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Angolan Civil War (1975–1988)

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One of the last modern conflicts which saw the extensive combat deployment of the T-34-85 was the Angolan Civil War.[1] In 1975, the Soviet Union shipped eighty T-34-85s to Angola as part of its support for the ongoing Cuban military intervention there.[1] The tanks, which were in second-hand condition and likely appropriated from the Soviet Army's own reserve stocks,[2] were shipped to Luanda to avoid trans-shipment delays in Cuba.[3] There, they were handed to Cuban tank crews who instructed personnel of the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) in their operation, sometimes hours or even minutes before sending them into combat.[3] Other FAPLA T-34-85 drivers and gunners accompanied Cuban crews in an apprentice role, assisting with the maintenance of each tank throughout a given campaign before taking possession of it.[3]

 
Restored FAPLA T-34-85 at the South African National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg.

FAPLA began deploying T-34-85s against militants of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) on June 9, 1975.[4] Initially, they demoralised the two rival Angolan factions, as the latter lacked tanks of their own or even adequate anti-tank weapons.[5] At least one was, however, knocked out by a UNITA Panhard AML-90 armoured car manned by South African military advisers.[6] American and British mercenaries were later able to destroy seven T-34-85s with a combination of M40 recoilless rifles and M72 LAWs funneled to the FNLA through the Central Intelligence Agency.[7] Additionally, at least one was captured intact and redeployed by the FNLA.[7] The inexperience of the FAPLA crews began to show during combat, as they failed to adapt to the tactics of enemy forces, often retreating in disorder on the few occasions they were confronted with anti-tank weaponry rather than taking adequate evasive action or suppressing it.[7] Since the M72 LAW could penetrate a T-34's frontal armour plate with a single hit, its presence also caused consternation among FAPLA units.[7]

The appearance of FAPLA and Cuban tanks prompted South Africa to reinforce UNITA with a single squadron of Eland-90 armoured cars, which first skirmished with T-34-85s on 18 December, 1975.[8] One tank was destroyed by an Eland, but the others broke contact and withdrew without further incident.[8] Twenty FAPLA T-34-85s proved instrumental in a subsequent offensive against collapsing UNITA resistance throughout Cuando Cubango Province during mid to late 1976.[9] Armour losses between 1975 and 1976 were quickly replaced by the Cuban government, which dispatched another two shipments of tanks to Angola.[10] Some new T-34-85s were also donated to FAPLA by other sympathetic socialist states such as Algeria and Yugoslavia, which provided twelve.[10]

A platoon of five Cuban T-34-85s saw combat in Angola against South African troops during the Battle of Cassinga.[11] The tanks were based at Chamutete, along with a company of Cuban mechanized infantry, equipped with BTR-152 armoured personnel carriers.[11] In May 1978, South Africa launched a major airborne raid on Cassinga, a town approximately sixteen kilometres north of Chamutete, with the objective of destroying a South-West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) base there.[11] The Cuban forces were mobilised to stop them.[11] As they approached Cassinga they were strafed by a South African Air Force Blackburn Buccaneer and two Dassault Mirage IIIs, which destroyed most of the BTR-152s and three of the T-34-85s.[11] A fourth T-34-85 was disabled by an anti-tank mine buried in the road.[11] The remaining tank continued to engage the withdrawing South African paratroops from a hull down position until the battle was over.[11]

 
FAPLA T-34-85 captured during Operation Protea. This example now resides near the South African Armour Museum in Bloemfontein.

FAPLA and Cuban T-34-85s did not see significant armour combat again until Operation Protea, a South African mechanised offensive on suspected SWAPO bases near Ondjiva and Xangongo beginning in August 1981.[12] There was a considerable number of FAPLA tanks in the vicinity of the two settlements; however, most had been dug into fortified hull down positions as static artillery.[13][14] Due to these circumstances, much of the ensuing battles took place at close range, with South African Ratel infantry fighting vehicles and Eland-90 armoured cars engaging T-34-85s at under a hundred metres.[15][16] Both sides normally broke contact at dusk, since neither the T-34-85s nor the South African vehicles possessed night fighting capability.[17] With the tactical situation in Ongiva growing increasingly desperate, a large force of Angolan infantry and Soviet advisers backed by two T-34-85s attempted to break the South African encirclement and execute a coordinated withdrawal northwards.[18] This was unsuccessful, and the tanks were eliminated by Atlas Impala strike aircraft and Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters equipped with 20mm autocannon.[18] South African ground forces destroyed at least sixteen T-34-85s during Operation Protea, and captured nine.[9] Some of the latter may have subsequently been passed on to UNITA, which disclosed its own T-34-85 fleet in 1985.[19]

In June 1982, Angolan Minister of Defence Pedro Maria Tonha "Pedale" issued a memorandum calling for the gradual retirement of all T-34s from FAPLA service in favour of the considerably more modern T-54 and T-55.[20] Nevertheless, around 1985 FAPLA continued to operate 150 T-34-85s,[21] some of which which were used for internal security purposes in minor districts.[22] Over a hundred Cuban T-34-85s and their respective crews also remained in Angola as of the mid 1980s.[23] In September 1986 Cuban president Fidel Castro complained to General Konstantin Kurochkin, head of the Soviet military delegation to Angola, that his men could no longer be expected to fight South African armour with T-34s of World War II vintage.[23] Castro insisted that the Soviets furbish the Cuban forces with a larger quantity of T-55s accordingly.[23] By 1987 Castro's request appeared to have been granted, as Cuban tank battalions in Angola were able to deploy substantial numbers of T-54Bs, T-55s, and T-62s.[22]

FAPLA suffered enormous tank losses during the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, and to alleviate the shortage of T-55s a number of the elderly T-34-85s were returned to service.[24] They were utilised primarily for liaison and convoy support duties, escorting logistics vehicles between Menongue and Cuito Cuanavale.[24] The last engagement known to have involved FAPLA T-34-85 tanks took place with UNITA insurgents at the town of Munhango in December 1987.[25] UNITA later claimed to have destroyed four of the tanks in the process of seizing the settlement.[25]

Most T-34-85 tanks in FAPLA service were seconded to loosely organised tactical battlegroups for specific operations and campaigns.[9] The battlegroups resembled understrength motorized infantry brigades, with additional armour and artillery units attached as needed.[9] T-34-85s were also favoured for convoy escort purposes during the Angolan Civil War, operating in platoons of three.[7] Due to the prevalence of land mines on Angolan roads, each T-34-85 platoon was usually preceded by a fourth vehicle: either a bulldozer with a large blade,[7] or a modified T-34 with mine rollers.[9] Armour clashes were rare, and mostly entailed heated skirmishes with South African Eland-90 armoured cars.[15][8] Some Ratel infantry fighting vehicles were armed with the same 90mm low-pressure cannon as the Elands, and in that form proved capable of knocking out a FAPLA T-34-85 as well.[17] The 90mm high-explosive shells normally fired by the Elands and Ratels for their primary mission of infantry support were impotent against the tank's sloped armour, necessitating a heavier dependence on 90mm high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shells.[16] During Operation Protea a Ratel with a 20mm autocannon firing armour- piercing tungsten carbide rounds was also able to successfully engage one T-34-85 at Xangongo.[16] The optics of the South African armoured vehicles were actually inferior to those of the T-34-85 tanks, as was the effective range of their main armament.[16] During combat with FAPLA, South African forces took advantage of their superior mobility to outmanoeuvre the tanks in dense vegetation, which lessened the disparity between them by reducing the rate of engagement.[16]

The status of the captured T-34-85s operated by UNITA's armed wing, the Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola (FALA), is unclear.[19] UNITA did not possess regular armoured formations or the trained technical personnel to maintain them until 1988, and these were equipped with T-55s.[26] UNITA T-34-85s and their respective crews were apparently held in the rear guard and provided security for insurgent bases.[19] Serviceability rates of most of the movement's tanks and armoured fighting vehicles remained low due to an irregular supply of diesel fuel and lubricants.[27]

In 1984, SWAPO's armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), also made a concerted attempt to establish its own conventional armoured battalion.[28] As part of this effort, SWAPO diplomatic representatives in Europe approached the German Democratic Republic with a request for ten T-34 tanks.[29] The tanks were delivered as part of a larger cargo of arms furbished either by the Soviet or East German governments to Dar es Salaam and Maputo, where they were presumably shipped overland to SWAPO.[30] SWAPO T-34s were never deployed during offensive operations against the South African military, being confined to the role of protecting strategic bases inside northern Angola.[28][31] By 1988 most of them had been stationed near Luanda, where their crews received training from Cuban instructors.[32] On 21 March 1989, SWAPO inexplicably moved all its armoured units south towards the Namibian border.[32] The T-34s and some T-54/55s also crewed by SWAPO insurgents took up scattered positions along the border around March 30.[32] South Africa accused SWAPO of planning a major offensive to influence Namibia's pending general elections, but the tank crews remained stationary and even refrained from intervening in a series of renewed clashes later that year.[32] All SWAPO T-34s were finally repatriated to Namibia at the movement's expense, following Namibian independence in 1990.[33] Four later entered service with the new Namibian Army.[34]

  1. ^ a b Tucker-Jones, Anthony (2015). T-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, Ltd. p. 134. ISBN 978-1781590959.
  2. ^ "Trade Registers". Armstrade.sipri.org. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  3. ^ a b c George, Edward (2005). The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965-1991: From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale. London: Frank Cass. p. 99. ISBN 0-415-35015-8.
  4. ^ Fauriol, Georges Alfred; Loser, Eva (1990). Cuba: The International Dimension. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. p. 141. ISBN 978-0887383243.
  5. ^ Uys, Ian (1992). Cross of Honour. Germiston: Uys Publishers. p. 18. ISBN 978-1781590959.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c d e f Fitzsimmons, Scott (2013). Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–160. ISBN 978-1107-02691-9.
  8. ^ a b c Du Preez, Sophia. Avontuur in Angola: Die verhaal van Suid-Afrika se soldate in Angola 1975-1976. J.L. van Schaik. p. 182. ISBN 978-0627016912.
  9. ^ a b c d e Nortje, Piet (2003). 32 Battalion: The Inside Story of South Africa's Elite Fighting Unit. New York: Zebra Press. p. 10, 101, 173-176. ISBN 1-868729-141.
  10. ^ a b Liebenberg, Ian; Risquet, Jorge; Shubin, Vladimir (1997). A Far-Away War: Angola, 1975-1989. Stellenbosch: Sun Media Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-920689-72-8.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Steenkamp, Willem (1983). Borderstrike! South Africa into Angola. Durban: Butterworths Publishers. p. 19. ISBN 0-409-10062-5.
  12. ^ Clayton, Anthony (1999). Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950. Philadelphia: UCL Press, Limited. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-1857285253.
  13. ^ Steenkamp, Willem (1989). South Africa's Border War, 1966-1989. Benoni: Ashanti Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 978-0620139670.
  14. ^ Peter, Abbott; Helmoed-Romer Heitman; Paul Hannon (1991). Modern African Wars (3): South-West Africa. Osprey Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-85532-122-9.
  15. ^ a b Korff, Granger. 19 with a bullet: A South African Paratrooper in Angola (2009 ed.). 30 Degrees South Publishers. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-920143-31-2.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Ratel teen tenk en". Port Elizabeth: International Veterans' Association/South African Forces Club. 2011. Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2016. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 28 July 2012 suggested (help)
  17. ^ a b Scholtz, Leopold (2013). The SADF in the Border War 1966-1989. Cape Town: Tafelberg. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-624-05410-8.
  18. ^ a b Lord, Dick (2012). From Fledgling to Eagle: The South African Air Force during the Border War. Solihull: Helion & Company. p. 180. ISBN 978-1908916624.
  19. ^ a b c Grilz, Almerigo (1991). "Briefing - The War in Angola: Forces and Organisation". Jane's Defence Weekly. 4: 1087.
  20. ^ Domingos, Miguel Junior (2015). Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola: First National Army and the War (1975-1992). Bloomington: Author House. p. 217. ISBN 978-1504941266.
  21. ^ Hamann, Hilton (2007) [2003]. Days of the Generals. Cape Town: Struik Publishers. p. 81. ISBN 978-1868723409.
  22. ^ a b Tokarev, Andrei; Shubin, Gennady (2011). Bush War: The Road to Cuito Cuanavale : Soviet Soldiers' Accounts of the Angolan War (2011 ed.). Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd. p. 107-168. ISBN 978-1-4314-0185-7.
  23. ^ a b c Gleijeses, Piero (2013). Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 369. ISBN 978-1469609683.
  24. ^ a b Heitman, Helmoed-Romer (1990). War in Angola: The Final South African Phase. Benoni: Ashanti Publishing. pp. 130, 158. ISBN 978-0620143707.
  25. ^ a b "Angolan rebels say that they used captured 'Soviet-built tanks and U.S. missiles' to seize a strategic railroad town in Angola". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. 1 January 1988. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  26. ^ Weigert, Stephen (2011). Angola: A Modern Military History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 99. ISBN 978-0230117778.
  27. ^ Cooper, Thomas (19 October 2013). Great Lakes Conflagration: Second Congo War, 1998 2003. Solihull: Helio & Co. Ltd. p. 10. ISBN 978-1909384668.
  28. ^ a b "SWAPO strengthened by Red T-34 tanks". Windhoek Advertiser. Windhoek, South-West Africa (Namibia). 12 October 1984. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  29. ^ Schleicher, Hans-Georg; Schleicher, Ilona (1998). Special flights: the GDR and liberation movements in southern Africa. Harare: SAPES Books. p. 213. ISBN 978-1779050717.
  30. ^ Shultz, Richard (1988). Soviet Union and Revolutionary Warfare: Principles, Practices, and Regional Comparisons. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0817987114.
  31. ^ Legum, Colin (1987). The battlefronts of Southern Africa. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers. p. 343. ISBN 978-0841911444.
  32. ^ a b c d Stiff, Peter (1989). Nine Days of War. Alberton: Lemur Books (Pty) Ltd. pp. 20, 89, 260. ISBN 978-0620142601.
  33. ^ Stiff, Peter (2001). Warfare by Other Means: South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Johannesburg: Galago Publishing Pty Ltd. p. 379. ISBN 978-1919854014.
  34. ^ "Scramble for the Congo - Anatomy of an Ugly War" (PDF). ICG Africa. 2000-12-20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
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