Episode 27 - A prelude to Operation Reindeer and the SADF airborne attack on Cassinga
This is episode 27 and we’re focusing on the end of 1977 through to early 1978. Later that year Operation Reindeer would once again shake southern African political leadership and cause more ripples in the global pond – and also leave a legacy which SWAPO continues to commemorate to this day.
Just as an aside – this week I had a chance to discuss various tactics and matters with General Roland de Vries who is one of the most important military tacticians of the SADF. He was instrumental in setting up 61 Mechanised Battalion Group which first saw action during Operation Reindeer. So through the next few episodes we’ll hear his first-hand account of various action and his innovative leadership concepts.
At times I will include the voices of those who fought on both sides which I’m sure you’ll find informative. Remember this is not a series that seeks to glorify war – it seeks to inform and educate those who have no idea what significant events and issues are at the heart of our recent past and to honour those who are no longer with us.
Because, as we know, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it and no-where is the more apparent than in Southern Africa.
Om Podcasten
Much has been written about the South African Border war which is also known as the Namibian War of Independence. While the fighting was ostensibly about Namibia, most of the significant battles were fought inside Namibia’s northern neighbour, Angola.
South Africa’s 23 year border war has been almost forgotten as the Cold War ebbed away and bygones were swept under the political carpet. South African politicians, particularly the ANC and the National Party, decided during negotiations to end years of conflict that the Truth and Reconciliation commission would focus on the internal struggle inside South Africa.
For most conscripts in the South African Defence Force, the SADF, they completed matric and then were drafted into the military. For SWAPO or UNITA or the MPLA army FAPLA it was a similar experience but defined largely by a political awakening and usually linked to information spread through villages and in towns.
This was a young person’s war which most wars are – after all the most disposable members of society are its young men. Nor was it simply a war between white and black. IT was more a conflict on the ground between red and green. Communism and Capitalism.
The other reality was despite being a low-key war, it was high intensity and at times featured unconventional warfare as well as conventional. SADF soldiers would often fight on foot, walking patrols, contacts would take place between these troops and SWAPO. There were many conventional battles involving motorised heavy vehicles, tanks, artillery, air bombardments and mechanised units rolling into attack each other. The combatants included Russians, American former Vietnam vets, Cubans, East Germans and Portuguese.