Staff Sergeant Francisco Daniel "Danny" Roxo (1933–1976) was a Portuguese soldier from Mozambique. Born in Portugal, he moved to Portuguese East Africa as a civil servant, before working as a big game hunter in the Niassa Province. During his military career, Roxo...
Flechas units were created and employed in Angola, during the Portuguese Colonial War, under the command of the PIDE (renamed DGS in 1969). Despite being a paramilitary police force, they were thus a police unit, not being under military command as the remaining...
This is the Russian PMD-6 (ПMД-6), a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), rectangular, wooden, Anti-Personnel (AP), landmine that is designed to wound or kill by its HE-Blast effect also copied in China. The upper portion of the box overlaps the lower portion which...
This is the Russian TM-57, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), circular, sheet-metal-bodied, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine that is designed to damage or destroy a vehicle by its HE-Blast effect and was designed for mechanical laying. It is an improvement on the TM-46 and...
The engines of a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft roared in the sky above the South Atlantic, taking off on a mission from the airfield in Fedotovo near Vologda. Behind them was the Cuban airfield of Jose Marti, then the Angolan airfield in Luanda. The target was...
This is the Russian F1(Ф1), a High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), defensive, striker-release (SR), hand-grenade, nicknamed the Limonka (lemon-like), used as an Anti-Personnel (AP) hand-grenade and also used as part of a booby-trap (BTP), it has been copied in many...
This is the Yugoslavian PROM-1, a High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), pressure or tripwire (TPW) actuated, bounding, Anti-Personnel (AP), landmine. It consists of a cylindrical body with a pronged fuze inserted into the top of the landmine. The landmine is...
This is the Yugoslavian TMA-3, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), minimum-metal, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine made from cast explosive and covered in a coarse resin-reinforced fabric. On the top surface of the landmine, three threaded plastic fuze wells are set into...
This is the Russian TMD-44, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), square-shaped, wooden-bodied, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine that is designed to damage or destroy a vehicle by its blast effect, similar in appearance to the Russian TMD-B of WWII and appears to be an...
This is the Russian RGD-5 (РГД-5), Granata Distantsionnaya, Distance-Hand-Grenade or Time-Delayed (DLY) hand-grenade, a post World War 2, High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), Anti-Personnel (AP), defensive, hand-grenade, designed in the early 1950s, also made in...
This is the Russian TM-46 and TMN-46, High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), large, metal-bodied, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmines that may be laid mechanically or by hand, also copied in China and designated the Type 59. In addition to conventional pressure fuzes (MV-5 and...
In the context of the former Portuguese colonial empire, the territories of Guinea and Cape Verde played an important role in the maritime and air routes connecting Southern Africa, where Portugal had two important colonies: Angola and Mozambique. Furthermore, on the...
The POMZ-2M is a stake-mounted anti-personnel fragmentation mine made in the former Soviet Union. The body of the mine is a cast-iron thick-walled tube with five rows of cast fragmentation "chunks". This is usually mounted on a short wooden stake. Because the mine is...
The PMN is a bakelite-cased, pressure operated, anti-personnel blast mine (sometimes called the 'Black-widow'). Made in the former Soviet Union, it has been found in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Chechnya, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras,...
This is the short story of Fiat G.91R fighter bombers operated by the Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) in Angola [partially covered in War of Intervention in Angola Volume 1 published by Helion & Company]. None of the Fiat G.91R fighter bombers...
Colonial–Communist Clash, 1961–1974 When a large group of rebels invaded Angola from a recently independent Congo in 1961, it heralded the opening shots in another African war of independence. Between 1961 and 1974, Portugal faced the extremely ambitious task of...