Episode 60 – Tsumeb farmers suffer repeated blows as SWAPOs Operation Typhoon sows destruction in the Triangle of Death

We left off last episode with SWAPOs Operation Typhoon under way inside the Triangle of Death, that area between Tsumeb, Otavi and Grootfontein. Forty two members of this operation had hidden at Effense Chana and taken out a Ratel, three were killed by Alouette gunships in the follow up action, but the others got away, heading northwards to safety in Angola. Eleven members of the security forces were dead, about a dozen injured. This was not a normal SWAPO assault on the farming area, it was a concerted and well planned operation, the tactics had altered. There were still 105 other SWAPO guerrilla’s on the move in the Triangle or nearby and 61 Mech trackers were trying to pick up their trail before they did even more damage. Joining them were a vengeful group of farmers from the Triangle, including the man we met last week, Kaalvoet Izak, who writer Deon Lamprecht describes as die vegtende Boere van Tsumeb – the fighting farmers of Tsumeb. Others were Dave Keyser and Reinhard Friederich, and in her farm house at Koedoesvlei, Tantie Pompie who’s husband Daantjie had died during the Effense Chana ambush. AT 61 Mech HQ, Roland de Vries was determined to stop SWAPO, and headed to Tsumeb aerodrome two days after the ambush to meet reinforcements being flown in. Captain Jan Malan and his Alpha company were back in the field. You can say it’s a bit like falling off a horse – his company had seen the Ratel destroyed, their men killed, but he and his men had to get back on the horse immediately – no sitting around at 61 Mech HQ – Tsintsabis, drowning their sorrows. SWAPO wasn’t hanging around either. Two days after their successful ambush, they shot and killed a farm worker just north of Tsintsabis, toying with the security forces – here we are, they seemed to be saying, come and get us. Then a short while later Rifleman JDG du Toit died in a contact with SWAPO in the same area.

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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.