NEWSLETTER - JUNE 2025

In May our speaker was Dr Jean-Pierre Scherman from the Military Sciences Faculty of Stellenbosch University, speaking from Saldanha Bay. Having entered academia following over 30 years in the SA Defence Forces, he was uniquely positioned to tell us about what happened in the nineteen sixties along "the Border".

Many of us would have been sent to, or known family members and friends sent to "the Border" ... but would be hard pressed to point out exactly where that was. So he started by showing us the northern portion of South West Africa (SWA) (now Namibia) where it abuts Angola.

As early as 1960 South Africa proposed an agreement on military defence to Portugal. Initially South Africa made use only of Police to patrol the borders of South West Africa but they were not equipped, or trained, to deal with insurgencies. Helicopters, in particular, were absolutely essential along the very long stretch between SWA and Angola, with some places like Katima Mulilo being reached only from the air. So initial SADF support came in the form of French-supplied helicopters and patrol vehicles.

To say the south eastern corner of Angola was extremely underdeveloped would be more than kind. The Portuguese and South African police started co operating because insurgents had to cross over into Angola there from Zambia on their way from camps in Tanzania to reach their target: SWA. It was soon realised that the Portuguese Armed Forces (PAF) were not able to effectively combat trained communist insurgents.

Anti-colonial independence movements had sprung up all through Africa and one of theirmost important efforts was to "win the hearts and minds" of local populations to support them against any form of authority. This was sometimes done by use of terror hence their labelling as terrorist organisations. In SWA they would be heading for Ovamboland - the tribal area in the north of SWA with the greatest population density outside the cities.

Because of its Apartheid policy, South Africa was attacked, especially by India, which repeatedly plied the United Nations with demands that it remove the Mandate over South West Africa (dating back to the end of WWI) and grant SWA its independence. On 27 October 1966 Resolution 2145 revoked the mandate and removed SA's right to administer SWA. This was ignored by the SA Government.

By 1967 P.W. Botha as Minister of Defence visited Lisbon to further cement ties between SA and Portugal. As a member of NATO Portugal was not allowed to send NATO based military equipment to its colonies, so the SADF started training Portuguese pilots and sending some equipment to Angola to help them.

Operation Dikmelk (curdled milk) was undertaken after a CIA operative in the US warned that a large scale operation was about to be launched, from Zambia, and would try to take over various airfields in SWA as their bases. A battalion-strong African force would land or be parachuted in. Having considered the possibility of its truth, SA authorities decided 10 December 1967 would be the most likely (UN Human Rights Day) time for such an attack.

SADF responded by tracking air movements and starting to reinforce the airfields. Six Sabre jets were sent to Grootfontein while the rest of the SAAF's aircraft were placed on standby. On 8 December troops who were about to complete their then-9-month tour of national service duty were abruptly flown from Bloemfontein to Windhoek where they waited, hidden out of sight from commercial passengers, in case an invasion happened.

Troop trains returned them home on 22 December 1967 once the threat had passed. This was the first involvement of National Servicemen on the Border.

From then onwards SADF involvement increased - protection of the airfields was provided by SA troops doing their national service. Operation Bombay started in April 1968 and the SA Police secondments stopped in June of that year. May saw that part of SWA from the 20°N latitude to the Angolan border declared an operational area. More helicopters were deployed on both sides of the border - unmarked except for numbers.

As infiltration continued by SWALA (SWA Liberation Army), SWAPO (SWA Peoples Organisation), as well as pro-Angolan independence UNITA and MPLA insurgents, escalating South African Defence operations ensued.

Jean Pierre mentioned the 1969 Constitution of ALCORA, between SA Portugal and Rhodesian forces to further military defence of all three countries.

His was the first part of three lectures to be presented at the 2nd Military History Consortium Conference that will be held in Lisbon, Portugal over the period 4 - 6 June 2025. The other two, by other military history researchers, would be about later times during the thirty-year conflict.

His lecture is recorded in the Society's Video Library on the website.

Monday 9^th June 2025 at 19h30 and then at 20h15:
Speaker Robin Smith
Subject War and Peace in the Anglo-Boer War.