The South African Border War - Meanwhile back at the South West African Border and 32 Battalion.
With Angola now independent and firmly in the hands of the new MPLA government, with its Cuban and Soviet backing, South Africa's fears regarding SWA quickly materialized.
The MPLA was more than willing to allow SWAPO or PLAN fighters to set up bases inside Angola and conduct insurgencies directly from Angolan soil.
The South African reaction was to change a previous lottery draft system to 2 year compulsory military conscription for all white South African males.
Part of this two year conscription and the "camps" or reservist yearly duty was likely to be spent inside the "Operational Areas" or "border duty" as it was known.
The general SA conscripts were initially deployed at bases inside northern South West Africa in a maintenance or counter insurgency role.
For general infantry this often consisted of week long or fortnight long foot patrols monitoring insurgency routs etc.
In 1975 during operation Savannah the former FNLA soldiers had done plenty and proved themselves as dedicated fighters and career soldiers.
These were formed into 32 Battalion and, being Angolan, operated mainly in southern Angola, as a buffer between the communist backed forces and South Africa's regular forces.
Early on some of the officers came from Australia, Rhodesia, Portugal and the United States but later they were mainly white South Africans.
The main base was at Buffalo on the banks of the SWA side of the Okavango River and their insignia was the buffalo.
By MrPenguin20 , CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Hence there nickname Buffalo's, they were feared by the Angolan forces and some of their Russian advisers noted that if it was rumored that "Buffalo's" were attacking, the battle was often over, as the Angolan forces would down weapons and run.
In Portuguese they were nicknamed Os Terríveis or "The Terrible Ones".
They distinguished themselves throughout the conflict as a highly effective combat force but were always plagued by a reputation for brutality, torture, rape, desecration of fallen opponents bodies and other atrocities including against civilians.
How much of it was based on real facts and how much of it was reputation and rumor is hard to tell; and will probably never be known. The white sands of Southern Angola are a long way from everything and anything can happen with nobody any the wiser.
This reputation was so entrenched that part of the negotiated transition that would come to South Africa decades later was the disbanding of this unit before transition to full democratic rule.
Other posts in this series
The piece of the cold war nobody told you about - Africa's forgotten war
The Air Battles
The SA Fighter Aircraft
The SA Bomber Aircraft
The conflicts deep roots and start
Regional Tensions
Africa's forgotten cold war - Angolan War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Mozambican War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Rhodesian Bush War
Africa's forgotten cold war - The Angolan War of Independence transitions to the Angolan Civil War
The South African Border War - The start of Operation Savannah and Large scale South African involvement.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - the wheels start coming off.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Quifangondo
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Ebo
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Bridge 14
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Luso
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah comes to an end.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah the withdrawal.
The South African Border War - Meanwhile back on the home front.
The South African Border War - Meanwhile over in neighboring Mozambique.
I was conscripted in January 1978 into the South African Airforce, I think we were the second two year group. At the end of the two years, I realised that I knew how to iron and not necessarily believe the body's complaints when undergoing fairly intense training. I felt it was a huge waste of my personal time but I loved the camaraderie. Many amusing moments that are remembered long after the unpleasant ones have faded.
I have a 32 Batallion story. I was serving with 6 SA Infantry and we were based in a platoon camp at the Okavango River crossing at Bagane (about half way between Angolan and Botswana borders) (April to June 1975). As you described we would do week long foot patrols and lots of hearts and minds meetings with local people.
On one of those foot patrols, we received radio communication to get the hell out of the omuramba we were patrolling and to withdraw to a point in arrears where we would be picked up. Apparently 32 Batallion had been dropped into the other end of the omuramba - we would have been toast.
Yup, nothing worse than friendly fire.
That would have been one hell of a "blue-on-blue" incident as the Americans call it. Good thing your people caught it on time.
Was not very often our radios were working but they did that morning. Only ever seemed to work at night.
Wow. I wonder if there's any scientific explanation for that; weather conditions or something. I seem to remember there being some early-20th-century trick for bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere to get them across really long distances.
Thanks for these posts. It really touched all South Africans. I don't think many people really know how bad it was.
Interesting that part of the peace settlement was the disbanding of the Buffalos. A reputation can do wonders for a battle group--more than half the battle happens in the mind. If you have already won that battle, the fighting part is much easier. Great post.
your opinion is bigger....
I think this is part of a sereis you have written. I'm confused where it starts. It would be very helpful if the episode number was shown at the beginning of each post. Congratulations on your writing style. I find your style a very well written one. I like the short paragraphs with headings.
start at the top...
I remember learning about the buffalos (and the selous scouts) in school history lessons. I was fortunate that I graduated the year they stopped compulsory service, but many of my friends' older brothers fought in the border war.
African nations and their history always have been overlooked and shadowed by other events in the same time period. Thanks for sharing.
Reading the news about killing tech today, and the amount of insanity exhibited by the world leaders, wars of the past (even 20th century) seem like a noble events... terrible, eh?
Conscription for African youth, To maintain the sovereignty of a loved country