Soldiers with the pro-Western Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( #UNITA) on patrol during the Bush War. A communist push into southeastern Angola in 1897 triggered a major ground response from South Africa

View of a burned-out enemy tank from the turret of a #Ratel 90 of the South African #61Mech Battalion. Although lightly armored, the Ratels were fast and mobile and able to take on Soviet #T-55 tanks with their 90mm guns.

Jonas #Savimbi led the #UNITA forces.

#Cuban soldiers pose with Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola soldiers near Cuito Cuanavale. The struggle between pro-Western and pro-Soviet military factions in Angola was a major front in the Cold War, resulting in the participation of 40,000 Cuban troops.

SADF Bush War Shenanigans, circa. late 1980s

White Portuguese troopie carrying a wounded African comrade in Mozambique, 1970.

Paratroopers or “Parabats” from the 3 Parachute Battalion, South African Army, recovering the body of Rifleman Edward “Eddie” James Backhouse, today in 1977. He was 22 years old.

The opposing SWAPO forces he faced, had been funded and trained by the Eastern Bloc. They were well entrenched behind a maze of infantry trenches, anti-aircraft guns,…Read More

A Portuguese Air Force #F-84 Thunderjet being loaded with ordnance in the 1960s, at #Luanda Air Base.

Portugal was the last user of the trusty Thunderjet, putting it to great use during the long Colonial Wars. Equipped with rockets or bombs, Thunderjets operated with relative impunity alongside the Fiat G.91 until around 1972, when PAIGC and…Read More

#32Bn LCpl Kashitapo leading the Company ‘Comicio” circa. 1980

Angolans receiving artillery training in Kühlungsborn, East Germany 1984. The guys the SADF found themselves fighting during the Border War were no pushovers, and seldom seen pictures like these prove it. Unlike the communist guerillas of Portuguese Africa and Rhodesia, the Angolans were trained in conventional tactics. On top of that, they were…Read More