Angola 1966-1968 - my father's tour of duty

[Arlequín]

That's just the detail that's missing from many books on the conflict, so thank your father and his military advisor (your Mum) for that... certainly I would be happy to read more too of course.

I also agree with Carlos, your father's reminiscences should be 'out there'. A lot of people are genuinely interested but that interest is limited by the information available.

[Predatorpt]

Great stuff, Rodrigo. I'm sure you know there are a number of living history type blogs from various ex combatantes. You should try and talk your father into writing his stories down.

I'm trying, I'm trying  I've been searching for blogs from former members of his Battalion but I haven't been lucky. They even stopped doing their annual meetings :\

Hello all

Well done Predatorpt.
Information regarding the colonial period is more than welcome, especilly from a countryman.
Photos are most wanted for all of us interested in this conflict for it gives some ideas for painting and converting miniatures.
Keep up the excelent job.

Cheers

Rui

Glad to help. I think that there's almost 0 interest in gaming/discussing this war in the Portuguese gaming community and that's a real shame :\

That's just the detail that's missing from many books on the conflict, so thank your father and his military advisor (your Mum) for that... certainly I would be happy to read more too of course.

I also agree with Carlos, your father's reminiscences should be 'out there'. A lot of people are genuinely interested but that interest is limited by the information available.

Glad you liked it. I have some more stories to tell and I'll post them later today.

[carlos marighela]

I'm trying, I'm trying  I've been searching for blogs from former members of his Battalion but I haven't been lucky. They even stopped doing their annual meetings :\

Glad to help. I think that there's almost 0 interest in gaming/discussing this war in the Portuguese gaming community and that's a real shame :\

Glad you liked it. I have some more stories to tell and I'll post them later today.

I wouldn't be too sure. I know Nuno Pereira games it in 20mm and when Eureka first came out with their figures there was quite a bit of discussion on one of the Portuguese gaming forums.

As there was quite a bit of variation from place to place and time to time, I'd be quite interested in your father's memories of the structure of his platoon and squad on the ground as it were.

[Predatorpt]

I wouldn't be too sure. I know Nuno Pereira games it in 20mm and when Eureka first came out with their figures there was quite a bit of discussion on one of the Portuguese gaming forums.

As there was quite a bit of variation from place to place and time to time, I'd be quite interested in your father's memories of the structure of his platoon and squad on the ground as it were.

Ok, I'll ask him some of those questions. And I still need to post at least another picture but I guess I'll do it tomorrow.

As for the Eureka Figures, I think I know what discussion you're talking about (I think I was the one who posted the news about them on Setti.tv) but it didn't change a thing. There's a couple of projects in 15mm and 28mm but not much else. People still prefer to game WW2 or the Grim Dark Future 

[rumacara]

Hello all

Well, some of the reasons people dont game often the modern african wars in Angola and Moçambique might be the dificulty on getting vehicles and suitable figures. In 20mm there migh be more variety, but in 15mm or 28mm the choice is limited therefore a limited interest.

15mm - Peter Pig
20mm - Irregular miniatures, Liberation miniatures and a few others with some suitable miniatures mainly for the africans and mercenaries.
28mm - Eureka miniatures (expanded from time to time)

The information available its also scarce for non portuguese readers.
We have some books with some pictures in Portugal but their availability in English or other languages is very limited therefore Rodrigo´s work on this subject (as well as other people) is most welcome and support should be given.

Cheers

Rui

[carlos marighela]

Hello all

Well, some of the reasons people dont game often the modern african wars in Angola and Moçambique might be the dificulty on getting vehicles and suitable figures. In 20mm there migh be more variety, but in 15mm or 28mm the choice is limited therefore a limited interest.

15mm - Peter Pig
20mm - Irregular miniatures, Liberation miniatures and a few others with some suitable miniatures mainly for the africans and mercenaries.
28mm - Eureka miniatures (expanded from time to time)

The information available its also scarce for non portuguese readers.
We have some books with some pictures in Portugal but their availability in English or other languages is very limited therefore Rodrigo´s work on this subject (as well as other people) is most welcome and support should be given.

Cheers

Rui

Well, really there is no shortage of toys. All the vehicles, except maybe the APC version of the EBR are available in 15mm and 20mm. Similarly all of the aircraft are available, I myself have a respectable mini Portuguese airforce. If you search this forum there's a lengthy thread on available sources of vehicles suitable for 28mm. I had to make (easy) conversions to get a pair of GMC Foxes but the only vehicles I don't currently have are the Panhard VTT and the Chaimite, both of which I intend to scratch build / convert.

As for sources, yes it's true much of the material is indeed in Portuguese, although that shouldn't dissuade Portuguese gamers. That said, there are some reasonable works in English the two books by John P Cann are good introductory works for non Portuguese speakers. Then there are excellent resources online, the Guerra Colonial website and dozens of blog sites. Even if language is an issue most people can use a web translation service. Never perfect but enough to get a sense of what's written.

For those who do speak the language or even for those who might not but might persevere with a dictionary, then I'd recommend Afonso and Gomes' Guerra Colonial. For an under gamed topic you have in this tome one of the best wargamer's resources you could imagine.

[rumacara]

Hello all

Well said and well pointed.
Many thanks for the tips and information.
I didnt have the idea that there was much information in english.
I´m happy to know that.
About miniatures, the available ones did surprised me also because i had the idea that they where not so common to buy. I did had an idea in 20mm but 15mm or 28mm didnt.
I miself would like to get some apropriate figures in 20mm for portuguese and i cant find them.

Cheers

Rui

[juergen c. olk]

Also if you need photos to help w/ painting and such ,we have many Portuguese albums at our yahoo group,we have a member who last year went to Portugal and took many excellent photos at the Sintra air museum.  http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ModernAfricanBushwars

[Predatorpt]

And now for something different - a firebase (or at least the Portuguese equivalent  ). In this case, we are talking about Zala, where my father was posted. This was taken in late 1966 and depicts the start of an operation of the Companhia de Caçadores 1581:



The helis are lifting off from the end of the runaway - it was usually used by the T-6 Texans (used as bombers) and by the Dornier Do-27 (small cargo/transport plane). There were never airplanes/helis permanently stationed in Zala, they usually were deployed from either Nambuangongo or Luanda.

Behind the trucks, you can see the artillery pits but at the time they only had heavy mortars there. The white building isn't a hospital, but a church. The firebase was built around it (and around some abandoned plantations from the start of the war). Those parallel "trenches" on the ground were dirt benches - they used the front of the church as a cinema screen 

While talking with my father, we searched the net for more pictures and found some interesting ones:

Zala in 1969

http://www.prof2000.pt/users/secjeste/arkidigi/zala01.htm

And here's Zala in 74/75 (these photos are from a blog, not from my father). Some improvements were made:

http://zala.fotosblogue.com/

An aerial view (from the same blog as above):



And something strange happened. We found the "official" blog of the Batalhão de Caçadores that relieved my father's Battalion in Zala, in July 1967

http://zala-batca1919.blogspot.pt/2009/06/biografia-do-batalhao-cacadores-1919.html

Lots of (small) pictures to see there. It's a pity that my father's Battalion doesn't have something similar.

One thing that my father wants to get straight: regular troops - "Caçadores" - were also deployed by chopters. In fact, they did lots of missions where they were heli-transported. The Alouette III wasn't only used by the Comandos and the Pára-Quedistas, like it says on the Wikipedia and lots of other places.

My father hated flying in them for various reasons:

- it was cramped, they squeezed 4 guys on the back seats plus one on the floor, with his back against the pilot, while another was seated at the side of the pilot. In the case of casualties, the guy on the floor would go on another heli and the stretcher would take his place. The seated soldiers had to try not to step on the injured soldier while attending to him. It could also take a extra stretcher but then it would only take 2 soldiers and the pilot.
- it was noisy as hell 

My father never jumped from one - he saw some guys doing it but most of them ended with broken legs - they never had any specific training like the Comandos/Páras. Most of the times the Alouette III would land and them they would disembark.

As far as I can tell, most of the soldiers seemed to have a love/hate relationship with them, at least in Angola. They were considered useful in the gunship/medevac role but they had a big problem - when it started to get dark, they stopped flying. My father said we never saw a heli after 5PM and they ended loosing soldiers that could have been saved if evacuated to Luanda.

On a personal note, I usually go to an anual scale modelling show in a Air Base near my city. 2 years ago, they had an Open Base Day on that same date and me and my brother took the time to visit all the airplanes/helis on display. We ended up talking with the crew of an Alouette III with the SAR role. They noticed that I was looking at a little plate bolted at the back of the flight compartment, that said that the airframe of the heli was from...1968 

Basicaly they said that yes, the helis are really old...but the engines are relatively new (reconditioned at OGMA) and some of the avionics are also new. How do they conserve the helis like that? - Everything is oiled up after a flight, even a short one. And after X-hours (can't remember the exact time) the engines would be taken out of the helicopter, dismantled and oiled up  . Here's the official site for that Alouette Squadron: http://www.emfa.pt/www/po/esquadra/esq552

It was one of the first to receive the helis from France, in 1963.

To finish this post a question:

My father swears he saw Puma helis in 1968...but they weren't Portuguese. They were all painted black and their crews were South-African. They even had a codename for them - primos (cousins). Does anyone know if this is true? My mother had a co-worker's husband who was a Pára in Angola in 1971 that says the same thing - there were South-African Puma helis supporting our troops.

I've got these books, about the SA involvement, in my "To Read" pile:

http://www.wook.pt/ficha/alcora/a/id/15020472
http://www.wook.pt/ficha/a-mao-sul-africana/a/id/15560636

but more info would be appreciated 

[Arlequín]

Great stuff! Thanks. 

Yes, South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia were in an alliance of sorts, which resulted in the 'loan' of South African equipment and crews to both of the other two countries in the 'Triumvirate' and the sharing of information. For South Africa it presented a 'buffer zone' against ANC incursions, so they were more than happy not to have to fight on their own soil and did what they could to keep the Rhodesians and Portuguese 'in the game'.

In the 'border regions' this extended to allowing each other's respective ground forces to operate somewhat at will too. In Mozambique Portuguese troops were happy to take on ZANLA groups where they found them and likewise the Rhodesians were not fussy about neutralising a FRELIMO group when they crossed into Portuguese territory. I believe there were even some combined operations in the Cabora Dam region before 1974.

[carlos marighela]

Black helicopters? I'm picturing Tommy Lee Jones with a Sith Ifrican accent. 

[Predatorpt]

Black helicopters? I'm picturing Tommy Lee Jones with a Sith Ifrican accent.  

 

I love a good mystery, so after a internet search with some of things that Arlequín mentioned and browsing the first book - "Alcora", I found out 2 things:

- first of all, my father never saw a Puma - they only arrived in South Africa during the 70's. So after searching the internet for info on the South African Air Force, I found the culprit (and showed some photos to my father) - he must have seen Super Frelons. He only remembers them being way bigger than the Alouette and when he later saw the Pumas...assumed they were Pumas. But he remembers them being black and without any kind of insignia  

- and I also found a reference by Aniceto Afonso saying this:

"...Early in the war, the white regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia provided limited support to the Portuguese forces. This support was increased as these two regimes began realizing Portugal's inability to control the situation. They were worried about their future in case of a Portuguese defeat and, starting in 1968, increased their support by providing materials and even combat units. In 1968, the South Africans began to provide helicopters Alouette III to be operated by Portuguese pilots, but this support evolved quickly to supply crews and finally, companies of the South Africa Defence Forces (SADF) were deployed. These land and air units operated together with Portuguese forces from bases of Cuito-Cuanavale and Gago Coutinho, where Joint Air Support  Commands ((CCAA) were created in April 1968."

original document here: http://www.cd25a.uc.pt/media/pdf/NeD124_AnicetoAfonso.pdf - in Portuguese, I translated that part into English. I think this was the study that was turned into the Alcora book I mentioned earlier.

With that info, I went searching again and found some pictures of SAAF helicopters, in Angola, painted dark green (I can't tell by some of the pictures. Maybe that's why my father called them black):

Pictures titled: ALL III dos "primos" no Cuito (All III of the "Cousins" in Cuito), July 1970

http://ab4especialistas.blogspot.pt/2011/12/o-25-de-abril-no-cuito-cuanavale.html

Picture titled: Algures (somewhere) - 1970 - in SE Angola, a SAAF Alouette III with the destinctive F in yellow and false FAP9325 - foto Jan Blackie SAAF

https://picasaweb.google.com/especialista.do.ab4/ZILALGURES#5965173051360977282

Picture Titled: ALL III - da SAAF a operar algures em Angola (SAAF ALL III operating somewhere in Angola, 1968)

https://picasaweb.google.com/especialista.do.ab4/ZILALGURES#5801337574913149362

Picture Titled: Algures - 1968 - Equipe de Primos (Somewhere - 1968 - a Crew of "Cousins")

https://picasaweb.google.com/especialista.do.ab4/ZILALGURES#5974824703450045474
Of course I'm still trying to find a photo of a Super Frelon  

To finish, I've found this site from ex-FAP personal, with lots of photos of our helis and planes in Angola. Plus photos of SAAF personnel  

https://picasaweb.google.com/especialista.do.ab4/ASNOSSASAERONAVES
https://picasaweb.google.com/especialista.do.ab4/ZILALGURES

[carlos marighela]

Great finds, great photos! Curiously enough I have a 1/72 model of that very Harvard. Cheated with mine and kitted it out with bombs rather than rockets.

[Arlequín]

Mr Afonso's being a bit blinkered in his thinking, even if he is essentially right. South Africa's and Rhodesia's ties with Angola and Mozambique were not just military, but economic too. The Rhodesians relied on the 'Beira Corridor' as their main route for goods into and out of their country (not counting the fact that large numbers of Rhodesians visited the 'seaside' on their holidays). The closing of the Mozambique Border in 1975 was perhaps the biggest blow struck against the white regime in a single act.

There was also massive South African investment in the Calueque hydro-electric facility in Angola, which not only provided power to Namibia, but also large quantities of water for irrigation. Across the whole region of Southern Africa there were numerous economic and financial relationships that went across the various borders. These were so important that at one point the South Africans ceased their support of Rhodesia for a period, while they attempted to establish a 'relationship' with newly independent Mozambique.

Excuse the unintended pun, but everything is not black and white when dealing with Africa.

[Predatorpt]

Great finds, great photos! Curiously enough I have a 1/72 model of that very Harvard. Cheated with mine and kitted it out with bombs rather than rockets.

It isn't cheating if they also used bombs

Napalm


50kg bombs


50kg and 15kg bombs


And 15kg bombs with the usual messages.