For the first few months of 1976, operations were conducted on an area defence/patrol system, with only verbal orders being issued. On 28 April, Colonel Breytenbach issued the first formal order for deployment – Operational Order No. 1, aimed at preventing FAPLA from occupying Mpupa and the area south to Calai.
Intelligence had indicated that a SWAPO and FAPLA agent known as February was holed up at Tuni, while a second agent was reported to be at Xamavera. On the night of 29 April, Corporal Evans was to take four members of 1 Reconnaissance Commando, 16 Bravo Group members and a section of engineers commanded by Staff Sergeant Charlie Spiller, and capture both agents for interrogation. At the same time a combat team led by Commandant Sybie van der Spuy, and consisting of Alpha Company, two sections of Bravo Company, the Sabre troop and a group of 60-mm mortarists, were to reconnoitre the size of the enemy force at Mpupa, locate and destroy them. They had until first light on 3 May to carry out this mission.
The abduction team left Rundu at 21h00, travelling in three Unimogs and carrying two inflatable boats, with an informer on the payroll of Chief of Staff Intelligence (CSI) as their guide. They followed the Kavango River for a distance before stopping to change into enemy uniforms and be briefed in detail about the mission by Evans, who spoke only broken Portuguese. Whether this caused the informer to become confused is not known, but the first point at which they offloaded the inflatable craft at 00h30 was the wrong one. Loading both boats onto one of the Unimogs, they set off again, reaching the correct launching point at 03h00. The engineers prepared the boats, and by 04h00, with Evans, Corporal Louis Klopper, the informer and eight Bravo troops in one boat, corporals Jacobs, Fourie and the rest of the Bravo troops in the other, they crossed the river, fighting a strong current and landing the boats some 300 m apart. They regrouped and set off on foot for the hut where the informer had indicated February and one other person would be. But, on surrounding and entering the hut, they found only one man, who was taken back to the boats by five Bravo Group members while the rest of the party moved to another village nearby, where the informer now believed their quarry would be. On entering the house the informer pointed out, three men were found, one of whom lunged at the intruders with a spear. He was shot and his two companions taken back to the boats. The plan to capture the agent at Xamavera was abandoned when information indicated that he had left the area a few days before.
While the engineers returned to Rundu with the boats, the rest of the group waited at a predetermined point to rendezvous with Van der Spuy’s combat team. They left Pica Pau at first light on 30 April, crossing the border at Mucusso and first making sure that there were no radios in the town that could be used to report their presence. They followed the Kavango River to Dirico, where they secured the bridge and crossed the river at 14h00.
Reaching Tuni at 16h00, the team left two sections of Bravo Company under Evans to set up a stopper group on the road to Calai, while the main force moved on to Mpupa. By last light, they were within 15 km of Bravo Group’s old stomping ground.
Earlier radio intercepts had indicated that the town was occupied by FAPLA, but a night reconnaissance patrol showed it to be deserted. The next morning the combat team moved into Mpupa, securing it and sending out day patrols in the immediate vicinity.
Back at the Evans roadblock, three men sneaking around the maize fields in a suspicious manner had been apprehended. They first claimed to be from the Kavango and said that they had only been trying to steal some food. Later they changed their story, claiming they had come to visit their sister in the area. In due course, it was established that one of the three was related to the headman at Tuni, a notorious MPLA supporter.
At 19h00 on 1 May, the combat and reconnaissance teams linked up and returned to Pica Pau, where they could report that FAPLA had not advanced as far south as Mpupa after all.