Battle for Angola: The End of The Cold War in Africa, c1975-89
Following the publication of Al Venter's successful Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa – short-listed by the New York Military Affairs Symposium's Arthur Goodzeit Book Award for 2013 – his Battle for Angola delves still further into the troubled history of this former Portuguese African colony.
This is a completely fresh work running to almost 600 pages, including 32 pages of colour photos, with the main thrust on events before and after the civil war that followed Lisbon's over-hasty departure back to the metrópole. There are also several sections that detail the role of South African mercenaries in defeating the rebel leader, Dr. Jonas Savimbi (considered by some as the most accomplished guerrilla leader to emerge in Africa in the past century). There are many chapters that deal with Pretoria's reaction to the deteriorating political and military situation in Angola, the role of the Soviets and mercenaries in the political transition, as well as the civil war that followed. With the assistance of several notable military authorities, he elaborates in considerable detail on South Africa's 23-year Border War, from the first guerrilla incursions to the last. In this regard, he received solid help from the former head of 4 Reconnaissance Regiment, Colonel Douw Steyn, who details several cross-border recce strikes, including the sinking by frogmen of two Soviet ships and a Cuban freighter in an Angolan deepwater port.
Throughout, the author was helped by a variety of notable authorities, including the French historian, Dr. René Pélissier, and the American academic and former naval aviator, Dr. John (Jack) Cann. With their assistance, he covers several ancillary uprisings and invasions, including the Herero revolt of the early 20th Century; the equally-troubled Ovambo insurrection, as well as the invasion of Angola by the Imperial German Army in the First World War. Former deputy head of the South African Army, Major General Roland de Vries, played a seminal role. It was he – dubbed South Africa's Rommel by his fellow commanders – who successfully nurtured the concept of mobile warfare where, in a succession of armored onslaughts utilizing thin-skinned Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicles, he tackled Soviet main battle tanks and thrashed them. There is a major section on South African Airborne – the Parabats – by Brigadier-General McGill Alexander, one of the architects of that kind of warfare under Third World conditions. Finally, the role of the Cuban Revolutionary Army receives the attention it deserves: officially, there were almost 50,000 Cuban troops deployed in the Angolan War, though subsequent disclosures in Havana suggest that the final total was much higher.
Hardback
245mm x 170mm
564 pages
200 black-and-white photos, two 16 pages color sections
