Iron Fist From The Sea: South Africa's Seaborne Raiders 1978-1988 by Douw Steyn Arne Soderlund

Author:Douw Steyn, Arne Soderlund
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / General
ISBN: 9781910777466
Publisher: Helion and Company
Published: 2015-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

The elusive bridges over the river Catumbella

Transit North

EHB sailed at 1545 on Tuesday 26 July, having loaded the Zodicas and Kleppers as well as engines, fuel, weapons and kit during the previous days. The next morning, at 0700, when just over 20nm west of Saldanha, she dived to commence her discrete transit. That night a signal was received, reporting the deployment of two Tu 142 Bear MPSs to Luanda – an eerie coincidence as this was a repeat of what happened the day after sailing for Operation AFFLUX! About 20nm off Luderitz the first of a large string of large fishing trawlers was encountered and the submarine passed them to seaward. On the night of the 30th, a cylinder head on the starboard diesel cracked but was quickly replaced by the onboard spare. On the 1st of August, EHB commenced her run-in on Rocky Point and at 1630 established communications with the 4RR shore party at Mowe Bay. However, two Soviet trawlers started closing her position just offshore and she was forced to dive to periscope depth and postpone the transfer. That evening a larger group approached, forcing her into deeper waters to the north. One of these was operating fish finding sonar at 18 kHz, easily mistaken for an HF attack sonar, but the submarine merely pointed it with its stern and allowed the trawler to pass.

At 2000, all was clear and EHB returned to periscope depth. Communications were re-established with Capt du Toit, who reported that the surf conditions were unsatisfactory and that one of their boats had capsized in the surf. The transfer was therefore postponed until just before first light the following morning. The submarine then opened the coast to charge batteries and spend a night playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the many trawlers engaged in fishing from 7 – 20 nm offshore. The RV was made at 0630 the next morning and using the embarked Zodiacs, was completed by 0815, after which the course was resumed towards the target area, encountering more trawlers as well as a mysterious low-flying aircraft that appeared to be flying a north – south pattern over a period of two hours on two nights in succession. On the night of 4 August, the Zodiacs were transferred to the outboard bins to facilitate launching as they were in the target area.

Conduct of the Operation

At 1230 on the 5th, EHB came to periscope depth some 12 nm west of Restinga Light but was forced deep by the presence of a group of small open fishing boats 500m to the north. An hour later she came up again and carried out a visual fix 9nm west of the light. Although overcast, the sea was flat and visibility was out to 16,000 m allowing a periscope recce to be carried out between Lobito and the Catumbela River mouth. The presence of numerous small fishing boats did make this risky and on one occasion the attack periscope cleared the surface 50m from a small open boat.

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