The South African Border War

Up till now it was almost as if the the events of the last decade or two had simply been a prelude or setting up of the stage for the conflict that would play itself out in Southern Africa and culminate in the largest land battle on the African continent since World War II.

The cold war was coming to a head internationally, with the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union, around the end of this decade. However in Angola, the Soviet Advisers, Cubans and Angolan forces had developed a healthy respect for the SADF, SWATF, and the special units, Koevoet, 32 Battalion etc.

In return the SADF had a healthy respect for them and focused as much on SWAPO as possible without treading on these other forces toes.

South Africa had moved from a military with antiquated hardware to one that could produce its own weapons internally due to the arms embargoes that were biting down hard.

The SADF had mobilized conscript and volunteers from both SA and SWA and settled in for a long hard conflict. They had formalized their fighting strategies and created all the necessary specialized units, special forces and training facilities. They were prepared to go it alone if necessary against what they perceived as a growing communist threat that the world was ignoring.

South Africa with its apartheid policies would continue to become more and more isolated internationally but would continue to cry loudly and persistently about the communist threat on its doorstep in an attempt to gain some sort of international support or recognition.

In this decade I would enter my teens and the "border" or war would become an ever present reality.

In primary school already I would have friends with older brothers who were in "the army". At church mothers would always pray to "keep our boys on the border safe".

While driving between remote places it was not uncommon to give guys in uniform a lift that were going to and from home on leave. There were TV and radio adverts encouraging all drivers to do this, since men in uniform were not supposed to hitch hike.

Military Aircraft were a common sight and Large military convoys were not infrequent. We lived on one of the main air routes and on the main roads that headed out to the "operational areas".

Little did we know it at the time, but often getting stuck behind a convoy of tanks and armored personal carriers, for hours in the bus from school, actually coincided with some of the largest military operations of the 80's.

By high school all boys would have to participate in cadets once a week and wear the school equivalent of a military uniform, that was issued to us.

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This would result in two hours of drill practice or marching up and down the sports fields, or band practice, or shooting practice if you managed to make the school team.

The government and propaganda machine was in full swing and we grew up under the cloud of a communist threat with a potential "commie" hiding behind every bush. They were beginning to indoctrinate us from the age of 12 weekly, where at younger ages it was limited to the occasional school camp or leadership course.

The narratives switched from "swart gevaar"(black danger) to "rooi gevaar"(red danger).

The eighties would see some intense combat operations and even more internal strife and civil unrest.

Its a miracle that South Africa didn't descend into all out chaos and civil war.

Previous posts in this series can be found at the bottom of this post:

The South African Border War - The 80's begins