South African Border Wars
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Episode 13 – A Beechcraft recon plane “Dinky Toy” crashes but Foxbat & Zulu push onwards in Operation Savannah
23 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode 13 and its October 1975. Two SADF Task Forces are busy in Angola, Foxbat is in the south East, the other - Zulu has just taken the por...
Episode 12 – Xangongo, Ongiva, Lubango and Namibe fall in Operation Savannah
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode 12 and we’re covering the first weeks of Operation Savannah which began in October 1975. Battle Group Zulu had entered Angola ...
Episode 11 – Battle Group Foxbat retreats but a blitzkrieg begins as Task Force Zulu gears up
09 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We heard last episode how Battle Group Foxbat had been heading towards Norton de Matos or Balombo as its now know, en route to the port of Lobito in s...
Episode 10 – Operation Savannah begins as the SADF pocket force Foxbat faces FAPLA
02 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We ended last week with the growing signs of an Angolan civil war becoming a major problem for South West Africa and the South African Defence Force. ...
Episode 9 – The Alvor agreement debacle sends Angola into a civil war tailspin and SWAPO takes advantage
25 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By 1974 the number of desertions from the Portuguese military numbered 25 000 the youngsters of the country were unwilling to fight non-winnable colon...
Episode 8 – The Portuguese pull out of Africa and the first Reccie dies in Angola
18 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode 8 and we’re dealing with the period in the early 1970s as the border war began to escalate - and the first death of an SADF sold...
Episode 7 – SWAPO escalates incursions and the SADF eventually takes over from the SA Police
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode 7 and the political pressure is building when it comes to the United Nations and South West African independence. At the time that S...
Episode 6 - The Battle of Omugulugwombashe ushers in the formal period of the armed struggle in South West
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The concerted campaign against South Africa’s mandate to run South West Africa began in 1960 with the shock of both the Sharpeville Massacre and...
Episode 5 – The South African Defence Force re-arms as the Angolan war of independence overflows into South West
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was inevitable that the South West African People’s Organisation or SWAPO would begin to mobilise south of the border. Pretoria’s respo...
Episode 4 - Cold War race-paranoia and how the Portuguese faced an Angolan knife-edge in 1961
20 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re going to focus on the first two years - 1961 and 1962 in this episode which was about the same time as the South West African People&rsquo...
Episode 3 - Congo uprisings and the war for independence in Angola turns up the Cold War heat
14 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The scramble for Africa accelerated after the 1884 partition of the continent where European nations agreed to divvy up Africa in a meeting arranged b...
Episode 2 - South Africa’s poisoned mandate and SWAPO emerges as the key early struggle movement
07 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By 1914 the German colony had been developing slowly but steadily – but it was very much a backwater even amongst the hazy list of obscure colon...
Episode 1 – German South West Africa and its bloody birth
28 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ab...