THE BATTLE FOR EBOTHE. BATTLE FOR EBO (1. To. get things in perspective I think I will have to go back to 1. November 1. 97. 5, as. Portuguese had not recognised the MPLA as the sole. Angolan people, it still was anybody's war. Holm with 2. companies consisting of Infantry, Elands and Mortars going north on the main. In American political jargon, an October surprise is a news event deliberately created or timed (or sometimes occurring spontaneously) to influence the outcome of an.Marmede where he was to liaise with Capt. This battle lasted 9 hours, and the terrain off road. Lt Duraan rocked up but being stuck on the dirt roads he couldn't get. Capt. Holm and thus couldn't give effective fire. Another disadvantage that he had was that there wasn't any cover. AAA, these shot away their bins and most of the junk they had tied. His gunner was a first member of Foxbat that got revved by Red. Eyes, courtesy of Fapla. By nightfall both combat groups went back to Cela where. Cubans and Fapla. Arty. Luckily for them the gunners were on their way. On. the morning of 1. November Capt. Holm ordered Lt Du Toit to take his troop north. Capt. Holm had a habit of acquiring Honda 4 x 4's and by this time he had. He and this blue Honda. Lt Du Toit, and hit the road They were rather surprised when they. Fapla's position of the day before and found it. Grad P and anti aircraft machine gun looking rather forlorn. We found, quite often, that during Savannah. Fortunately for us Fapla. After. checking for booby- traps, the weapons, ammo and whatever could be used was. Cassamba mountains, from there the road. Nhia river. As we reached the saddle, a Fapla. Landrover and 2 Gaz vehicles were spotted moving towards. Elands were deployed in the bushes by the side of the road and Fapla. Elands and the infantry finished off the two. David Evanier, Cancer of the Testicles. Giles Gordon, Two Chairs. Bernard Malamud, The Art of Fiction No. Somewhere in Angola there are 2 world class. I for one wish them well even they might be somewhat buggered and. The rear. vehicle actually became airborne when the 9. Heat projectile struck it, apart. AK were some pots full of Mealiepap which we. A very. professional job this was indeed, both bridgeheads had been utterly destroyed. Elands were unable to ford this. Nhia was in flood. We were only able to cross this. Fapla and their Cuban allies from the area around Cela and. HQ further North. The demolition of the bridge over the. Nhia was the first of many undertaken by the Cuban advisors to hinder Foxbat and. Zulu from gaining territory and for the first time we started to encounter the. On 1. 5 November we suffered our. Unita soldier lost a foot on the banks of the. Nhia, the first of many.. After. considering his options Cmdt Webb decided to send a party to reconnoiter Conde. Ebo and Hengo on 1. November and later that same day this combat team bumped. Fapla in the vicinity of Ebo, after a short fire fight Fapla gapped it. The. fact that Fapla already had forces in numbers at Ebo, made Cmdt Webb decide to. Ebo and carry on towards Catof. By this time there were large concentrations of Fapla in. Nhia. and he had to keep them in the dark as to what his intentions were, Lt Van. Niekerk was tasked to recce the two routes to Ebo. Initially. the combat team tried the route via Hengo, but again they were delayed once. Using the tow cables of the Elands, and some. Elands could traverse. Ebo later. on. The town was a ghost town and many of those who were there that day later on. Heebie Jeebies to say the least. Signs of. human occupation there was a- plenty, fresh tyre tracks, stoves with the. Mealiepap still cooking on them, there were open boxes of. Lt. Van Nierkerk was deeply suspicious of this Marie Celeste situation and posted. He decided to reconnoiter on. Quibala, but after 2 klicks he decided that this was rather. Most. combat teams during Savannah were ad- hoc units based on the concept that even. Infantry Unit, as a result of this attachment you were an Infantryman first. SADF, the down side was that sometimes the. Vehicles were obtained by means fair and foul, and most of those. Savannah can probably remember the civilian trucks we pressed. I ever saw was a civilian truck locked and put up for. The only problem was the colours these Civvie trucks came. Lt van Niekerk the one carrying the mortar platoon was a. Day- Glo orange. The. Angola whenever we had a chance was to eat or sleep, this. Everybody had just started eating in. Ebo when Fapla decided join in uninvited and signaled their displeasure for not. RPG 7's and. Grad P's. Things became somewhat hectic to say the least, and Lt Van Niekerk. Eland armoured cars refused to. To cap it all it started to rain, and using the rain. Fapla started to advance, by this time the route we had used coming. Ebo had been cut by the enemy and the only avenue of escape was a road to. The orange truck was a major. Throughout this whole episode the two armoured cars were. Eventually. the combat group discovered a fairly good road, which incidentally was marked. Caltex road maps we used to navigate in Angola in those days. Comms were established with Capt. Holm and he was. informed of their plight. They realised that with Fapla following up and no. Again. the Afrikaans saying . As the first Eland crossed towing the. Eland car followed suit, the runners deployed to give. Like something out of a B western, the cavalry in. Capt. Holm and his combat group arrived, after a short firefight. Fapla decided to retire and left Lt Van Niekerk master of the battlefield, but. It. became clear to us that we had no answer to the Grad P without Arty. In the. meantime Cmdt Webb had been replaced by Cmdt George Kruys and a second squadron. Elands arrived, as well as battery consisting of four 8. WWII vintage 2. 5. Maj. Chris Venter, the next couple. Armour, Artillery and Infantry into combat teams. A. few days later the march on Quibala got underway. Foxbat. was still looking for a route and at first light 1. Capt. Holtzhausen found it heavy going on his route in the mountainous. Nhia river valley, due to the poor conditions of the roads. This was the route that. Cmdt initially chose as his line of march to attack Quibala, but as a result of. We. had a choice of two routes we could follow, the first option was the route via. Ebo to Cond. The other. Hengo. but the enemy had blown the bridge here, this option was the least favoured as. The. only option was for Major Holtzhausen to rebuild the bridge they had destroyed. Klicks away Fapla would. Hengo. The banks of the Tunga. Anybody who has experienced the rain in. Angola will know what this means, virtually solid sheets of water coming down. Holm had taken the Western route, apart from trying to find a way. Quibala he had to destroy the bridge that had been discovered over the Tunga. Ebo earlier, as Fapla and the Cubans would be able to attack us in the rear. Lt Van Niekerk's' trick , to get to his objective he had. It really was uneventful. Tunga when after rounding a bend about 1 Klick from the. Luckily cool heads prevailed. Elands went over to the attack, and blocked the enemies. Sans windscreen in one case. The. capture of these two trucks really turned out to be a goldmine, in one of them. Angola, stacked about. Godsend to the South African forces. Savannah , the Caltex and Shell road maps we had to rely up to now could. The rest of the convoys cargo consisted of boots, which the Unita. Havana cigars, cigarettes, brand name Populares (sp.?) canned food from China. Netherlands. Whilst everybody was looking at all these goodies and. After this engagement Lt Du. Raan demolished the bridge and with our two new trucks leading and Capt. Holm had the habit of suddenly appearing out of thin air. Cela much to the chagrin of friend and foe. Nobody really likes somebody suddenly scaring the hell out of you when. Well. Tuesday 1. 8th November 1. Unbeknownst. to us the enemy had followed a route we were unaware of , and had decided to. The same couldn't be said when the blue Honda made. Fapla soldiers opening up with small arms from about 2. Honda, Capt. Holm spat in the face of Death that day and got away with it.. When. he realised what was happening he did the only thing possible, floored the. Honda had been hit in four places. Once he had reached safety, with considerable sang- froid he parked the. In the triangle formed by the . The South African Combat team had unexpectedly arrived to their. The first troop of Elands engaged the enemy and advised those. The 2 Eland troops. Civvie truck. Luckily. Lt Du Raan was on high ground and he could plot the fire of the mortar. FAPLA's' day somewhat. This was turning out to. While the mortars and. Elands in front were firing at the enemy, one of the South African drivers in. Elands. as he was talking to the commander in the turret he noticed a group of infantry. Eland. At. first he thought that these were Unita soldiers, but then the penny dropped. Whites integrated in the Unita forces, this had to be Fapla, and. Whites either had to be Russians or Cubans, by this time the enemy was. Eland , but a quick word and some MG fire solved that. Fapla decided to call it a day after losing some men, the. South African Combat Team suffered no casualties, the spoils consisted of three. Recoilless rifles, ammunition for these, and the ubiquitous AK4. Although no progress had been made in the campaign to take. Quibala, at least we had stopped the enemy from digging in at the strategic. Foxbats' base. The. West.. The. following day the Engineers started rebuilding the bridge with material they. National Servicemen were the unsung heroes of Savannah, 1. At last light on 2. November 1. 97. 5, they were able to look. The bridge was finished. While. all this was going on those of the combat group who were keeping an eye over the. Engineers busied itself with the mundane tasks that soldiers all over the. A. light 'plane appeared one day and caused some anxiety as it circled over their. Angola as. mentioned previously, was the fact that appearances never were what they seemed. Allouette's had fatal consequences for the South African forces on. As. standard operating procedure dictated that no one was to fire until the identity. Later that. evening some of the Eland gunners were prepared to swear on a stack of Bibles. Such. are the fortunes of war..
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