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South African Border War / Namibian Independence
To The Bush and Back - The Last Phase of the South African Border War as Experienced by a Junior Officer of 32 Battalion
There was a time when the world was still embroiled in the Cold War and when the communist threat was a reality for many South Africans. That was a time when the phrase "going-to-the-bush" had a meaning of its own and when many a South African conscript was obliged to do his "tour" on the Namibian border...
ZULU ZULU FOXTROT - To Hell and Back with Koevoet
This is the explosive follow-up to Zulu Zulu Golf, covering Arn Durand's next few years in Koevoet, the most deadly fighting force involved in the Border War.
The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War
As the Soviet Union teetered on the edge of collapse during the late 1980s, and America prepared to claim its victory, a bloody war still raged in Southern Africa, where forces from both sides vied for control of Angola. The result was the largest battle on the dark continent since Al Alamein.
LZ Hot!: Flying South Africa's Border War
This book captures the experience of the South African Air Force helicopter pilot as never before; from ‘rookie’ to seasoned combat aviator in one of history’s most intense counter-insurgency conflicts – the South African Border War.
Charlies Omega
During the Bush War not much was known about 31 BN. Due to the secrecy surrounding all activities during the Bushwar, and especially at this Unit, it was virtually unknown till the late 1980’s. When 31 BN was relocated to SA, it started to gain notice, but with many misconceptions.
Battle Scarred: Hidden Costs of the Border War
A young doctor is forced to face the Border War when he can no longer escape the call-up. With only a few weeks’ training in this field, Anthony Feinstein is thrust into the army’s psychiatric unit.
Battle Scarred is his revealing account...
Koevoet!: Experiencing South Africa's Deadly Bush War
Koevoet! has been an global bestseller since its release over 20 years ago. This new edition goes far beyond the original in capturing the courage, fear and intensity of South Africa s deadly bush war. Never before had an outsider been given unrestricted access to Koevoet, the elite South West African Police counterinsurgency unit - also known as Operation K and...
Bush War - The Road to Cuito Cuanavale
For almost fifteen years South Africa was involved in a civil war in Angola, the so-called Bush War, on behalf of the UNITA faction. The climax of this portrayed conflict was the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, the largest military engagement on African soil since the Second World War. Here South African forces came to blows with Angolan FAPLA troops and their Cuban allies in a battle whose outcome is still hotly debated.
Striking Inside Angola With 32 Battalion
Join 'The Terrible Ones' on clandestine operations and in conventional warfare during the harsh bush war that raged through southern Angola in the 1980s. The conflict ended with the last major battle of the Cold War, one of the largest land battles of the latter part of the 20th century.
A Whisper In The Reeds - Signalling 'The Terrible Ones': South Africa's 32 Battalion at War
This amazing work relates the experiences of Justin Taylor who served as the Signals Officer for the South African Defence Force's infamous 32 Battalion - the 'Terrible Ones'!
COMING SOON ! - Read More
London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid
This is the story of the foreign volunteers and their activities in South Africa, how they acted in defiance of the Apartheid government and its police on the instructions of the African National Congress. Many volunteers were Young Communists, some were recruited from the IS...
A Military History of South Africa
From the Dutch-Khoi Wars to the End of Apartheid
This work offers the first one-volume comprehensive military history of modern South Africa.
Africa is rapidly taking on new importance in global geopolitical thinking on a number of fronts, in particular the military dimension and the role of the continental “superpower,” ...
ANGOLA: A Modern Military History, 1961-2002
The first comprehensive assessment of warfare in Angola to cover all three phases of the nation's modern history: the anti-colonial struggle, the Cold War phase, and the post-Cold War era. It is also the first to cover, in detail, the final phase of warfare in Angola...
Freedom is Not Free...
This work is one of the first contributions to South African Military history written from the perspective of the armed liberation struggle. In particular the role of the Umkhonto We Sizwe liberation fighters. This is an incisive insight into the ANC’s military wing and is a fascinating read. A former Umkhonto fighter himself and now a senior officer in the SANDF, Marutle documents the experience and operations of the Border War through his own notes and the experiences of fellow comrades in arms.
Zulu Zulu Golf: LIfe & Death With Koevoet
A unit of the South African police, Koevoet was the most deadly fighting force involved in the Border War. This book is the account of Arn Durand’s first years with Koevoet, from 1982 to 1983. Through Durand’s eyes, the reader will experience the madness, mayhem and complexity of the war, as he describes patrols, ambushes and contacts, situations of certain death...
Shadows in the Sand: A Koevoet Trackers Story of an Insurgency War
This is the story of a Kavango tracker who served for six years with Koevoet ‘Crowbar’), the elite South African Police anti-terrorist unit, during the South West African–Angolan bush war of the ’80s.
Troepie Snapshots - Pictorial recollections of the South African Border War
This pictorial is a compilation of images obtained by the author while working on his first book—an oral history of pre-1994 South African Defence Force national service. It was illegal to take photos; however, there were inevitably those...
Making of an MK Cadre
Membership of the former military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto wesizwe (MK), cuts across all strata of the South African community; starting from the first four democractically elected presidents of South Africa, to the inhabitants of numerous squatter camps and RDP settlements.
The Afrikaners: Biography of a People
The Afrikaners: Biography of A People, the first comprehensive history of the Afrikaner people based on—and critical of—the most recent scholarly work, draws on the author’s own research and interviews conducted with leading political actors. Hermann Giliomee weaves together life stories and interpretation to create a highly readable narrative history of the Afrikaners.
The true story of an ordinary policeman who served in the South African Police Force at the height of apartheid. With graphic scenes of violence and sex, it exposes the realities of being in the police force in the seventies and eighties when brutality was commonplace and men didn’t cry.
The Boers in Angola: 1928-1975
Nicol Stassen devotes, among others, an entire chapter to the gripping story of the Dorsland (Thirstland) Trekkers and their adventures. During these Angola Boers’ stay in Angola there was little chance of farming and far too many problems: a problematic relationship with the Portuguese authorities...
On the Border: The White South African Military Experience 1965-1990
Though life “on the border” was often deeply upsetting, much of it was plain boring or humdrum, even pleasant — and occasionally hilarious. For those who were there, it was an unforgettable time with after-effects ranging from bitterness to fond nostalgia, often a mix of both.
Angola: The Weight of History
Provides an introduction to the history of Angola and analyzes its economic, political, and social evolution. 'This book's great strength is to put the contemporary,postwar condition of Angola into a historical context and to show how the present cannot be understood without this highly particular past. It is also very useful as a basis for the comparative analysis of African politics and economies'. – Chris Cramer, School of Oriental and African Studies
A History of Namibia
A concise history of Namibia from its origins until its independence.
'An excellent history of Namibia, which should be accessible to a wide readership in the country, and also to many historians and history students with an interest in colonialism and liberation on the African continent...
Portugal's War in Angola
In January 1961, Angola, one of Portugal’s most thriving “overseas provinces” was in the eye of a storm. A period of sustained growth in the 1950s, a golden decade of Portuguese African history, had led to Angola becoming one of Portugal’s most prized possessions. National development plans were embarked on with zeal..
Why Angola Matters
Twenty years after independence, Angola has known only one year of peace, making its war the most protracted and destructive in the world. Yet this tragedy rarely makes news. A remarkably diverse group of people - including the warring parties themselves - came together in Cambridge to address this issue.
BUSH WAR – Vol 1 & Vol 2!
This 26 part documentary series is a powerful revelation of a secret war – the South African Bush War. The Bush war lasted from 1966 until 1989, making it one of Africa's longest conflicts. The Bush War was fought in Northern Namibia (former South West Africa), and also in Southern Angola - so-called 'Operational Area' or 'Border'. For the first time ever – we reveal previously censored military footage which unashamedly tells the story of the true events of South Africa's Secret Bush War...
A Burning Hunger
This is the history of a South African family that suffered, resisted, and finally triumphed over apartheid; a book that is as fascinating as the best novels." "A story of imprisonment, torture, seperation and loss; it is also one of dignity, courage and strength in the face of appalling adversity."
James Ngculu was one of the mass of young people inspired by the 1976 Soweto Uprising to join Umkhonto we Sizwe in exile to fight against South Africa's apartheid regime. They were not in search of a comfortable life, and they did not find one. But like many of his comrades, the young Ngculu found inspiration and education in more than equal measure with frustration and hardship.
On The Bridge of Goodbye
'Everyone wants to give some history to his children. This gives him a reality. But what is this history unless it is in his parents and in the land.’
Set against the southern African canvas of war and upheaval is the story of the famous San soldiers who fought first for the Portuguese in Angola...
The Peoples War – New Light on the Struggle for South Africa
Fifteen years have passed since South Africans were being shot or hacked or burned to death in political conflict; and the memory of the trauma has faded. Some 20 500 people were nevertheless killed between 1984 and 1994. The conventional wisdom is that they died at the hands of a state-backed Third Force, but the...
Bush of Ghosts
War can hide many things but not everything, and a camera can see more than is supposed. The remarkable photographs in this book.. Read More
The Hot ‘Cold War’ – The USSR in Southern Africa
This book analyses the causes of armed conflicts in Southern Africa during the Cold War. It examines the influence of the various external forces in the region during this period and their relationship to local movements and governments. The book focuses on states experiencing violent internal conflict and foreign intervention, that is Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Magnus Malan – My life with the SA Defence Force
As a schoolboy at the age of thirteen, Magnus Malan had already run away to join what was then the Union Defence Force. This was to no avail, of course, but ever since he was permitted to join the Physical Training Battalion in 1946, for a period of some 45 years, his career and life has been closely entwined with the South African Defence Force. Malan’s military career took him to many places in Southern Africa...
“Recce” A Collector’s Guide to the History of the South African Special Forces
This book has been some 15 years in the making and can claim, with some justification, to be the definitive publication on the ‘Recces’, unlikely to be topped for many, many years. The South African Special Forces have invariably been portrayed as a sinister force, used in covert operations locally and abroad but this is pure political expediency and media propaganda.
South Africa Pushed to the Limit: The Political Economy of Change
Proximi South Africa’s democratic government has worked hard at improving the lives of the black majority, yet close to half the population lives in poverty, jobs are scarce, and the country is more unequal than ever. For millions, the colour of a person's skin still decides their destiny. In its wide-ranging...
32 Battalion - The Inside Story of South Africa's Elite Fighting Unit
32 Battalion is the gripping inside story of South Africa's most controversial fighting unit of the 1970s and 1980s. Originally formed in order to lend support to the FNLA and UNITA in the Angolan war, 32 Battalion quickly gained the reputation of being an unconventional, secretive, yet highly effective group.
Crime in Post-apartheid South Africa: Transforming under Fire
This text discusses the extent of crime in late-1990s South Africa, looking at its victims and the criminal justice system within the country. The author also reviews the options available to government if it is to restore the public's confidence in its ability to tackle growing lawlessness.
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No Mean Soldier
Peter McAleese obsessive quest for action and danger took him to many theatres of war - as a British SAS soldier in mountainous Aden and Borneo jungles, as a mercenary for the FNLA in the african bush in Angola, as a...
South African Army: Koevoet, South African Army Commando System, Witwatersrand Rifles et al LLC – Various
A collection of notes detailing Orbats, operational histories and other assorted information relating to a number of South African military units including; South African Tank Force, SWA Territorial Force, Durban Light Infantry, Regiment President Steyn etc.
A community of around 400 Afrikaners who remained in Angola after 1928 were left to oblivion, and were later described as a living fossil and victims of their own conservatism. Some did attempt to make a living of mixed farming, transport riding and hunting - decades after this lifestyle had died out elsewhere. This small group of Afrikaners maintained their Afrikanerskap under very difficult circumstances:
Pretoria's Praetorians: Civil-Military Relations in South Africa
In 1984 when this volume was first published, the balance of power in South Africa was rapidly changing as apartheid faced growing international pressure. New social formations and institutions previously on the political margins moved into the mainstream to influence the course of events in ways which complicated the workings of local politics and challenged prevailing theories about the future of South Africa's racial order...
Border-Line Insanity: A National Serviceman's Story
Tim Ramsden served his time as a National Serviceman in the SADF's elite Mechanised Battalions and tells his story from his tough training days to the SADF's final confrontation with Cuban armoured forces during the last days of the border war before a peace deal with Angola and Cuba was finalised in New York in December 1988.
19 with a Bullet
A rough, tough ’Bat in the bush wars of Namibia and Angola
Nineteen with a Bullet—A Parabat in Angola is a fast-moving, action-packed account of Granger Korff’s two years’ service during 1980/81 with 1 Parachute Battalion at the height of the South African ‘bush war’ in South West Africa (Namibia) and Angola.
Standby! South African Air Force Search and Rescue
In the air force no mission receives greater priority than the mission of mercy. When lives are at stake all resources available are dedicated to the task. Aircrew, ground crew, paramedics, doctors, mountaineers, navy divers, policemen and trained civilian volunteers are rapidly organized into a rescue team and dispatched with all haste to the disaster scene. This requires training, preparedness, dedication, determination and courage.
Borderstrike! South Africa into Angola 1975-1980
The first shots of a long war. A generation ago soldiers of the South African Army slipped discretely over the northern border of what was then South West Africa on the country's first real external combat operation since World War II. Operation Savannah marked the start of a protracted campaign, part counterinsurgency and part conventional, that did not end until 1989, a decade and a half later...
Truth is a Strange Fruit: A Personal Journey through the Apartheid War
One of the most shocking stories of the anti-apartheid era may have been uncovered by a Guardian Newspaper correspondent. It is the disclosure that former South African Prime Ministers, Hendrik Verwoed and John Vorster, and the former head of the security police, General Hendrik van den Berg, were co-conspirators in a crime...
A Greater Share of Honour: The Memoirs of a Recce Officer
The first major first person account of South African special operations written by a former Recce operator, Major Jack Greeff. As a young Staff Sergeant in the South African Special Forces Recces, Jack Greeff became one of the most decorated soldiers in the SADF.
First in, last out
This work documents the experience of South African gunners in the 1975-1988 Angolan border war. It relates early operations when a young second lieutenant was seconded to train UNITA troops in Angola, on US 4.2-inch mortars, through to Operation Savannah and final actions against the Cuban 80th Division in June 1988.
Pathfinder Company: 44 Parachute Brigade 'The Philistines'
Colonel Jan Breytenbach writes in the foreword: “On Ascension Day, 1978, a composite South African parachute battalion jumped onto the tactical HQ of SWAPO’s PLAN army, based at Cassinga, 250 kilometres north of...
Ummkhonto we Sizwe – Fighting for a Divided People
This landmark book is the first memoir written by men who fought as guerrillas with any of the liberation forces of countries in southern Africa.
Thula Bopela and Daluxolo Luthuli joined the liberation struggle as young men in the early 1960s when they...
At the Front : A General's Account of South Africa's Border War
General Jannie Geldenhuys is widely regarded as one of the leading military commanders South Africa has ever produced. As Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990 he brought his experience to bear on the South African Border War, and was part of the negotiating team which brought an end to the conflict in 1989.
The Dennis Brutus Tapes: Essays at Autobiography
Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) is known internationally as a South African poet, anti-apartheid activist and campaigner for human rights and the release of political prisoners. His literary works include Sirens Knuckles Boots (1963), Letters to Martha, and Other Poems from a South African Prison (1968), A Simple Lust (1973), and Stubborn Hope (1978).
Buffalo Soldiers
This is a soldier’s story about South African soldiers in southern Angola and Namibia and the enemies they fought. It tells of insurgency and counter-insurgency, guerrilla warfare and counter-guerrilla warfare, almost conventional warfare and conventional warfare. It tells of a conflict which the world saw as unpopular and unjust, in which South Africa was perceived as the aggressor.
On South Africa's Secret Service - An Undercover Agent's Story
This is the story of the ruthless intelligence war conducted by South Africa’s National Intelligence Service during the 1980s and 1990s. The author, Riaan Labuschagne, was a senior intelligence officer who operated widely as an undercover field officer. He tells a story of lies and half truths, secrecy and stealth,evasion and denials, deceits and manipulations.
Army Signals in South Africa Volumes 1,2 & 3
Vol 1 - Army Signals in South Africa: The Story of the South African Corps of Signals and its antecedents.
In two parts - The first section consists of a chronological sweep of the history of land-based signals in South Africa, starting with the role of the British army signallers and those of the independent Boer Republics...
Vol 2 - Signal Units of the South Africa Corps of Signals and Related Services.
The history of each of the major signal units of the SA Corps of Signals, including the role of signals elements in special units such as 32 Battalion, the SA Special Forces (the ‘Recces’), Military Intelligence, etc. Read More
Vol 3 - 9C - Nine Charlie! Army Signallers in the Field: The Story of the Men and Women of the South African Corps of Signals, and their equipment
It is estimated that over the decades of its existence over 100 000 signallers were part of the South African Corps of Signals, while many more were affected directly or indirectly by its activities. “9C” refers to the standard call-sign of the Signals Officer – who would play a key role during operations, but also in times of peace. Read More
Tailhooker to Mudmover
Out of print and with limited stocks available, this book traces an extraordinary career through nearly four decades of military aviation. Dick Lord tells a tale of military flying at its very best. He covers in amusing detail, the life of a carrier pilot...
...If you enjoyed From Fledgling to Eagle and Vlamgat, then this book is for you!
Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa's Late-Cold War Conflicts
This volume offers new perspectives on the Border War through the paradigms of diplomatic and military history, cultural and literary studies, as well as victimology. Contributors to this volume have challenged the boundaries, broken the silences, even tackled some taboos...
Warfare by Other Means: South Africa in the 1980s
Warfare by Other Means is not an apologia — it is a history, much of it oral and straight from the mouths of those involved. It tells of the actions of the SADF, performed within South Africa with the authority of the National Party Government through the State Security Council, during the ‘‘total onslaught’’ years.
The Silent War: South African Recce Operations 1969-1994
This amazing book tells not only the story of South Africa’s special forces, it has also been described as the most important and frank history of South Africa itself during the apartheid years. It is also the most illuminating book on special forces published anywhere. Not only does Stiff deal with military operations but he also explains the political...
Vlamgat
“Their hands are shaking ever so slightly. They will be flying again in the morning”
Vlamgat, literally ‘flaming hole’ in Afrikaans, was the nickname the South African Air Force (SAAF) gave to the Mirage F1, its formidable frontline jet fighter during South Africa’s long ‘border wars’ in South West Africa...
From Fledgling to Eagle
The crucible of combat over 23 years forged the fledgling South African Air Force into a formidable strike weapon, capable of defeating the best Soviet air defences of the time.
From Fledgling to Eagle chronicles the evolution of the SAAF in the ‘Border War’ that raged in Angola and South West Africa (Namibia) from 1966 to 1989, covering all the major South African Defence Force (SADF) operations from Omgulumbashe to the ‘April Fool’s Day war’ in 1989.
An Unpopular War: From Afkak to Bosbefok - Voices of South African National Servicemen
In the seventies, eighties and nineties, conscription had a profound effect on hundreds of thousands of young men, particularly those who had to serve in the Angolan war. This book is a collection of reflections and memories of that time, collected by JH Thompson, who interviewed men who did the South African National Service. Contributors include ordinary soldiers, Special Forces members, helicopter pilots, chefs and religious objectors.
No One Can Stop The Rain
Set in central Angola during the final stages of the country's thirty-year civil war, No One Can Stop the Rain is the true story of two ordinary Médecins Sans Frontières volunteers — a surgeon and his wife, leaving behind their comfortable lives in mid-career. In doing so they are confronted by both the best and worst aspects of humanity.
Ops Medic: A National Serviceman's Border War
This book takes you from National Service basics in the SAMS Depot Potchefstroom to training as an ops medic in Pretoria and from there to the Angolan - South West African border where a counter-insurgency war had been raging for many years. Published for the first time is the SADF’s Roll of Honour which lists almost...
Troepie: From Call-up to Camps
This title is a collection of excerpts from interviews with former conscripts in which they recall their time in the South African Defence Force. The chapters are structured according to the general sequence of a conscript’s experience: receiving call-up papers, klaaring in, the first week of Basics, keuring, bush phase...
The Catharsis and the Healing: South Africa in the 1990s
South Africa occupies an important position on the world's stage - with its growing violence, the tensions and the conflicts - but it is not often that you are given such a sensitive vision of its problems, viewed from so many enlightening angles and presented in such an accessible manner, as in this powerful account.
The Covert War: Koevoet Operations, Namibia 1979-1989
This book deals with the mostly untold story of Koevoet – the South African Police’s highly successful counter-insurgency unit. Initially based on the Selous Scouts of Rhodesia, it was formed in 1979 and deployed in Namibia until independence in 1989 when it was disbanded.
