Battle on the Lomba 1987: Battle on the Lomba 1987 by David Mannall

Author:David Mannall [Mannall, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / General
ISBN: 9781910777442
Publisher: Helion and Company
Published: 2014-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

Photo 26 Cpl Venter tucks into a hearty rat pack meal while jealously guarding his prized jar of Mrs Ball’s chutney. (Len M. Robberts)

Dust and sand was inescapable, our exposed skin was coated with it, unexposed nooks and crannies were beginning to rub like course-grain sandpaper but there wasn’t yet time to deal with this discomfort. After a quick face wash, tooth-brush and refuel we were underway for yet another long day in the saddle.

Just before sundown, our convoy was finally called to a halt 40 hours and 200 clicks since the crossing at Bittersweet. Dog-tired, parched, dust lining our lungs we stripped and cleaned, or replaced, the Ratel’s clogged air-filters. For smokers, the halt offered a chance to add more shit to their already suffering lungs.

Crews stripped off to wash from chest-high drinking taps located along each side of the water bunkers, our inaugural ‘Angolan shower’.

After a hearty rat-pack feast it wasn’t long before the crews were sound asleep, either outside on the soft cool beach sand or inside the Ratel on her hard rubber benches in the rear cabin.

I’d survived two days in Angola unscathed, 88 more lay ahead.

Others would not be so lucky.

A SAAF Bosbok (Bushbuck) spotter plane was downed by enemy fire the very next day. The death of those pilots marked the very first South African losses of the operation, but it also left commanders in no doubt as to the efficacy of the SAM 8 missile system we’d heard so much about. This, in turn, led to increased caution in relation to South African aircraft deployment.

So it was first blood to 21st Brigade, they’d demonstrated their anti-aircraft capabilities convincingly, but their sternest tests lay ahead of them, on the ground, and we were coming.

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