Episode 66 – Another MiG shot down and Russian VIPs arrive

We heard last episode about Operation Meebos and the shooting down of a Puma with the loss of 15 men. The SADF was now determined to follow-up the company of SWAPO who’d been based near the Mui river and who’s Anti-aircraft guns had delivered such a potent message. The Alouette gunships were circling the area on that day in August, 1982, and they reported the location of a SWAPO section about 10 kilometers away from the smouldering Puma. This was probably 30km north of Cuvelai along the Calonga River and an Alouette gunship under the command of legendary pilot Neall Ellis and the two gunships came under fire immediately by SWAPO firing what 61 Mechs Commandant Roland de Vries believes were SAM-7s. Moments later he enemy started firing with small arms, RPG-7 rockets and 14,5mm anti-aircraft guns. Ellis realised that this wasn’t the same section as others reported in the area about two kilometers away. The target was spread out but there was only one escape from the SADF on the ground, which was a fording site over the Calonga River. 48 men from 32 Battalion’s Delta Company were joined by a company from 61 Mech in Ratels and they were ordered to attack a SWAPO section. There were no Puma’s available, they were heading to the Helicopter Administration Area from Ondangwa. So Operation Meebos ended formally on August 27th, and the SADF claimed 345 SWAPO dead, but lost 29 of their own, while the shooting down of the Puma was one of the largest single incident deaths for the SADF in the entire Border War. Earlier in May 1982 one of the most important Russians to fight in Angola had arrived to advise the MPLA government in Luanda. Lieutenant General Konstantin Kurochkin was formally known as the Chief Military Advisory to the Angolan government and was a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war. He was also described as the most outstanding Soviet officer to serve in Angola, and followed Lieutenant General Georgy Petrovsky into the position.