Episode 18 – The Battle of Ebo - the first major defeat for the SADF during Operation Savannah

This is episode 18 and folks back home were in for a bit of a shock. The invasion of Angola by the SADF during Operation Savannah had been an exercise in support of both Unita and the FNLA – but the government had said that the South Africans were merely technical support. The reality was hundreds of SADF troops were directly involved in the fighting – and had fought all the way to south of the capital Luanda. This was almost a thousand kilometers inside Angola. As we heard last episode, by the end of November a group of liaison officers and artillery had been evacuated by ship from Ambrizette north of the FNLA headquarters at Ambriz. The Nationalist party government had been relying on the MPLA backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union fighting a war on two fronts – both in the north and the south. But the collapse of the FNLA in the north which Pretoria still had not fully grasped was going to throw this strategy into some chaos. The withdrawal of the CIA and a Congress decision coming in December which would ban further military support put paid to the overall grand strategy. And the grand strategy was to weaken the MPLA until they were forced to the negotiation table – thereby protecting South West Africa which was the main reason why the SADF went into Angola in the first place. Battle Group Alpha was to arrive at Ebo at 09h00 on the morning of Sunday 23rd November for a coming fight that was to be a real test of character for the South Africans.