Attack on Cassinga - the beginning

www.rhodesianvideos.co.za Attack on Cassinga - the beginning Something big was on the go - special training camps, combat equipment, rations and arms issued - we were all on edge as the C130 rose into the sky heading northward. This independent documentary recounts the personal experiences of some of the paras who took part in the action on the largest ever fully airborn attack undertaken by the SANDF. Full DVD available from www.rhodesianvideos.co.za

[@eltessy]

That day I was not too far from Cassinga working as a Junior High School teacher in Lobito, Southern Angola. The days that follow this incident I heard many stories about Cuban officers in route to help the SWAPO at Cassinga freaking out panicking after getting hit by the SA airforce; the Cubans got around 76 soldiers killed in action. I heard of a Cuban Army Officer who cowering in fear ordered a tank crew to let him in causing the turret operatot to get his arm amputated.

[@sinbadcleo]

There's a shedload of bulkak spouted by several of the contributors here. First, in March/April 78, photo-recce showed the camp was being fast developed as a major military base, with AAA, 11 miles of North Korean style zig-zag trenches, concrete 'drive-in' firing points for tanks/AFVs commanding the approach roads, multiple hardened concrete bunkers for ammunition and weapons storage, several ZPU-4s, C&C ops building.... and a characteristic star-shaped concrete base for SAM-2 launchers and their control cabin. Once that was installed/operational, the place would have been effectively invulnerable in that theatre. Among the prisoners - most but not all left behind when the withdrawal was hurriedly brought forward - were Cuban officers and weapons instructors, and training classes in the use of section weapons were 'interpreted' from Canberra reconnaissance missions in the preceding weeks. A refugee base it was not. The narrator may well have been a 'troopie' on that DropTo Contact, but his aircraft recognition is pants. Unequivocally, the Canberras ( initial FRA defence suppression ) and then the Buccs ( 500lb/1000lb iron bombs ) ALL left from LMB Waterkloof/Pretoria during the night, and transited direct Hi-Low-Hi to Cassinga. Nothing landed at LMB Grootfontein until AFTER the strike, when the bombers refuelled and re-armed there. The C-130s and Transalls, with the Parabats on board, held in an orbit some 20 miles east of the target, while we in the Cans transitted past them at 500', heading north, before swinging round to strike Cassinga FROM the north. The two Mirages which were around for a while later stayed at high level in case of any opposition fast jets turning up. They couldn't hang around as they were fuel/range limited, but others were 'on call' from Caprivi if radio intercept indicated 'bogeys' en route from Luanda. The presence of an armoured fighting unit at the Tetchamutete 'police post' some 12 miles south came as a complete surprise. Photo-recce had been stopped a couple of weeks earlier to avoid putting the SWAPO/Cuban command on guard, so their deployment there was unknown until one of the Buccs stooging around 'on call' ( Maj. McGibbon ) spotted them. That's why the Parabats dropped with only light section weapons, and no strike aircraft were deployed, in the OP Plan, to deal with them. It was fortuitous that the OC of the Bucc Sqn had chosen to include some reloads of rockets to be brought up, with armourers, techies and spares, to 'Grooties' Just In Case, and an fast Israeli-style engines-running rearm/refuel was carried out - just another professional improvisation that day, that 'saved the day'. It should be mentioned that the column of light tanks and AFVs which advanced from Techamatete acquitted themselves admirably and very professionally. They conducted an Operational Crash-Out and Advance To Contact certainly as fast as good East German tank units. They were very well led.... This major Combined Arms strike was a complete surprise. None of the air attaches/analysts in the Embassies on Waterkloof Ridge/Pretoria - overlooking the Waterkloof airbase hosting the Cans, the Buccs and the 'heavies' - suspected the SADF had developed such a strategically-significant capability. The air element started/taxied/transitted in complete radio silence - until the '2 Minutes Inbound' call from the Can Lead. By then, the Parabats were committed in their 'box formation' run-in, whether the bombers found the place or not.

[@ivanfaught9997]

Thank you for your great input of what happened behind the scenes. A medical doctor J.H. Botha told me in Potchefstroom sometime in the 90's that he was one of the guys who flew in the bombing run in Ops Cassinga. Not sure what he flew. He now does all the "Vlieg-Mediese" in Potchefstroom for the whole North-West Province's pilots. My wife used to work for him as a Nursing Sister. She did all the medical tests for every pilot that had to renew their pilot license once a year. How can I check that he is speaking the truth about being one of the bombing pilots at Ops Casinga?

[@keyboardcommando9046]

Thanks for that!

[@sarkiesarkie4918]

Missed this one. Durbs, B coy, 74/5. Still going strong at 65.

[@spr822]

Julle ouens het groot ballas van staal, respek!

[@andremarais2706]

That was when we could have cleaned this up.

[@tonydefresnaye7027]

28 Squadron Buccaneer Boys.....Bucking Nice shooting lads!! Bucked them up good and solid!

[@abisaishilongo259]

innocent lives where lost kids and women

[@tonydefresnaye7027]

@@abisaishilongo259 I don't know that. I DO know that typically SWAPO and Angolan forces would hit and run - take cover within the civilian population instead of fighting in the open. Kind of cowardly.

[@abisaishilongo259]

@@tonydefresnaye7027 well a lot of women and kids died watch the videos a south african soldier threw a grenade in to a hole a mother and her child where hiding besides why was a war in the first place, because white south Africans where fighting for a country that did not belong to them the used the C mandate that was given to them by Germany to enforce white supremacy..... At the we won even though it feels like we lost a lot of south Africans in Namibia can't live with that.....

[@abisaishilongo259]

@@tonydefresnaye7027 supporting cruelty and encouraging it yet you don't know the whole history or you are miss informed is hypocritical.

[@tonydefresnaye7027]

@@abisaishilongo259 Don't presume to know what I know. Miss informed? Who is she - this Miss? And what has she got to do with it?.....MISINFORMED!!!! Its not cruelty if your enemy is going to sucker punch you then hide behind the civilian population like cowards.

[@Henry260988]

lets admit its bout time start being objective and looking it things from both sides. read bout Johan VD Mescth (he was capyured by swapo) and his trip back to the border recently.

[@hictecnic]

My uncle was involved in this operation.

[@josephnakale7343]

We Namibians are peaceful people but this does not mean we are weak. So it will be unwise for our erstwhile enemy to come on this platform and brag about terrorism this and that.That camp was a refugees camp for sure . of course there were uniformed people to provide security. It also served as a transit camp.At that time SWAPO was still reorganising itself since only few years they move from Zambia apart from Lunango it had no many transit camps in Angola at the time. So many fighters Wetherby injured or just being transferred either from the front or somewhere had to spend some time in Cassinga People coming from inside the country that was the only place they pass through before proceeding further. That is why it looked like military base.At that time Swapo had not such weapons Mr Bailey talking about . maybe only few ZPU 1 plus few ZU 23 but very few barely able to cover the whole Cassinga and other few bases it had.Any way in Namibia we are having national reconciliation which I can say is working but we do not want some people to reopen healed wounds. But we know that one can not really blame foot soldiers but rather politicians. We former soldiers have great respect for one another but let us be human enough cs some people got hurt.

[@TheToolnut]

@@erastuswalter2286 He was twice the man you'll ever be you communist scum bag.

[@Charlize.07]

@s s Stupidity at it's highest.

[@Charlize.07]

@s s If only you knew the truth. So narrow minded.

[@counterpoint751]

@@josephnakale7343 Off course you are weak. You have no power at all.

[@tjakamonawatataerasmus-see3782]

I found a UNISA doctorate scripture at uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/797/thesis.pdf?sequence=1 that touches on Cassinga. On page 198, using Cuban military records, it states: "For some the battle of Cassinga (Operation Reindeer by the SADF) was a well executed airborne and ground operation preceeded by a massive airstrike. For others it was a massacre of civilians of which there were about three thousand in and around the town. Up till today the number of guerrillas killed is disputed while little information is available on the number of civilians killed. Source: Cuban Military Archives, 2007". Now if not even the Cubans have proper records, who have? But from this statemant one can clearly see that 1) There were soldiers AND civilians present at Cassinga 2) The number of guerillas killed are in dispute, but it is not in dispute that guerillas were killed 3) How on earth is it possible that "little information" is available on the number of civilians killed if that was such a crime? If it was a crime it would have been well documented by the enemies of South Africa which were numerous! I found a full and detailed (unsigned) study of the Cassinga massacre at etd.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11394/1711/Shigwedha_PHD_2011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y - also a scripture for a doctorate. I did not find any attempt by the researcher to establish, from witnesses, how many soldiers were at Cassinga and how many soldiers were killed. Nowhere did I find a statement like: "There were only civilian casualties, no soldiers killed or wounded" or something similar. In other words this whole study of 250 pages did not even try to adress the real issue: "Was Cassinga a miliary base or a refugee camp or a combination?" Maybe I missed it, if somebody wants to correct me. The only conclusion one can make is that Cassinga was a military base squeezed in between civilians and that Operation Reindeer was aimed at the military base and that there were collateral damage. But who's to blame? If you erect a miltary base within a civilian set-up, and your enemy attack the military base with collateral civilian casualties, who's to blame? ​ @Bob Loblaw , if you have a reference substantiating your post, please share it with us.

[@munkipunk]

jou ma se pa se milky bar

[@luckydubeinrc5165]

:)

[@Henry260988]

cassinga was a refugee camp thats why there was little or no resistance only minor skirmishers were encountered with the guards of the refugee camp

[@romandiesel8026]

Henry Shimutwikeni So true. The former paratrooper is saying the trueth without being crossexaminated.

[@TheToolnut]

🤣🤣🤣 You keep on believing that communist propaganda and see where it gets you. It was a Military base and was teeming with heavily armed Angolan's and Cuban's, including M.b.t's and anti aircraft wpns.

[@Charlize.07]

@@TheToolnut LIES

[@abisaishilongo259]

@@TheToolnut where you there

[@Ghoulza]

it was a proven military camp set out along soviet military camp doctrines. it had soviet anit air defences set up. no refugee camp in the world has ever had anit air defence set up. military camps do. they where heavily armed soldiers with LMG's and other heavy weapons in the camps. it was in truth a military camp that had taken in refugee's, these where most likely let in to use a human shields and to try prevent an attack from taking place on a legitimate military camp. that failed and the people responsible for letting civilians in are also to blame for their deaths. if they had not let them into a military camp no civilians would have died

[@FestusUugwanga-py4vd]

Ok 😂

[@eltessy]

I heard of a 16 year-old Cuban soldier who brake the army convoy heading to Cassinga hide on the bushes and pulled the trigger of a Second World Word anti-aircraft weapon Russian made KPV (aka 4-bocas) and gun down a South African Airforce aircraft.

[@ivanfaught9997]

Funny that nobody ever found any planes that was shot down that day? Should that not tell you that that story was a lie?

[@romandiesel8026]

eltessy The convoy coming to help was made of T-34\85 tanks and BTR-152 APC. The ZPU-4 14.5mm on truck of convoy was blown up by SAAF bucanier. This convoy sustained heavy loses, but it did not stop.

[@TheToolnut]

Bullshit!

[@tonydefresnaye7027]

.....and then you woke up and your coffee was cold. Dream on!

[@eltessy]

Ivan Faught I said I heard that, I cannot proved it. I was in Lobito, Benguela province teaching science in middle school. I never been in the army! I was 20 years old. I also was told the number of Cuban soldiers died that day add up to 75. We were safe in the city of Lobito because it was far enough from South Africa occupied Namibian borders ( SWA back then). However, some of my fellow teachers at Namibe (Moçamedes) Hide their self in a trench, from South African jet planes attacking the southern Angolan city.

[@mwanykange]

Cassinga was a refugee cam and transit camp 250 km inside Angola, I was 15 years old when Cassinga attacked, by god grace I survived this barbaric attack. I know even those who who attacked us they know they committed a crime and they should repent.

[@TheToolnut]

Bullshit, it was a Military base. Still clinging on to that communist propaganda.

[@mnr.vlakvark5056]

Refugee camp with AA systems? 2 ZPU-4 AA guns 1 ZU-23-2 AA gun 1-2 ZSU AA gun Lying snake.

[@mwanykange]

@@mnr.vlakvark5056 YES WHY NOT? IF IT WAS NOT FOR SUCH PROTECTION WHAT COULD happen? SWAPO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT,S PEOPLE THUS GAVE PROTECTION REFUGEES OTHERWISE EVEN UNITA COULD CAPTURE OR KILLED US.

[@mwanykange]

@?? Why don't you give your f#ck name? Because you are hiding due you are a racist criminal who discriminately murdered innocent civilians in Cassinga in the name of communism. All of you criminal and murderer we forgive you and give everything in god name. Apartheid is disbanded forever and white supremacy buried 100 times deep. Shame!

[@mwanykange]

@@TheToolnut Shame on you, If you were a soldier or if you were among those who committed such indecency atrocity you won't comment here like that stupidity. If you were among them(criminals) I don't blame you because you were just a stupid racist soldier commanded to commit a crime. Honestly, you know if you were there you are having sleepless nights and running a nightmare for your criminal activities. repent now. Apartheid is over forever and Namibia is independent forever as well.

[@JN-mc1jk]

Voetsek boer

[@mnr.vlakvark5056]

Die boer gaan jou voetsek, wys respek

[@tonydefresnaye7027]

Joseph Nendongo PROUDLY BOER!!

[@abisaishilongo259]

@@mnr.vlakvark5056 A refugee camp housing women and children not soldiers women and children and you are proud that it was attacked, shame on you sir.

[@marcellevandermerwe9525]

@@abisaishilongo259 Bull man my late husband was shot through his staaldak and luckily missied his body. So what you are saying is an innocent refugee could shoot, with a ketty or what

[@nessyndeshi]

@@marcellevandermerwe9525 what was he doing there in the first place??? He was supposed to be in Europe