Episode 80 – An SA Navy sub damaged at the end of the failed Cabinda raid

We’re picking up where we left off in Episode 79 with Captain Wynana Du Toit captured, two Recces dead, and six others hiding in a coastal thicket surrounded by FAPLA intent on capturing or killing them. Operation Argon in 1985 was one part of a two-punch with the plan to send nine operators were heading to oil storage tanks at Cabinda enclave – they’d been dropped off by a submarine but had ended up at the wrong lay-up position. Their tracks were spotted, then a South African hat was found on the trail and that was the clincher. In the follow up firefight, du Toit had been captured after Corporal van Breda and Liebenberg had been hit and killed. Two others, Captain Nel and Corporal Hough were wounded and lying alongside four other operators inside the thicket – it was late afternoon on the 21st May 2985. Desultory fire was aimed at the thicket, but the six survivors did not shoot back. They were running out of ammunition and were waiting for the final assault on their position. Later during the hurried extraction the submarine was waiting on the surface, an unusual tactic in this particularly dangerous area. By 0400 on the morning of the 23rd the Barracuda’s rendesvouzed with the sub again, with the sub pointing out to sea. That was just in case of attack. And they were lucky the Captain had ordered this position because moments later, the Stead saw lights of a ship approaching from the south east. His periscope radar detector indicated a vessel was indeed heading their way. Stead wasn’t sure they’d been spotted, but the detector revealed that this ship was steaming directly towards them.