This is episode 45 and its 1980. Everything will accelerate from now on – as wars generally do when neither side has complete control over the battlefield. And one of the biggest events over the Border War was about to take place – Operation Sceptic or Smokeshell as most call it. SWAPO by now had pulled back from the shallow areas – those parts of southern Angola closest to the cutline – the border with South West Africa. They moved deeper into Angola, northwards which meant that any future operation would have further to go. The pattern of rainy season cross border incursions was now under way as SWAPO’s armed wing PLAN used the thicker vegetation and numerous water holes. Not to mention the increased problems for the SA Air Force with thunderstorms and more weather around making air support more problematic. It was also more difficult to locate their bases inside Angola. The SADF began focusing its powerful conventional cross-border operations during winter when it was dry. Remember southern Africa is a summer rainfall area – for my global audience. The dry winters made it was easier for heavy vehicles to travel about, and during the winter PLAN would gather in their main bases to debrief and retrain for the following summer. The South Africans were making new plans with a strategic purpose to attack SWAPO and destroy its image as a war-winning movement. That of course was supposed to show South West Africans they shouldn’t depend on SWAPO when the country became an independent Namibia.

Desmond Latham

Much has been written about the South African Border war which is also known as the Namibian War of Independence. While the fighting was ostensibly about Namibia, most of the significant battles were fought inside Namibia’s northern neighbour, Angola. South Africa’s 23 year border war has been almost forgotten as the Cold War ebbed away and bygones were swept under the political carpet. South African politicians, particularly the ANC and the National Party, decided during negotiations to end years of conflict that the Truth and Reconciliation commission would focus on the internal struggle inside South Africa. For most conscripts in the South African Defence Force, the SADF, they completed matric and then were drafted into the military. For SWAPO or UNITA or the MPLA army FAPLA it was a similar experience but defined largely by a political awakening and usually linked to information spread through villages and in towns. This was a young person’s war which most wars are – after all the most disposable members of society are its young men. Nor was it simply a war between white and black. IT was more a conflict on the ground between red and green. Communism and Capitalism. The other reality was despite being a low-key war, it was high intensity and at times featured by unconventional warfare as well as conventional. At times SADF soldiers would be on foot, walking patrols or SWAPO on foot, launching attacks across the border. But there were motorised heavy vehicles, tanks, artillery, air bombardments and mechanised units rolling into attack each other. For some that was a nightmare, for others, freedom. At times youngsters from the suburbs of Pretoria or Durban were fighting experienced soldiers from Russia and Cuba. For veterans the territory would come to be known as “Nam” as the experience replicated the American experience in Vietnam to some extent.

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