Operation #Modular October 5 1987. When the SADF captured this Soviet #SA-8 missile launcher it caused an international stir with the “Western Powers” and the USA in particular taking a very keen interest to know its capability and secrets.

At the height of the cold war nobody in the “west” had been close to one of these, it was a Soviet “Top Secret” missile system at the time and its capability a complete mystery to the western powers. The capture of it on a battlefield in Angola was also a tale of heroism, determination and innovation.

Clearly damaged by pre fragmented bombs and other weapons during the Cuban advance on Mavinga, this SA 8 got stuck and was abandoned at the height of the battle as FAPLA/Cuban forces made a hasty retreat.

What was to become a manoeuvre called the ‘Battle of the Lomba’ SADF 61 Mechanised Battalion Group and SAAF fighter aircraft literally destroyed the entire FAPLA/Cuban 47 Armoured Brigade and stopped the advance in its tracks.

Kmdt Johann Lehman, a SAAF intelligence officer moved into the area reconnoitre the damages and aftermath inflicted on the 47th Armoured Brigade with a forward party from 32 Battalion.

What he saw through his binoculars in the haze across a muddy plain immediately caught his interest, he radioed in that he had seen an SA 8, but rather expectantly nobody believed him.

Kmdt Lehman and Captain Piet van Zyl then made their way over the plain and found that both the missile system and it’s towing unit had become stuck in the mud in retreat.

Captain Piet van Zyl jumped into an abandoned FAPLA Russian T 55 tank which had also been left nearby on the battlefield – and was still idling. The South Africans then used it to recover and tow the captured booty over 2 kilometres of open ground back to the tree lines.

The FAPLA/Cuban 21 Brigade situated opposite the river noticed what the South Africans were up to and started to lay down artillery fire to destroy the vehicles and prevent their capture at all costs.

Under this artillery fire the South Africans persevered and managed to capture both the SA 8 and it’s carrier unit using the captured tank to tow them out.

Such a highly regarded prize at the time UNITA had promised to give the SA-8 missile system to the Americans, but the South Africans took it to analyse it and find counter-measures and defences to it.