WOperation Abrasion was a South African special forces military operation in December 1985 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WThe Angolan Civil War was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The war was used as a surrogate battleground for the Cold War by rival states such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa and the United States.
WThe Angolan Navy or MGA is the naval branch of the Angolan Armed Forces and is tasked with protecting Angola's 1,600 km long coastline. The Angolan Navy has approximately 1,000 personnel.
WThe Cuban intervention in Angola began on 5 November 1975, when Cuba sent combat troops in support of the communist-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in against the pro-western National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The intervention came after the outbreak of the Angolan Civil War, which occurred after the former Portuguese colony was granted independence after the Angolan War of Independence. The civil war quickly became a proxy war between the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union and the Western Bloc led by the United States. South Africa and the United States backed UNITA and the FNLA, while communist nations backed the MPLA. 4,000 Cuban troops helped to turn back a three-pronged advance by the SADF and Zairean troops, backed up by foreign mercenaries. Later, 18,000 Cuban troops defeated the FNLA in the north and UNITA in the south. Separatists from the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) fought the Cubans but were defeated. In 1976, the Cuban military in Angola reached 36,000 troops. Following the withdrawal of Zaire and South Africa, Cuban forces remained in Angola to support the MPLA government against UNITA in the continuing civil war. South Africa spent the following decade launching bombing and strafing raids from its bases in South West Africa into southern Angola, while UNITA engaged in ambushes, hit-and-run attacks, and harassment of Cuban units.
WOperation Dolfyn was a military operation in Angola from May 1983 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WOperation Egret was a military operation in Angola during September 1985 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) against People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WOperation Firewood was a secretive military operation in 1987 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War.
WThe German campaign in Angola took place before the official declaration of war between Germany and Portugal in March 1916. German and Portuguese troops clashed several times on the border between German South West Africa and Portuguese Angola. The Germans won most of these clashes and were able to occupy the Humbe region of southern Angola until Portuguese control was restored a few days before the British campaign out of South Africa defeated the Germans.
WOperation Klinker was a military operation in Angola during December 1983 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South African Air Force (SAAF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WThis is a list of conflicts in Angola arranged chronologically from the early modern period to the present day. This list includes nationwide and international wars, including: wars of independence, liberation wars, colonial wars, undeclared wars, proxy wars, territorial disputes, and world wars. Also listed might be any battle that occurred within the territory of what is today known as the, "Republic of Angola" but was itself only part of an operation of a campaign in a theater of a war. There may also be periods of violent civil unrest listed, such as: riots, shootouts, spree killings, massacres, terrorist attacks, and civil wars. The list might also contain episodes of: human sacrifice, mass suicide, massacres, and genocides.
WOperation Magneto was a military operation in August 1985 to transport UNITA soldiers by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WOperation Merlyn was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF), South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) and South West African Police (SWAPOL) during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War in April 1989. The aim of the operation was to prevent the incursion of PLAN (SWAPO) insurgents into South West Africa/Namibia from bases in Angola. These incursions were in violation of a ceasefire which came into effect on 1 April 1989 via the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 and the Tripartite Accord. Initially, these PLAN incursions were tackled by South West African police units and eventually by SADF and SWATF units, released to assist the police having been confined to their bases by the peace agreements. These incursions and the conflict that occurred ended after hastily arranged talks resulted in the Mount Etjo Declaration and an eventual ceasefire.
WOperation Moduler was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War. It formed part of what has come to be called the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The Angolan objective was to advance south-east to attack the UNITA at Mavinga. The SADF objective was to protect UNITA by stopping that advance. The advance was halted with heavy Angolan casualties. The South African forces and its UNITA allies then began offensive operations against the Angolan forces, who had retreated back to a defensive line east of the Cuito River with the objective of destroying them once and for all.
WThe People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party, is a political party that has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese army in the Angolan War of Independence from 1961 to 1974, and defeated the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), two other anti-colonial movements, in the Angolan Civil War of 1975–2002.
WThe National Front for the Liberation of Angola is a political party and former militant organisation that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence, under the leadership of Holden Roberto.
WOperation Nobilis was a special forces and naval operation in 1984 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. Its objective was the destruction of three Angolan OSA missile boats in Luanda harbour with alternative targets of other Angolan naval or commercial transport vessels in the military harbour.
WOperation Askari was a military operation during 1983 in Angola by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War.
WOperation Savannah, known in Angola as the 1975-1976 South African Invasion and Luanda Conquest Campaign, it was a military intervention carried out by the South African Defence Force's in 1975-1976 in the context of the South African Border War, the Angolan War of Independence and the subsequent Angolan Civil War.
WOperation Wishbone was a military operation in Angola during December 1980 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South African Air Force (SAAF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WThe People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola or FAPLA was originally the armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) but later (1975–1991) became Angola's official armed forces when the MPLA took control of the government.
WThe Portuguese Colonial War, also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation, was a thirteen year long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese corporatist authoritarian regime at the time, the Estado Novo, was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, and the change in government brought the conflict to an end. The war was a decisive ideological struggle in Lusophone Africa, surrounding nations, and mainland Portugal.
WOperation Prone was a proposed military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War between May and September 1988. With the advance of the 50th Cuban Division towards Calueque and the South-West Africa border, the SADF formed the 10 SA Division to counter this threat. The plan for Operation Prone had two phases. Operation Linger was to be a counterinsurgency phase and Operation Pact a conventional phase.
WThe 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, 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.
WThe South African Defence Force deployed a number of Combat Groups comprising South African and Angolan elements during Operation Savannah (Angola). Initially, only Combat Groups A and B were deployed, with the remaining groups being mobilised and deployed into Angola later in the campaign. There has been much dispute the overall size of Task Force Zulu. Current evidence indicates that the Task Force started with approximately 500 men and grew to a total of 2,900 with the formation of Battle Groups Foxbat, Orange and X-Ray.
WThe National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan War for Independence (1961–1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war (1975–2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid initially from People's Republic of China from 1966 until October 1975 and later from the United States and South Africa while the MPLA received support from the Soviet Union and its allies especially Cuba.
WOperation Vanity was a Rhodesian military operation in Angola with clandestine assistance from the South African Air Force (SAAF) during the Rhodesian Bush War. The Rhodesian Air Force planned a retaliatory raid against a ZIPRA camp in Angola after a second Air Rhodesia Viscount was shot down on 12 February 1979.
WOperation Wallpaper was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War.
WThe Angolan War of Independence, called in Angola the Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional, began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a leftist military coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo regime, and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.