Operation #Savannah 1975, this rare photograph taken deep into Angola of a SADF #Eland-90 Armoured Car of Combat Group Foxbat at the Re-Supply point at the abandoned Clinic at Santa Comba. Note the 25 pounder field gun in the background, also note the strikingAngolan landscape south of the country’s capital Luanda.

On 14 October, the South Africans secretly initiated Operation Savannah when Task Force Zulu, the first of several South African columns, crossed from Namibia into Cuando Cubango. The operation provided for elimination of the MPLA from the southern border area, then from south western Angola, from the central region, and finally for the capture of Luanda. According to John Stockwell, a former CIA officer, “there was close liaison between the CIA and the South Africans” and “’high officials’ in Pretoria claimed that their intervention in Angola had been based on an ‘understanding’ with the United States”. The intervention was also backed by Zaire and Zambia.

With the liberation forces busy fighting each other, the SADF advanced very quickly. Task Force Foxbat joined the invasion in mid-October. The territory the MPLA had just gained in the south was quickly lost to the South African advances. After South African advisors and antitank weapons helped to stop an MPLA advance on Nova Lisboa (Huambo) in early October, Zulu captured Rocadas (Xangongo) by 20, Sa da Bandeira (Lubango) by 24 and Mocamedes by 28 October.

With the South Africans moving quickly toward Luanda, the Cubans had to terminate the training facility (CIR) at Salazar only 3 days after it started operating and deployed most of the instructors and Angolan recruits in Luanda. On 2–3 November, 51 Cubans from the CIR Benguela and South Africans had their first direct encounter near Catengue, where FAPLA unsuccessfully tried to stop the Zulu advance. This encounter led Zulu-Commander Breytenbach to conclude that his troops had faced the best organized FAPLA opposition to date.

For the duration of the campaign, Zulu had advanced 3,159 km in thirty-three days and had fought twenty-one battles / skirmishes in addition to sixteen hasty and fourteen deliberate attacks. the Task Force accounted for an estimated 210 MPLA dead, 96 wounded and 50 POWs while it had suffered 5 dead and 41 wounded.

Following the discovery of SADF troops in Angola, most African and Western backers declined to continue to back the South Africans due to the negative publicity of links with the Apartheid government. The South African leadership felt betrayed with a member of congress saying “When the chips were down there was not a single state prepared to stand with South Africa. Where was America? Where were Zaire, Zambia … and South Africa’s other friends?

Clearly betrayed and with no real intention to occupy another country the SADF withdrew tactically blowing bridges as they went back to their bases in South West Africa/Namibia.

Photo courtesy Grahame du Toit