On 11 January 1983, 32Bn Sergeant Dave van der Merwe and the four members of his reconnaissance team were flown by helicopter to a point 20 km east of the Virulundo mountain, 65 km south of Varai. It took them four days to hike to the top of the mountain, which...
South African
Operation Meebos
The aim of Operation Meebos was to prevent FAPLA from re-occupying the towns of Xangongo and Ongiva.The secondary aim was to pinpoint and destroy enemy headquarters and caches and to disrupt its logistical routes. As an added instruction the force had to keep the...
Operation Kerslig
Operation Kerslig (Operation Candle Light) was a South African Defence Force special forces raid on an oil refinery outside Luanda, Angola. The raid took place on 30 November 1981 by members of the 1 and 4 Reconnaissance Regiments
Operation Domino
Operation Domino was a combined military operation in May 1981 that involved the South African 32 Battalion, 44 Parachute Brigade, and 5 Recce. The operation's objective was to set up vehicle ambushes on the road between Xangongo and Lubango, and to destroy storm...
Operation Zulu
On 4 January 1981, 32 Battalion’s Alpha, Bravo and Charlie companies joined forces with a company from 1 Parachute Battalion to seek and destroy SWAPO’s Northern Front headquarters, believed to lie west of Ongiva. The parabats deployed south-east of Mongua in...
Images of War
Photorealistic pencil drawings by the author with his own poetry. The book is a poignant exploration of the human experience of South Africans at war in the Rhodesian, SWA and Angolan bush. Author: Peter Badcock Publisher: Graham ISBN: 9780620053440
Operation Loodvoet
Intelligence had indicated that SWAPO’s Far Eastern detachment was operating from a base at Chana Namaudi, but Still’s platoon found no sign of enemy presence there, despite spending the whole of 1 April in stopper group positions on the edge of the chana, while 32...
Operation Makalani
On 20 February, Sector 10 HQ issued Operational Order 2/80, authorising 52 Battalion and 32 Battalion to conduct an operation to clear the area north of Beacon 6 to Beacon 13 of SWAPO. From his tactical headquarters at Ogongo, Deon "Falcon" Ferreira would command six...
Operation Driehoek
When radio intercepts indicated that SWAPO was stockpiling supplies for a possible attack on Eenhana or Elundu, it became necessary to disrupt the so-called Far Eastern Front. Measured against the frequency of contact with the enemy, Operation Driehoek (triangle) was...
The Battle for South Africa
Undeclared War In the light of developments in Southern Africa during the last few months of 1978, it has been decided to add two new chapters to the second edition of this book. These are an Introduction, entitled The Third South African War, and a new Chapter 4,...
Operation Uric
OP URIC is the controversial operation of The Rhodesian War. Though it resulted in over 300 enemy dead for the loss of 15 of their own (the highest of the war) the Rhodesians, with their very high operational standards, did not regard it as a success. There was...
Operation Motel I
Rhodesian military operation in Zambia with clandestine assistance from the South African Air Force (SAAF) during the Rhodesian Bush War. The Rhodesian Air Force planned raids against a ZIPRA camp in Northern Zambia. The operation consisted of two raids on a ZIPRA...
Counter Insurgency In SW Africa
South Africa vs SWAPO Terrorists The story may be apocryphal, but judging by the depth of sentiment expressed when it is recounted, I doubt it. The way it was told to me by a senior member. of SWAPO's external military command in Addis Ababa a few years ago, it...
Operation Reindeer
On 22 April 1978, a group of SWAPO hijacked a bus travelling between Oshakati and Ruacana and drove the 73 passengers aboard across the border into Angola. Three days later, the South African government formally accepted proposals for a negotiated settlement to the...
Operation Kropduif
Six months earlier, during Operation Bucksaw, it had been determined that there was a major SWAPO base some six kilometres north-west of Chana Golf. Aerial reconnaissance photographs of the base had been taken, and documents captured at Tofima during Seiljag 3...
Operation Seiljag 3
This offensive differed from its predecessors in that all the 32 Battalion companies were deployed in Owamboland, and spent the first seven days attacking designated targets in the ‘shallow’ area between four and nine kilometres inside Angola. A tactical headquarters...