
The GAZ-66 truck was extensively used in Angola and Mozambique, primarily by the Soviet-backed liberation movements and later the national armies (MPLA in Angola, FRELIMO in Mozambique) during their respective wars of independence and subsequent civil wars. The...
In Angola during January 1986, Cuban intelligence services received reports from near the city of Huambo that many local village women were using parachute material to wrap their infants onto their backs. Rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and his National Union for the Total...
Lubango, March 1986. Maj Eduardo Gonzalez directing preparations for the MiG-23 ferry flights from Lubango to Huambo, to position for the C-130 interception missions
Capt Raul Rubio strapping into the front seat of a MiG-23UB for a night-training flight during March 1986
The T-54/55 was a primary main battle tank used by Angolan and Cuban forces in the Southern African conflict (South African Border War). These tanks frequently engaged the South African Defence Force's (SADF) lighter, wheeled armored vehicles, such as the Ratel 90,...
The BTR-152 was a significant, though often vulnerable, piece of military hardware in the Angolan and Mozambican Civil Wars, primarily used by the Soviet-backed government forces of the MPLA and FRELIMO, respectively. Angola In Angola, the BTR-152 was a standard piece...
In the dramatic power struggle for Angola in 1987, South African Air Force Mirage F1s tackled MiG-23s in the skies above south-western Africa. Lionel Reid recounts the story Angola 1987. The Soviet and Angolan MPLA forces decided on an ambitious plan: a large-scale...
One of the last modern conflicts which saw the extensive combat deployment of the T-34-85 was the Angolan Civil War. In 1975, the Soviet Union shipped eighty T-34-85s to Angola as part of its support for the ongoing Cuban military intervention there. Cuban crewmen...
The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious light tank that was introduced in the early 1950s and soon became the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the other Warsaw Pact armed forces. It was widely exported to other friendly states, like Angola, India,...
Cuban pilot of MiG-21 killed in Angola, other sources say MIG-23 ML near Lubango
Cangamba, at nightfall on 7 August 1983, there was a heavy firefight in front of Sector No. 1 as UNITA advanced from the houses, shouting, and the defenders were forced to retreat. The artillery fire destroyed the last remaining BRDM. In Sector No. 3, Cuban...
Killed in action during the Battle of Cangamba in Angola on August 6, 1983
Gómez Planelles, Eddy (Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas, 11/6/68). Sapper. Died in a mine explosion on March 4, 1989, during the battles at Cuito Cuanavale. His body, completely destroyed, could not be recovered. He is remembered in Cuba, with a school in...
(Trinidad, 26-7-66). SMG. Died on 3-12-87 from a mine explosion (six of his comrades died along with him). He was part of a reinforcement column headed for Cuito Cuanavale. Birth: He was born on July 26, 1966, in Trinidad, Cuba, into a working-class...
Pilot Lazo, Hermenegildo M. (San José de las Lajas, 13-4-52). Died in action when his unit was attacked on 28-8-84, in Luena at about 20h00 (Mortar attack) Birth: April 13, 1952, in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba. Family: He was the eldest of...