More AK 47 in Angola

Cuban Intervention Halts South African Invasion

The Guardian 26 July 1985

Sources in Luanda claim an invasion of Angola's southern Cuando Cubango province by South African forces has been halted after fierce fighting.

'For several weeks the apartheid regime has been sending tanks and mechanised troops over the border in support of CIA backed UNITA terrorists who are challenging the authority of the legitimate MPLA led Government of Angola,' said a spokesman in Havana.

'Cuban soldiers have assisted their Angolan comrades to fight off this assault, and after a series of battles have successfully expelled the South Africans from Angolan territory' he said.

'The South Africans have suffered heavy losses, particularly in their armoured formations, whilst Cuban and Angolan casualties have been minimal,' he said.

Sources closer to the front line in Angola's southern town of Menongue report heavy military traffic, all heading south, over the past week. 

If Havana has committed combat troops this could represent a major escalation of the so called 'border war' that has dragged on in this region for the best part of a decade since Angolan independence in 1975. Since the mid seventies, Cuban forces have largely been confined to garrison duties as well as providing training and logistical support for the MPLA Government forces. Most of the actual fighting in Angola has been between the western and South African backed UNITA rebels and the MPLA forces. Additionally, Pretoria has been fighting a low intensity war along the Namibian - Angolan border with SWAPO guerrillas who use bases in Angola for their efforts to destabilise South African occupied Namibia.

Washington alleges that East German and Soviet pilots and aviation technicians have recently been deployed in Angola. If true, this is further evidence that that Moscow is escalating a proxy war in southern Africa.

Cuban tanks take the objective - a destroyed MPLA T-34 marks the crest of the hill

 Cuban Motor Rifle troops seize the railhead - UNITA militia take cover in the background

A murderous little battle for a territorial objective - SADF mechanised infantry fight off  enemy T-34s, BTR 60s and infantry

In other words we've played three more games using the original AK 47 Rules. This has really given us fresh enthusiasm. Whether this will manifest itself in renewed interest sufficient to breath more life into these blog posts we'll see. When I started this blog the narrative was a much bigger part of things - we'll see...

Tank Battles on Namibian - Angolan Border

The Guardian 19/8/1985: 

Reports of heavy fighting between South African forces and Angolan troops on the Namibian border indicate that the South African army is under pressure and taking heavy casualties.

Correspondents in Luanda and Havana allege that South African mechanised columns crossed the border a month ago as Pretoria launched a major offensive against SWAPO guerrillas operating in northern Namibia.

'There are a number of refugee camps in southern Angola and the South Africans have bombed these as they've retaliated against several successful operations by SWAPO in occupied Namibia,' said sources in Havana.

'Cuban soldiers, carrying out their international duty in support of our Angolan and Namibian comrades, have provided assistance to the anti-fascist fighters and have been victorious every battle. We have also provided air defence forces to strike back at the aggressive bombing of unarmed refugees and civilians'

Sources in Warsaw released this aerial photograph of South African armour operating in Southern Angola

Cuban armour and infantry fighting in a built up area, In the centre of the picture there are several destroyed South African armoured fighting vehicles.

We're having lots of fun with the classic AK47 ruleset. Three games in and some of the subtleties are becoming apparent, particularly around where to concentrate one's efforts given the fog of war factor regarding objectives i.e. the defender knows what features the attacker is aiming for but he doesn't know their relative worth (to the attacker). Allied with alternate unit activation, randomly determined movement distances and simultaneous exchanges of fire this is providing us with some very enjoyable weekend afternoons.

AK-47 Original

Yesterday we tried out the original AK47 Rules for the first time. Peter Pig have released these as a pdf and I bought a set for the princely sum of GBP10.00. 

After a quick read through I found myself asking why they ever bothered writing a second edition? The rules are really good - simple, and fun to play - definitely a game rather than a simulation, but who cares?

One nice touch is the pdf is personalised with a neat little cross reference to Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket: 'this copy of AK47 belongs to John, there are many like it but this one is his'.

There are enough web accessible modifications for anyone who wants more complexity or chrome to add as they see fit, even extending the rules to other periods like the Russian and Spanish Civil Wars and World War II. There is even a Cold War Central Front variant that looks very intriguing.

Our game pitched the Cubans and SWAPO against the South African and Namibians in northern Namibia in the mid '80s. The background was a major SWAPO incursion had attracted a lot of attention from local forces and their South African backers and the Angolans and Cubans had got  in involved in a fit of internationalist solidarity.

 As a result of the political flowchart being played out in the pre-game sequence, the SADF/Namibian forces benefited from increased determination, resulting in their one militia graded unit being regraded to regular, . For their part the two big SWAPO militia graded guerrilla units acquired an HMG apiece. The flowcharts worked well, gave a few laughs and resulted in the SADF/Namibians being on the offensive. Much better than the clunky pre-game in second edition.

Above: the table after The Cuban/SWAPO deployment. Comrade Jeff was terribly unlucky and only started with one - three BTR 60s and six stands of infantry- of his five units on the table. This meant he could only secure one of three objectives. He elected to deploy on the reverse slope of the hill in the top right of the photo; leaving the road junction in the village unsecured and the hill in the top left corner exposed to the South African advance which would begin from the board edge on the left,

Uncharacteristically, SADF Colonel Chris was very cautious, advancing slowly down the centre with three armoured cars and even more slowly towards the village with three Buffels full of troopies. 

In the photos above the South African armour is grinding its way across the board whilst a small unit of Special Forces walk up the hill top left, thereby securing the objective, and lie down in the grass to watch the fun. Comrade Jeff was frantically throwing dice to try and bring on his troops but the commander of those T55s must have failed his map reading course. We know that this part of the word is big and easy to get lost in but this was beyond a joke.

The South African Buffels finally make it to the village about the same time as a unit of friendly Land Rovers and a bunch of local forces infantry arrived from off table. The infantry were short of a truck and were presumably late because half their number (probably the native troops...) had to walk. I'm unsure what excuse the guys in the Land Rovers had...

About the same time a large group of SWAPO guerrillas chose to appear, took one look at the dust cloud heralding the advance of the SADF armoured cars, and promptly ran for the nearest area of thick bush to hide in. Three GaZ jeeps toting heavy machine guns drove on the table at high speed and promptly got stuck into the Land Rovers and the territorials. Clearly their commander had been schooled in the Che Guevara heroic style of leadership. Sadly he and his brave men came to the same sort of sticky end, despite inflicting some casualties on the enemy infantry, for once Chris found his mojo and started using the recoiless rifle on one of the Landies it was all over very quickly

The clock was ticking down rapidly and it was only after the Commissar riding with the Cuban tankies demoted the Lieutenant in charge and grabbed the map and compass that the T55s made an appearance. They were all set to shell the living daylights out of the SADF Kommandos sunning themselves on the hill when darkness fell and hostilities ceased.

By the time we'd totted up the victory points, even after penalising Chris for all sorts of trumped up transgressions (chief among which was him playing cautiously for once), the South Africans could claim a decisive victory. In fact, as the rules put it 'the victor will be writing the history book on this'.

I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon.

A Clear Victory - Now the People Demand Investment in Infrastructure!

We played a game of AK47 Reloaded yesterday and for the first time ever I managed a clear victory in a cross border incursion. My combined FAPLA-Cuban force successfully defeated a largely infantry SADF force despite losing two of the three objectives to the enemy.

The South African Paras were very professional, quickly occupying their objective, a built up area near a road entrance, without casualtiesand digging in. This deterred a Cuban tank unit from trying to take them on at close quarters. A good tactic for infantry faced with tanks in AK47, as in real life, is to hunker down inside built up areas so the armour has to close with them, allowing the footsloggers to close assault.

In the above picture you can see the Paras deployed in the built up area with the tanks approaching. The South Africans have just called in an airstrike, hence the explosion near the T-34s.

Elsewhere, a big unit of FAPLA militia successfully destroyed an SADF infantry unit in close combat although a second SADF unit secured the objective (the built up area with the crashed Mercedes objective marker). The destruction of this South African unit was to make a big difference to the Cuban-FAPLA victory points total.

In the above photo the marauding Cuban T-34s have just seen off a unit of SADF armoured cars. The vulnerability of armoured cars against tanks was underlined in this encounter. The South Africans were very brave in that they closed quickly with the tanks in order to maximise the effectiveness of their firepower. Unfortunately for them, this wasn't enough to knock out the  Cuban armour. What followed was swift and deadly - professional units get a re-roll when firing and armoured cars are not very well protected against high velocity armour piercing shot.

The game ended shortly after this with FAPLA having secured only one objective, digging in on the reverse slope of the gentle hill in the centre of the photograph. Communist casualties were light though and it was the body count that made all the difference in the end.

The upshot was that the SADF retreated back across the border at nightfall and the locals welcomed their liberation with calls for the Cuban engineers to sort out the roads and water supply!

Operation Crossbow AK47 AAR

I'm in danger of confusing two alternative timelines as I have a Soviet invasion of Western Europe underway in 1981 using SPI's boardgame NATO as well my continuing Angolan Border War narrative that's reached the slightly earlier date of March 1979.

Readers will recall from earlier posts that the South Africans have launched a major external, codenamed CROSSBOW, into Angola to try and destroy SWAPO camps there. We've already played one table top battle using AK47 Reloaded rules and last night we fought our second.

The situation was that a SADF mobile column was trying to seize a vital river crossing. A detachment from 32 Battalion, mounted in Landrover Technicals, spearheaded the advance supported by Eland Armoured Cars and Mechanised infantry from 62 Mech Battalion.

Above: SADF armoured cars storm into an Angolan village, at the top pf the picture FAPLA T-34s have just arrived

East German piloted MiGs attack the South African Armour

The Angolans were quick to react, deploying armour, in the shape of T-34 tanks and BRDM armoured cars crewed by Cubans, as well as a unit of Cuban motorised infantry. Two units of FAPLA militia were also part of the defending force.

This was dubbed a 'hot incursion' using the AK47 rules, and the SADF launched a feint against the objective in the village with their armoured cars before shifting the attack to the right flank against a hill held by a dug in unit of FAPLA militia.

The Angolans made the most of their assets, bringing on an armoured unit which was promptly the target of an SADF airstike. At the same time 32 Battalion's technicals entered the table behind the Angolan armour - a bold move but one that ultimately led to the liquidation of the South African unit as the Angolan tanks survived the airstrike and shot up the landrovers.

This was to prove the decisive episode in a close game - an Angolan airstrike against the SADF armoured cars knocked out one of them but couldn't stop the remainder shooting up the objective as the SADF infantry moved in. Alas for the Army of Apratheid, the game ended before they could secure the objective and once the points were totted up it was a clear Angolan victory!

Ngiva AAR

 15 km inside Angola across the South West African Border there is a road junction. In March 1979 this was the place where the front in the war between South Africa and Angola was formed. The South African 62 Mechanised Battalion, the spearhead of Operation CROSSBOW found themselves attacked by elements of the Angolan 11th Motor Rifle Brigade. In the picture above the South Africans will try to secure the junction and the surrounding high ground - three gentle rises that barely qualify as hills.

Left: A South African  command element is trying to consolidate atop a low ridge south of the road. A knocked out Angolan T-34 is on the skyline and Angolan Air Force MiG 21s are being used in the fighter bomber role against the SADF troops.

Despite being caught in the open by the MiGs the South Africans managed to avoid suffering serious losses and successfully dug in on the hill, thereby securing one key objective.

The MiGs were flown by East German pilots and it's believed that the Communist forces experienced problems co-ordinating  air support with their ground troops.



Left: Angolan T-55s are brewed up by South African armour. The South African Olifants destroyed two thirds of the Angolan tanks but were surprised when the Communists kept closing the range and knocked out several Olifants.

The Angolan armoured troops were commanded by a cadre of Cuban officers and NCOs.





Below: South African troops have succeeded in consolidating on another of the low hills south of the lateral road. The Angolans have advanced in their BTR 60s into the woods at the foot of the slope and have disembarked their infantry but cannot cross the open ground dominated by the South African machine guns and RPGs.

The game ended with a clear South African victory as they held two of the three objectives. The Angolans successfully stormed the village north of the lateral road with two inexperienced units of infantry and managed to inflict some casualties on the SADF troops. The hill north of the village was also taken by the Angolans and with some firm leadership from the Cuban advisors they stayed put and dug in.

Both sides launched abortive airstikes and artillery support was notable for it's ineffectiveness.

A good fun game of AK 47 Reloaded that could have gone either way. The effectiveness of the South African armour was a nasty shock to the Angolans but the determination with which relatively raw Angolan troops maintained their attack into the village gave the South Africans something to think about.

Rules of Engagement

I'll be using Peter Pig's AK47 Reloaded Rules for this project.

I've been playing an adapted version of these rules set during during the Russian Civil War for a year or so now . They're fun and fast play and sufficiently realistic for my tastes. I like the way the emphasis is on training and morale and not on technology.

I'll produce adapted army lists for the protagonists in the War for Slow Readers and will write scenarios and victory conditions for my games as well as using the scenario generator in the rules.

I also intend to play some small games with using 300 point armies as per the suggestions in the published rules so that a) I familiarise myself with the rules and b) I get playing, and posting AARs, as soon as possible.