History
After the victory of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan Civil War in 1975, many troops of its main rival, the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA), found refuge in the then South African-controlled South West Africa.
From these troops, Colonel Jan Breytenbach together with Commandant Sybie van der Spuy formed a unit that was initially known as Bravo Group but later renamed 32 Battalion. Initially, Bravo Group consisted of two infantry companies, a mortar platoon, an anti-tank section and a machine gun platoon, but 32 Battalion was expanded to 6 infantry companies, a recce wing, and a support company consisting of 81 mm mortar, anti-tank and machine gun sections.
Unlike other SADF units, 32 Battalion was mainly deployed in southern Angola, acting as a buffer between the SADF's regular forces and its enemies. The unit was also used to assist the anti-communist movement of UNITA. Although it was mainly used as a counter-insurgency force it was eventually also used as a semi-conventional force, especially during the later phases of the war - particularly at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. As such, its involvement in the Angolan/Namibian border war was greater than that of any other unit of the SADF and it is claimed that they caused more enemy casualties than any other SADF unit.
The battalion consisted of around 600 riflemen and NCOs (non-commissioned officers) (mostly Angolan nationals associated with the former FNLA) and mainly South African officers, although commissioned military personnel from countries such as Australia, Rhodesia, Portugal and the United States were active with the battalion, especially in its early stages. As time progressed a number of SNCOs (senior non-commissioned officers - sergeants and above,) distinguished themselves and were commissioned, ie became officers themselves.
After Namibian independence in 1989, the unit was withdrawn to South Africa where it was used in the counter-insurgency role and later also in the South African townships. At the end of its era in Namibia, the unit had developed into a conventional battle group. Apart from the infantry companies and the recce company, the battalion was strengthened by a battery of 120 mm mortars, a squadron of Ratel ZT-3 and 90 mm tank destroyers and a troop of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns mounted on Buffel infantry vehicles. Although the main bulk of the battalion was based at Buffalo on the banks of the Okavango River, the HQ was in Rundu, 200 km to the east.
Read more about this topic: 32 Battalion (South Africa)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)