Photos Angolan Civil Wars, Rhodesian Bush Wars & South African Border Wars

[BravoZulu]

Albanian Royal Guard in Rhodesia!?

I've never heard that either......not a peep mate, interesting!

I also had to read that one twice....

Very little history from various sources are here lads, unfortunately I can't find any images confirming any actual involvement of the Royal Guard in the conflict in Rhodesia:
https://memorie.al/en/my-uncle-esca...-major-zog-rare-nephews-testimony-and-photos/

There is a photo of the crown prince returning to Albania during the 1997 Civil War still wearing his old Rhodesian Brushstroke uniform trying to restore the old monarchy.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/548146069452619837/710716303052242954/image0.jpg

SOUTH AFRICA: ALBANIAN MONARCH IN EXILE KING LEKA I SPEAKS OF CRISIS
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/fbb3beed77aaac7ffcfedd5782fd8fea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leka,_Crown_Prince_of_Albania_(born_1939)

http://www.gazetatema.net/en/guns-and-apartheid-an-albanian-king-in-south-africa/

 

[Fish&Chips]

This must have been one of the last active horse-mounted cavalry units in history. While dragoons still do ceremonial duties on horseback in Sweden and elsewhere, this guy in camouflage with a G3 rifle is a strange sight.

 

[NebrHogger]

A bit more on "Crown Prince Zog". Short story: Mussolini invaded Albania in 1939, at which time King Zog and Queen Geraldine fled... with quite a chunk of the treasury. After wearing out their welcome in a number of places, they indeed landed in Rhodesia which could well account for Zog the younger's participation in Angola's strife. When "Queen Mother of Albania", Geraldine passed away in an Albanian military hospital, she insisted her son was the lawful king.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_of_Albania

 

[BravoZulu]

Okavango 1983, 31 Battalion - South African Defence Force, a unit consisting of San (hunter-gatherer) people and South African officers. The unit had their own specialized recon wing which performed cross-border clandestine ops. After the war the families were given some land in South Africa.

 

[BravoZulu]

South African Recces making radio contact in Angola during the 23-year Border War

South African 12th Infantry Battalion (12 SAI), specialising in the use of horses, motorcycles and dogs, stop by to check tracks of possible SWAPO activities during a mounted patrol in South West Africa (today Namibia), circa 1970s

 

[BravoZulu]

South African Recce troops on the Quito river at a place called Mapupa, trying to recover an Angolan PT-76 during Operation Protea in 1981. They eventually destroyed it

 

[BravoZulu]

Hippo Mine Protected Vehicles circa 1974-1978 in Namibia during the South African Border War

 

[BravoZulu]

Southern Angola. Operation Sceptic (June 1980) was the largest anti-South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) sweep during the South African Border War up to that point. The operation was also known as Smokeshell though this was the codename for the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) base which was the main focus of the attack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sceptic

SADF Ratels

 

[BravoZulu]

South West African Turbo Wolf Mine Protected Vehicle the brother of the South African Casspir - 1980's Namibia. The red ovals were drawn to show where the antennas were mounted on the Turbo Wolf compared to the standard Wolf which had them mounted elsewhere.

 

[BravoZulu]

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[uktabber]

Great Story and lesson.....I agree with the chap! Love these Bush War stores!!

 

[BravoZulu]

Rhodesian Selous Scout Wally Insch

 

[BravoZulu]

SADF in the Border War resting outside an abandoned possibly Portuguese house somewhere in Angola - 1970's

 

[BravoZulu]

South African paratroopers on the way to what would be known as the Battle of Cassinga, Angola. First the assault on the installation, then the destruction of Cuban reinforcements, resulting in the loss of almost an entire mechanised battalion

 

[BravoZulu]

Rhodesian soldier firing a rifle grenade from his FAL.

 

[BravoZulu]

Rhodesian Air Force Allouette III "G-Cars" with twin WWII vintage .303 Browning .303 Mark II (An Arial gunnery Commonwealth M1919 variant chambered in .303 British).

Alouette III at Assembly Point Juliet, Zezani, Rhodesia, 1980

 

[BravoZulu]

Rhodesia:

South African soldier in the 1970's during the Border War in Angola and South West Africa

 

[BravoZulu]

One of J. Ross Baughman's Pulitzer Prize winning photos.

It is 1977. The white Rhodesian government is under intense pressure from the country's disenfranchised black majority. Baughman travels with a rugged cavalry unit. Grey's Scouts. Their mission: to seek out anti-government guerrillas and destroy them.

The villagers will not give up the guerrillas. So the scouts resort to torture. "They force them to line up in push-up stance," Baughman remembers. "They're holding that position for 45 minutes in the sun. many of them starting to shake violently."

The soldiers warn that the first man who falls will be taken away. "Eventually, the first guy fell. They took him around the back of the building, knocked him out and fired a shot into the air. They continued bringing men to the back of the building. The poor guy on the end started crying and going crazy and he finally broke and started talking. As it turns out. what he was saying wasn't true, but the scouts were willing to use it as a lead."

Remembers Baughman: "It had all the feeling of an eventual massacre. I was afraid that I might see entire villages murdered."

A Grey's Scout questioning villagers near the border of Botswana in the autumn of 1977.

 

[BravoZulu]

South African Bosvark Mk I a standard Unimog 416 that had a V-shaped hull in place of the flatbed to protect the passengers from landmines it was an interim solution til the purpose built Mine Protected Vehicle the Buffel entered service in 1978

Unimog general purpose 4X4 truck fitted with a locally improvised mine countermeasures

Unimog 4x4 without proper mine protection - just sandbags.

 

[BravoZulu]

South African Pathfinders with a Sabre vehicle in the early 80's. To the left is one of the unit's founders Col. Jan Breytenbach. Angolan War