Episode 58 – SWAPOs “Danger” Ashipala switches tactics as he dispatches 150 men to the Triangle of Death

As you heard last episode, groups of SWAPO insurgents were about to head southwards from various points north of Etosha Pan – aiming at the farming area in the Triangle of Death, Tsumeb and Oshakati. As Napoleon Bonaparte said – you must not fight too often with one enemy or you will teach him all your art of war. By now, SWAPO and the SADF had fought each other since 1966, and both sides had learned from the other. Because of this, April of 1982 would turn into a bloodbath in the Triangle of Death. The impetus started far away, in Lubango inside Angola. That’s the town with a statue of Christ that replicates the famous Rio statue, just a little smaller. It rises 30 meters into the air, arms wide, welcoming visitors. It was under the shadow of the statue, more than 700 kilometers from Tsumeb and the Triangle of death that plans were afoot. Twelve kilometers outside Lubango is a town called Humpata that the SADF who were part of Operation Savannah knew well. And further south of this lay the SWAPO base called Volcano. By the early 1980s, SWAPO had setup a major training base 30 kilometers south of Lubango and named it Volcano. And it was here in 1982 that a specialized unit was being trained, and the unit was called Typhoon. Like the trekkers, they’d be heading south soon, and the name Typhoon was apt as you’re going to hear. Their aim was to infiltrate south of Ovamboland and to attack farms around Tsumeb and OTavi and Grootfontein – the Triangle. Leading this group was a man who’d been fighting against the SADF constantly since the late 1970s, Ruben Danger Ashipala. HE was a flamboyant character and those who fought him called him tactically brilliant. Of all the commanders facing the SADF over the years, Russian, Cuban, Angolan, East European, he was probably the most accomplished at the art of war.