Pretoria September 1975

'This gentleman, is what we plan to do in Angola'



'The aim is to put a friendly government in power in Luanda by 11 November, the day the Portuguese leave and when Angola is officially independent. Of the three factions fighting the Portuguese and one another Holden Roberto's FNLA will receive the full support of the South African Government and any and all military and political assistance we can furnish.'

'Operation Savannah will commence in mid October. Three brigade sized groups, codenamed Task Forces Zulu, Foxbat and Orange; will attack across the Namibian frontier on converging axes here, here and here. The objective is to reach Luanda by independence day. A fourth Task Force, codenamed Blue, and in similiar strength, will invade Angola from Zaire.Same objective'

'Each of the Southern Task Forces will comprise three motorised infantry battalions of the SADF, with appropriate reconnaisance, engineer and artillery support. Airborne troops in company strength will be responsible for seizing key bridges and airfields ahead of the ground troops. Each Task Force will have a battalion of FNLA troops made up of black soldiers and mainly Portuguese mercenaries. It is important we give the impression the SADF is assisting an indigenous Angolan liberation movement...'

'Task Force Blue will be made up of two battalions of FNLA troops and a battalion of Zairian motorised infantry. Artillery support will also be provided by Mobutu's army. This force wil be stiffened by a cadre of white mercenaries, again mainly Portuguese, although there will be British and French soldiers of fortune present.'

'We do not anticipate any serious resistance from either SWAPO or the MPLA. The biggest challenge will be the distance the southern task forces are required to advance and the associated supply problems. Each airfield will be a staging post for the next leap forward. The key is speed and aggression. The paras take the airfields, we follow through hard and the air force will fly in supplies.'

'The one potentially serious problem, apart from the distance we need to cover, is the presence of four Cuban training camps. We have yet to locate a single one of these although signals intelligence and aerial reconnaisance indicates that two of them may be across the projected lines of advance of Zulu, near Benguela, and Blue, to the north of Lunada, here and here.'

'At this stage it is unclear just how many Cuban troops are present and how heavily armed they are.'

'Z Day is currently set for 15 October. There's a pack here for each of you. I suggest you study it and we re-convene at 1400. Any immediate quesions?'

Callan Reports

'So Callan, what do you have for me?'

'Shannon left on the midday flight to Paris sir, he had a busy few days. As you instructed, I arranged for him to be kept under surveillance. I also took the opportunity to meet him.'

'You did what? That wasn't part of the plan - why on earth did you do that?'

'Well sir, I reckon that if someone is recruiting mercenaries and we want to know all about that the best approach is to be a prospective recruit isn't it?'

'Go on Callan'

'I called on of his partners mentioned in the file, the South African Dupree. I explained that I'd served in the Paras and that I was experiencing some difficulties in my personal life and an opportunity to earn some money abroad would be most welcome. Dupree was a little suspicious at first but I said I'd called the Camberly number that Banks was using and he struck me as a dreamer, but that he'd mentioned Dupree was in London. I told Dupree I'd got his number from an old comrade. Dupree didn't give me Shannon's name or number, just told me to meet him in a cafe in Kensington. I met them both. Dupree just introduced Shannon as his employer - no names, no pack drill. I explained I was looking for work and they told me they might have some in Africa.'

'Anything else?'

'Shannon called me yesterday. He said that he may have some work for me in about four weeks and was my passport up to date. I've also got some information from the surveillance - it's in my report sir. I reckon he met 30 blokes like me last week. If he takes on half of that lot and he's doing the same in Paris that's starting to be a nice little private army.'

'Hmmm...yes. Good work Callan. I'm going to have to think about this'

Good Link

A very concise and even handed summary of the fighting in 1975-76 here:


http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_181.shtml

Map showing the area some 200km south of Luanda, in which the Cubans managed to finally stop the South African advance, in December 1975. (Map by Tom Cooper, based on Encarta 2003 software)

The accent is on the air war but the summary of events is very useful - as are the illustrations.


I have a MiG 21 and a Mirage to assemble and paint over the next couple of weeks so I'll be exploring this site in detail.

Training to Win

Cuban Instructors Training MPLA Cadre

'The training is going well Comrade Colonel, but I fear that time is not a luxury we have'

'Elaborate Major'

'We have small arms and equipment to train enough cadres to wage a guerilla war on a scale sufficient to successfully take on the FNLA and UNITA. My fear though is that, because our strength is in urban areas like Luanda, we'll end up fighting a conventional war. For that we need heavy weapons, armour and artillery. Even if we get them we aren't going to have enough time to train the men to fight with those weapons. UNITA is getting stronger and the FNLA is starting to probe in the north. If the South Africans move on Benguela we'll be fighting a war on three fronts. It looks bleak.'

'There is no prospect of heavier weapons being supplied. Things will have to get much worse before we commit to anything drastic. Your comments are helpful though. Write me a report - I particularly want hard information about UNITA. Where they are active and some assessment of numbers. In the meantime, keep running the programme - the more trained men we have the better.'

'Yes Comrade Colonel'

A Dirty Little Job

'This appeared in several of the national dailies in June'

'"Ex-Commandos, paratroopers, SAS troops wanted for interesting work abroad. Ring Camberly 3356". So what's it all about sir?'



'Apparently an ex-paratrooper by the name of Banks is recruting mercenaries for work in Africa Callan - he doesn't appear to have a contract but is offering his services to sundry African politicians. Special Branch have checked him out but they're not too concerned with him - they think he's a bit of a dreamer. This man, however, is a different beast altogether...'

'"Carlo Shannon, ex-Royal Marines, fought in the Congo and Biafra...intelligence indicates he was involved in an abortive coup planned to topple the government of Zangaro in 1972...may be active in Paris, recruiting mercenaries for employment in Northern Angola"...I don't get it sir, what's our interest?'

'Angola is going to be the next war in Africa Callan - the Portuguese are about to get out, the South Africans have already deployed troops across the Namibian border, there are rumours of Cuban  training camps operating in support of the Marxist so-called "liberation movement"...we're keeping an eye on any British nationals that get involved. The Americans are sending money and weapons, HMG wants to be sure that none of our people get in the way.'

'So what do you want me to do Sir?'

'Special Branch are handing over Shannon to us. I want you to keep an eye on him while he's London Callan.'

'Oh charming sir, you want me to tail an ex-commando whose a recruiting sergeant for some tinpot African wannabe?'

'Exactly Callan, Shannon lands this afternoon on a scheduled flight from Paris, Liz has all the details. He's booked in the Clarence Hotel in Kensington for a week. Watch him Callan...'

Progress Report

I've finished painting the SADF/32 Battalion/Portuguese mercenary weapons & crews - HMGs, RRs and mortars. I'll post some pictures over the weekend. I'm particularly pleased with the camouflage uniforms and will note the colours I used here before I forget. Undercoat was black, then a base coat of Vajello Khaki, then patches and 'swirls' of Vajello  Camouflage Dark Green, then the same of Vajello Flat Earth. I painted the webbing olive green.


All I have to paint now are 16 'dead markers' i.e. figures and base up this week's work.

I've ordered some objective markers from Peter Pig - a destroyed T34, T55 and a Mercedes saloon as well as a few buildings from their AK47 Scenery Range. These should arrive in the next week or so.

  

I've also ordered some buildings from Timecast http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_30/range_30.html - shanties from their SE Asia range which look like they'll do equally well for Africa. This should give me more than enough buildings to represent a small town in rural Angola. As an experiment I've ordered a 15mm village of 'round grass huts' from Paper Terrain: http://www.paperterrain.com/

This should provide all the buildings I'll need for the short term. I may have a go at making some generic damaged modern city blocks should the campaign move into Luanda - the South Africans or FNLA might get there in late '75 or early '76.

As far as figures and vehicles are concerned I have more than enough to play some test games. I have a few odds and ends of terrain to get but I'm on track to play my first game in mid February.

I'm tossing up whether to buy a few T34s for my Cuban/FAPLA army - I know these featured in some of the early battles and I'm definitely buying some SADF Ratel ICVs from QRF  for when I start gaming the '80s. Aside from that I fancy getting some odds and ends from Peter Pig like the Mr Arms Dealer, Media Crew and civilians (both rioting and peaceable) as I can use these for some scenarios I have in mind.

Back to work next week so progress on this project will inevitably slow but it's been a productive month.

SADF Build Up

I've spent the last week painting dozens of SADF infantry and vehicles and here are some of the results:

Full marks to Peter Pig - these are lovely figures. I'm really pleased with the results. All figures were spayed matt black as an undercoat and after painting in the faces, hands and arms with Vajello Dark Flesh and dry brushing the hardware with Vajello Gunmetal Grey I painted the trousers and jackets/blouses Vajello English Uniform (which I reckon passes for SADF 'nutria') and the webbing Vajello Khaki. The helmeted figures had their battle bonnets dry brushed khki as well. A 25% brown acrylic ink wash did wonders to shade the figures and after varnishing with matte acrylic the job was done.

This week I'll do command figures, weapon crews (HMGs, mortars and RRs) an vehicles and crews.