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  1. #21
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Thank you for the write up Doc, the perspective from the man on the ground is always interesting and frightening. Respect.
    Don’t take life too seriously, no one gets out alive.

  2. #22
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Ronnie Kasrils - old English word meaning : lying, arrogant, devious idiot.

  3. #23
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Hi Willie

    Thanks for the posts, very interesting to hear from someone who was there.

    I had a cousin who was involved in some of the Lomba River fighting and his accounts are more in line with yours and General Geldenhuys's than those of the ANC, communists and especially Kasrils.

  4. #24
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    In my collection I have a Cuban medal that was issued to commemorate their "victory" at the Lomba River...


  5. #25
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    What is a forgotten part of the operations is the fact that if the Cubans had moved south into Owamboland in the west. The Navy, Marines and Parabats were then going to do an amphibious and air assault into Namibe harbour and destroy all of the stores and the harbour facilities. This would done serious damage to the Cuban ability to resupply. The exercise for the Operation was Magersfontein. There even going to land ferret armoured cars equiped with Anti-Tank missiles. The goal was to stay for 24 hours. This time frame would have allowed the sappers enough time to demo everything. Allegedly this exercise was closely watched by the Cubans and caused them reevaluate the options before them. If they were going to invade and this operation went ahead they would have been stranded in Northern South West Africa(Namibia).

    http://samilitaryhistory.org/15/p15aprne.html
    The link above is short history of the planning for the operation.

  6. #26
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    In 1987, there were four G-6 pre-production models, undergoing final qualification tests. They were commanded by Bombardiers van der Poll, Bozyczko, Germs and Venter (the last would be me). As far as I can remember, on 10 September, I was called into the CO's office in 14Veld Potchefstroom to choose a gun crew and report. No indication of where we were going.

    It turns out that one of the 61Meg G-5 guns had a barrel burst (projectile going off in the barrel), killing one of the crew and injuring the rest (and destroying the gun, of course). My crew and me were to be the replacements. At that stage, I had never fired or worked on a G-5 gun/howitzer (although the G-6 is very similar). We flew to Rundu and from there to Mavinga with a G-5 in the Flossie.

    Over the next three months, we moved every night. Every night. We were facing enemy artillery in the form of the D-30, which had less than half the range of the G-5. I remember only one occasion where we were seriously "shelled", we were apparently only 12km from the enemy "stelling" (gun position).

    Once, we re-deployed in a "stelling" that we had evacuated two days before, and that was the day the Migs found us. I remember running for a foxhole while they were shooting at us (machine guns, not bombs dropped).

    I also remember a very young Unita troop shooting down a Mig with a Stinger missile while we were standing under the trees waiting for the planes to pass. Apparently he was a Lieutenant the next day! We were protected (rondom verdediging) by Unita and 32 Bn.

    The remaining 3 G-6s eventually came up to Angola, more as a field test than a real threat to the enemy. "My" gun came up as spares, as there were no crew to operate it.

    The other thing I remember to this day, is a "bestoking" (fire mission) on a convoy that was passing within 10km from our position. First, a bit of background on the average gunner: During training, you orient (lay) the gun, then wait for a fire mission. When that comes through, it is in the form of "Gun Delta - 5 shots - fire for effect!". Every gunner dreams of a 20 shot fire mission ("20 skote doelvuur!"). Another important point - "Repeat" is an artillery command. It means do the same thing again. So, on a radio, if you did not get the message, you NEVER said "REPEAT", you said "Say again".

    So, there I am, the last gun in the position (right-most gun). The guns in the battery are spread with approximately 100m between them, in a row. And the convoy is passing 90 degrees to our right (on the other side of a hill, me being at the foot of the hill). So The Powers That Be decide that my gun has to redeploy to the right, and that only my gun will be used on the enemy, to have the others shoot over our heads is too dangerous (in case of another early burst).

    With the convoy that close, the elevation of the gun was so low that it barely cleared the hilltop. One of my crew had to take an axe to go chop down a tree at the top of the hill (Southern Angola was full of soft thin trees, easy to chop down). All this had to take place at speed, as the convoy was not waiting for us.

    So, once we were in position, gun aimed, the command came over the radio. "100 skote doelvuur!". Imagine that. Never happened before as far as anybody knew. So we started shooting. Now, the ammo on the "stelling" was only about 40 or so projectiles, so the Kwevoe"l ammo supply vehicle actually parked some 25m behind the gun and we shot directly from the truck. Some of the other guns' crew members came to help - you can imagine how tiring running up and down between the truck and the gun with a 42kg projectile can be.

    Every few shots, we would be stopped, the gun re-aimed, and the fire mission continued. When, at last, the "100 skote gevuur" confirmation was given, the response was "Staan by". After a minute or two, "Repeat!"

    93 shots into the second fire mission, we were stopped, we could see the glow of the fires over the horizon. Eventually, we went to sleep. The next morning, we shot another few shots, but nothing spectacular. All told, we (one gun) fired 214 shots in a 24 hour period. Probably to this day a record in the SA Artillery.

    We did fire at Cuito Cuanavale on several occasions. Once, we took out the airstrip by landing a few 155mm projectiles on the landing strip.

    So, if we lost the battle, I missed that part.

  7. #27
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Quote Originally Posted by KK20 View Post
    Thank you for posting. Interesting.


    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...e-city-specter


    One cannot help but wonder who won what ( the man on the street is worse off now and fewer freedoms)

    Keep South African internal politics aside, the SA government should never settled without compensation. They should have extracted everything to cover costs at least.
    I had read of how expensive Luanda had become but didn't read anything beyond that. It's a pretty damned ridiculous situation.

  8. #28
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Really appreciate all the contributions from those that were there, thank you.

  9. #29
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    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie Barnard View Post
    he conveniently forgets to count all the UNITA dead, as well as SWATF members.
    UNITA dropped in some numbers, but SWATF (mostly the 101 Bn Reaction Force companies - 901/2/3/4 Special Service Companies - and some mobile infantry companies - who weren't necessarily RM, but are easily confused, the one with the other) lost only a few troops killed with a number wounded.

    But, between the 101 Bn companies (attached to 61 Mech Battalion to form 61 Mech Brigade) and the UNITA footsoldiers they accounted for thousands of the FAPLA KIA.

    This is one of the reasons I become so incensed with that stupid lying meme doing the rounds claiming that a couple hundred 'boerseuns' accounted for the victory. That meme is a flat out lie... and seriously dishonours the real combatants in the field that day.
    "Always remember to pillage before you burn"
    Unknown Barbarian

  10. #30

    Default Re: Cuito Cuanavale (BBC 4) - 18min

    Quote Originally Posted by zs6hdv View Post
    In 1987, there were four G-6 pre-production models, undergoing final qualification tests. They were commanded by Bombardiers van der Poll, Bozyczko, Germs and Venter (the last would be me). As far as I can remember, on 10 September, I was called into the CO's office in 14Veld Potchefstroom to choose a gun crew and report. No indication of where we were going.

    It turns out that one of the 61Meg G-5 guns had a barrel burst (projectile going off in the barrel), killing one of the crew and injuring the rest (and destroying the gun, of course). My crew and me were to be the replacements. At that stage, I had never fired or worked on a G-5 gun/howitzer (although the G-6 is very similar). We flew to Rundu and from there to Mavinga with a G-5 in the Flossie.

    Over the next three months, we moved every night. Every night. We were facing enemy artillery in the form of the D-30, which had less than half the range of the G-5. I remember only one occasion where we were seriously "shelled", we were apparently only 12km from the enemy "stelling" (gun position).

    Once, we re-deployed in a "stelling" that we had evacuated two days before, and that was the day the Migs found us. I remember running for a foxhole while they were shooting at us (machine guns, not bombs dropped).

    I also remember a very young Unita troop shooting down a Mig with a Stinger missile while we were standing under the trees waiting for the planes to pass. Apparently he was a Lieutenant the next day! We were protected (rondom verdediging) by Unita and 32 Bn.

    The remaining 3 G-6s eventually came up to Angola, more as a field test than a real threat to the enemy. "My" gun came up as spares, as there were no crew to operate it.

    The other thing I remember to this day, is a "bestoking" (fire mission) on a convoy that was passing within 10km from our position. First, a bit of background on the average gunner: During training, you orient (lay) the gun, then wait for a fire mission. When that comes through, it is in the form of "Gun Delta - 5 shots - fire for effect!". Every gunner dreams of a 20 shot fire mission ("20 skote doelvuur!"). Another important point - "Repeat" is an artillery command. It means do the same thing again. So, on a radio, if you did not get the message, you NEVER said "REPEAT", you said "Say again".

    So, there I am, the last gun in the position (right-most gun). The guns in the battery are spread with approximately 100m between them, in a row. And the convoy is passing 90 degrees to our right (on the other side of a hill, me being at the foot of the hill). So The Powers That Be decide that my gun has to redeploy to the right, and that only my gun will be used on the enemy, to have the others shoot over our heads is too dangerous (in case of another early burst).

    With the convoy that close, the elevation of the gun was so low that it barely cleared the hilltop. One of my crew had to take an axe to go chop down a tree at the top of the hill (Southern Angola was full of soft thin trees, easy to chop down). All this had to take place at speed, as the convoy was not waiting for us.

    So, once we were in position, gun aimed, the command came over the radio. "100 skote doelvuur!". Imagine that. Never happened before as far as anybody knew. So we started shooting. Now, the ammo on the "stelling" was only about 40 or so projectiles, so the Kwevoe"l ammo supply vehicle actually parked some 25m behind the gun and we shot directly from the truck. Some of the other guns' crew members came to help - you can imagine how tiring running up and down between the truck and the gun with a 42kg projectile can be.

    Every few shots, we would be stopped, the gun re-aimed, and the fire mission continued. When, at last, the "100 skote gevuur" confirmation was given, the response was "Staan by". After a minute or two, "Repeat!"

    93 shots into the second fire mission, we were stopped, we could see the glow of the fires over the horizon. Eventually, we went to sleep. The next morning, we shot another few shots, but nothing spectacular. All told, we (one gun) fired 214 shots in a 24 hour period. Probably to this day a record in the SA Artillery.

    We did fire at Cuito Cuanavale on several occasions. Once, we took out the airstrip by landing a few 155mm projectiles on the landing strip.

    So, if we lost the battle, I missed that part.
    And how was the barrel after that?

    I assume the convoy was stuffed?
    Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit: occidentis telum est.

    Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)

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