Not content with just meddling in Angolan and Mozambican affairs the SA air force would assist Rhodesia in its efforts in secret.
Canberra bombers were sent in to help the Rhodesian's in their efforts against ZIPRA and used to bomb training camps not only in Angola but in Zambia as well.
The Zambians had the Shenyang F-6, but the nature of these bombing raids rarely led to any interceptions.
Low level flights across vast areas of the African bush left plenty of areas where attacking aircraft could roam free, do their mischief and flee.
To illustrate just how low level these operations took place, at during one such bombing raid one of the Canberra bombers was damaged by shrapnel from its own dropped bombs.
Aside from air space violations, South Africa would make its own retaliatory ground incursion into Zambia called Operation Saffraan, after SWAPO and Zambian army shelled the town of Katimo Mulilo, in the Caprivi Strip.
The shelling had likely been instigated by SWAPO, and due to increasing difficulties with SWAPO militants and the Zambian armed forces, Zambia finally expelled SWAPO from its borders.
Where Zambia had been the main stage in the 60 and 70 during the 80's it would play a much more minor role in the South African Border war.
But South Africa would still find later excuses to visit Zambia again later in the decade.
Previous posts in this series can be found at the bottom of these chapters:
The South African Border War - 1976, The end of a chapter and the beginning of a new phase.
Interesting post @gavvet , I've never seen one of these inflight but has been involved in various test at the OTB test range in Bredasdorp where SAAB Gripens (our new fighter jets) and Cheethas were used.
Who knows when South Africa started using the Impala's, Hawks and Cheetahs? Which aircraft did they use to accompany these bombers?
PS The strategist would tell you, whoever controls the air space controls the war. ;)
Mirage were used as fighter support when necessary, they had superiority over the MIG 21's but later the MIG 23's had superiority over the Mirage, hence the need to develop the Cheetah. The war ended before the Cheetah could ever be combat tested against the MIG 23's
Aaa, yes, I completely forgot about the Mirage IIIs! Thanks for the interesting posts, makes me miss my awesome military friends from the domain I worked in.
@gavvet - Sir, border wars can't be avoided if we get nasty neighbor like your country had in 80's... To secure the country, secure the people that decision has to taken.... Your article nicely explain what happened at that time & this article is a best article to keep at universities & libraries as a reference.... Nice you decided to share this article Sir.... Therefore, I wish to ReSteem your post Sir.
+W+ [UpVoted & ReSteemed]
The nasty neighbor situation was unfortunately reciprocal.
Again - great update. The American media and the terrible public school system cares little about Africa and its history.
Learning about these things sheds light on why the continent seems to be the center of such strife and tribulation.
Keep posting!
Those who can't learn from history will repeat same mistake, oldmen declare war, but the unwise young will fight and perish
the borders wars were one of the closely guarded secrets that the west didnt want the world to know and turned a blind eye cause they were selling the weapons. South africa had to fight even more warscause of its aparthied regime with the rest of the african countries who shielded and helped the freedom fighters
Those who can't learn from history will repeat same mistake, oldmen declare war, but the unwise young will fight and perish
Unfortunately, USA is a superpower capable of making them the world's police, but ultimate peace is the absolute right of all nations of the world.
War ... whatever the cause of its clashes, it will only make the world a flood of blood and tears, stop wars right now, let's we focus all thoughts on improving our steam power and bitcoin, the era of the cryptocurrency economy is present in front of the eye
Nice post @gavvet
We must to rememmer all of the history
Yes we must remember all of history, but we get any lesson.
I really don't like reading about wars!
Makes me go scared!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Like right now
Man's society is in a continuous change and there is no permanence in anything of this world. War peace war peace, civilization destruction civilization destruction
good info. thanks
The South African Border War - Zambia's turn
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angola from 26 August 1966 to 21 March 1990. It was fought between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), an armed wing of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO). The South African Border War resulted in some of the largest battles on the African continent since World War II and was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War.
Following several decades of unsuccessful petitioning through the United Nations and the International Court of Justice for Namibian independence, SWAPO formed the PLAN in 1962 with material assistance from the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and sympathetic African states such as Tanzania, Ghana, and Algeria. Fighting broke out between PLAN and the South African authorities in August 1966. Between 1975 and 1988 the SADF staged massive conventional raids into Angola and Zambia to eliminate PLAN's forward operating bases. It also deployed specialist counter-insurgency units such as Koevoet and 32 Battalion trained to carry out external reconnaissance and track guerrilla movements
much of the war at that time was a proxy between the western nation lead by USA who were pushing Capitalistic ideas and the eastern nation lead by then USSR pushing communist ideas, we were just pawns of a bigger war that was going on, that is why the west turned a blind eye on the Apartheid regime in South Africa
I'm really sorry that there are wars and better bad world than war.
Wow is amazing post, but the mas amazing is how cruel is the human with his brother, fighting things without value as earth, water, gas, petroleum gaining only enemies
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The comment about the user interface makes me cry a little, happily... Thank you 🤗
thanks for posting. Its help i know clearly about The South African Border War - Zambia's turn
very interesting blog
this content is very helpful to everyone
your post is very interesting, I like your post, because it can add insight for me, hopefully the future can provide better posts again, so that I can know many things in my life, thank you @zf90
Africa is a beautiful continent, I'm really sorry that there are still wars and bad policies.
Thanks for the great post...
Very interesting post @gavvet so much we dont know about history! Thank you for sharing
Awesome post
Nice post again, and what a beautiful warcraft. Never saw those planes before. I imagine how much they did destroy.. that makes them in a certain way less beautiful..
Canberras were British built and supplied.
The F-6s the Zambians used as pictured above were unlicensed (who'da guessed) Chinese copies of the MiG-19.
@gavvet,
South Africa didn't win a single border war, they had to fight against a set of great enemies and it seems like they did it well! Anyway, war is always war! Like a wise man said once "Peace is Cheap"!
Great article and you revealed a great history! Thanks for sharing such series of great articles with us!
Cheers~
thanks for share @gavvet
Your posts are very interesting especially for me who is
still a beginner and I have to learn more do you want to be a
teacher for me.
Only animals fight war wise humans go for dialogue
the word War and anything related to it makes me sad... this should never happen again, anywhere on the globe!
Great Post!
Who made the US the mother of this world and consider if the country should go to war or peace
Knowing that the US or any other power countries run after resources ( oil, gas, gold mines )!!! Pfft
I'm in Nigeria and this information for me is very educative. Considering the distractions in my Country's polity one rarely have time to read about other foreign countries.
Thanks for this piece!
Thanks for sharing this information.
Nice post @gavvet
Thanks for sharing.
War is trully a destruction, is there another way to have peace on this world @gavvet 😊. Followed you sir.
Good post! Bad world better than world.
nice post...
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Great post thanks... up voted
Kindly up vote my post as well if you want
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Fantastic post
Wow! I really like that warplane!!! Same with the tanks!
plz vote me
Congratulations @gavvet!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
war is not a solution 🙁
History is repeating all around the world.
I loved the Canberra bombers.
The war itself is its wrong, the need of control takes u to the point of no return! We could live so easy if u can just give up control!
Nice post @gavvet. May God always keep peace and saves all civilian in Africa.
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