DarthBrawl
04-26-2005, 01:34 PM
Taster of article posted below, to read the whole thing and see various pics go to URL below:
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_184.shtml
http://www.acig.org/artman/uploads/fapa-daa_sa-3.jpg
Ever since South Africa was directly involved in the war in Angola for the first time, in 1975, there were numerous claims about South African Air Force (SAAF) fighters, light aircraft, transports or helicopters being shot down over that country. Exaggerated claims have been, and are likely going to be, a feature of all air wars. However, some of the Cuban, Angolan, Russian and Ukrainian claims run for successes agains the South Africans certainly deserve a place with the “best” in this doubtful field.
The exact details about overclaims will be discussed further bellow. It must be said right away, however, that very often the Cubans and Angolans have been misled by the SADF. There are reports, for example, that the South Africans would send two aircraft into the Angolan airspace, one of which would “suddenly disappear”: i.e. drop to a low level, leaving the area undetected, thus appearing to be shot down, while the Cubans and Angolans would later find a dummy crash-site – set up by SADF special operations teams.
There were other reasons as well. In 1979 a SAAF Mirage IIIRZ was indeed shot down near Ongiva, in Angola. The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered by the Angolans and used repeatedly until 1987 for presenting the “wreckage of a downed Mirage” to international media – each time, of course, as “confirmation” for a new claim. Reporters unaware of the SAAF loss from 1979 had certainly no doubts about the wreckage they have seen being “authentic”.
The SAAF also became master in building decoys: extremely realistic decoys of Mirage F.1AZs are known to have been built and deployed on airfields in northern South West Africa for unknown purposes: the Angolans and Cubans never attacked any of these places, while the SWAPO only did few attempts, most of which failed. Nevertheless, time and again the SAAF would leave the "burned wreck" of such a decoy to be seen by SWAPO - resulting in a report about "success".
Finally, it must be said that many authors mix UNITA with South African Defence Forces and the SWAPOL – the Police Force of the South West Africa (today Namibia) – especially when it comes to losses. The SADF and SWAPOL losses were made public - those of the UNITA never: according the regular procedure the families of South African soldiers had to be notified as first, and in most cases this was done within 24 hours. Since 1989 numerous publications appeared in South Africa, detailing all the losses from the long war. In the case of UNITA, which is an Angolan organization, however, nothing similar was possible, nor were South Africans responsible for publishing UNITA’s losses: if at all, this would have been the task of UNITA’s authorities. Besides, South Africa was not the only party supporting UNITA: the SADF was involved on UNITA’s side only several times during the 1980s. Yet, countries like USA, China, Zambia, Morocco, Ivory Coast were frequently much more active in supporting the UNITA, even if they never deployed their armed forces into Angola – as South Africa did. Still, even in the cases when the SADF was deployed into Angola this was not necessarily done in support of the UNITA: namely, all the time during the 1970s and 1980s the SADF was also fighting the war against the SWAPO – the insurgency organization from South West Africa, supported by the Marxist Angolan regime, the Cubans and the Soviets.
In fact, especially the air war in Angola did not only see the Cuban and South African interventions. Thousands of Soviet, East German, Romanian and even Portuguese and other pilots and technicians were involved on the Angolan side, while the USA – via the CIA – became involved on the side of the UNITA. The last is known to have supported the UNITA extensively during the late 1980s, and to have flown supplies on board Lockheed L-100 aircraft (civilian version of the C-130 Hercules transport) owned by its front companies. When, consequently, the Angolans claimed to have shot down a “South African Hercules”, they might not have been wrong – except when it comes to the service that was flying the aircraft: the SAAF is not known to have lost any of its C-130Bs over Angola despite, for example, these aircraft flying no less but 412 sorties over that country in the period between September 1987 and April 1988 alone – when the Cubans and Angolans had some kind of battlefield air superiority (in addition, SAAF C.160 Transalls flew 169 additional sorties into Angola during the same period of time – also without any incidents). The details about the losses of some CIA front companies, however, remain unknown – and it must be remarked in this place that these were not only flying L-100s for UNITA, but sometimes also for the Angolan government!
Equally unclear are several other cases. At some point in the war an Angolan Yak-40FG was shot down near Cuamato, reportedly "by a missile from a foreign aircraft". Some sources claim the "foreign aircraft" was a Zambian J-6, but it could equally have been a Cuban-flown MiG-21: after all, there are persistent rumors that sometimes during the war the Cubans have shot down a transport full of their officers that attempted to defect from Angola.
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_184.shtml
http://www.acig.org/artman/uploads/fapa-daa_sa-3.jpg
Ever since South Africa was directly involved in the war in Angola for the first time, in 1975, there were numerous claims about South African Air Force (SAAF) fighters, light aircraft, transports or helicopters being shot down over that country. Exaggerated claims have been, and are likely going to be, a feature of all air wars. However, some of the Cuban, Angolan, Russian and Ukrainian claims run for successes agains the South Africans certainly deserve a place with the “best” in this doubtful field.
The exact details about overclaims will be discussed further bellow. It must be said right away, however, that very often the Cubans and Angolans have been misled by the SADF. There are reports, for example, that the South Africans would send two aircraft into the Angolan airspace, one of which would “suddenly disappear”: i.e. drop to a low level, leaving the area undetected, thus appearing to be shot down, while the Cubans and Angolans would later find a dummy crash-site – set up by SADF special operations teams.
There were other reasons as well. In 1979 a SAAF Mirage IIIRZ was indeed shot down near Ongiva, in Angola. The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered by the Angolans and used repeatedly until 1987 for presenting the “wreckage of a downed Mirage” to international media – each time, of course, as “confirmation” for a new claim. Reporters unaware of the SAAF loss from 1979 had certainly no doubts about the wreckage they have seen being “authentic”.
The SAAF also became master in building decoys: extremely realistic decoys of Mirage F.1AZs are known to have been built and deployed on airfields in northern South West Africa for unknown purposes: the Angolans and Cubans never attacked any of these places, while the SWAPO only did few attempts, most of which failed. Nevertheless, time and again the SAAF would leave the "burned wreck" of such a decoy to be seen by SWAPO - resulting in a report about "success".
Finally, it must be said that many authors mix UNITA with South African Defence Forces and the SWAPOL – the Police Force of the South West Africa (today Namibia) – especially when it comes to losses. The SADF and SWAPOL losses were made public - those of the UNITA never: according the regular procedure the families of South African soldiers had to be notified as first, and in most cases this was done within 24 hours. Since 1989 numerous publications appeared in South Africa, detailing all the losses from the long war. In the case of UNITA, which is an Angolan organization, however, nothing similar was possible, nor were South Africans responsible for publishing UNITA’s losses: if at all, this would have been the task of UNITA’s authorities. Besides, South Africa was not the only party supporting UNITA: the SADF was involved on UNITA’s side only several times during the 1980s. Yet, countries like USA, China, Zambia, Morocco, Ivory Coast were frequently much more active in supporting the UNITA, even if they never deployed their armed forces into Angola – as South Africa did. Still, even in the cases when the SADF was deployed into Angola this was not necessarily done in support of the UNITA: namely, all the time during the 1970s and 1980s the SADF was also fighting the war against the SWAPO – the insurgency organization from South West Africa, supported by the Marxist Angolan regime, the Cubans and the Soviets.
In fact, especially the air war in Angola did not only see the Cuban and South African interventions. Thousands of Soviet, East German, Romanian and even Portuguese and other pilots and technicians were involved on the Angolan side, while the USA – via the CIA – became involved on the side of the UNITA. The last is known to have supported the UNITA extensively during the late 1980s, and to have flown supplies on board Lockheed L-100 aircraft (civilian version of the C-130 Hercules transport) owned by its front companies. When, consequently, the Angolans claimed to have shot down a “South African Hercules”, they might not have been wrong – except when it comes to the service that was flying the aircraft: the SAAF is not known to have lost any of its C-130Bs over Angola despite, for example, these aircraft flying no less but 412 sorties over that country in the period between September 1987 and April 1988 alone – when the Cubans and Angolans had some kind of battlefield air superiority (in addition, SAAF C.160 Transalls flew 169 additional sorties into Angola during the same period of time – also without any incidents). The details about the losses of some CIA front companies, however, remain unknown – and it must be remarked in this place that these were not only flying L-100s for UNITA, but sometimes also for the Angolan government!
Equally unclear are several other cases. At some point in the war an Angolan Yak-40FG was shot down near Cuamato, reportedly "by a missile from a foreign aircraft". Some sources claim the "foreign aircraft" was a Zambian J-6, but it could equally have been a Cuban-flown MiG-21: after all, there are persistent rumors that sometimes during the war the Cubans have shot down a transport full of their officers that attempted to defect from Angola.