Subtitle: Twelve Months that Transformed a Continent

Summary: The story of the Cuban-South African war in Angola in 1987–88 through the eyes of the South Africans who fought in it. The Angolan Civil War lasted over a quarter of a century, from 1975 to 2002. Beginning as a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the MPLA and UNITA, it became a Cold War struggle with involvement from the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa and the USA. This book examines the height of the Cuban-South African fighting in Angola in 1987–88, when 3,000 South African soldiers and about 8,000 UNITA guerrilla fighters fought in alliance against the Cubans and the armed forces of the Marxist MPLA government, a force of over 50,000 men. Bridgland pieced together the course of the war, fought in one of the world’s most remote and wild terrains, by interviewing the South Africans who fought it, and many of their accounts are woven into the narrative. This classic account of a Cold War struggle and its momentous consequences for the participants and across the continent, is released in a new edition with a new preface and epilogue. Table of Contents Preface Prologue PART 1: GENERAL SHAGANOVITCH’S OFFENSIVE The Prelude The South Africans move in Sniffing out the enemy Fapla’s advance continues PART 2: THE DEFENCE South Africa steps things up South Africa’s first disaster Enter the Falcon The first land battle The Second ‘Rumble on the Lomba’ PART 3: THE STING Waiting and watching Recce hardships The Air Force gears up War in the air Laying the trap Fancy tricks and dirty tricks The Cavalry – 61 Mech – rides to the rescue Softening up 47 Brigade The trap closes The destruction of 47 Brigade Booty from the battlefield Fapla’s offensive ends PART 4: THE STALEMATE Forward beyond the Lomba The reinforcements arrive PART 5: THE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE The attack on 16 Brigade ‘Destroy the G-5S!’ Fapla’s Great Escape: The Chambinga Gallop PART 6: THE SIDESHOW Begging for permission to destroy the enemy PART 7: INTO 1988. OPERATION HOOPER – THE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE CONTINUED The attack on 21 Brigade: 13 January 1988 Throwing something at the Cuito River Bridge The attack on 59 Brigade: 14 February 1988 The attack on Highpoint 1251 PART 8: THE SIDESHOW (CONTINUED) The attack on Menongue PART 9: THE THREE BATTLES FOR THE TUMPO TRIANGLE Mike Muller leads the First Tumpo Attack: 25 February 1988 Mike Muller leads the Second Tumpo Attack: 29 February 1988 Jaw-jaw begins to supplant war-war Gerhard Louw leads the Third Tumpo Attack: 23 March 1988 PART 10: THE DENOUEMENT More jaw-jaw Fidel’s last hurrah! Epilogue Postscript: UNITA Timeline Glossary Select Bibliography