'Operation Savannah

 

bulletIndex
bulletImportant
bullet History
bullet Rowley Medlin
bulletArmy Rotte
bulletPapatroop
bullet 1st Trip
bullet2nd Trip 
bullet3rd Trip
bulletOperation Savanna
bulletInfantry memoirs
bulletMaps
bullet Returning Home   
bullet Artwork and poems
bulletToday the men.
bullet Reference works
bulletKilled in action

Contact us

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close up the wall .....and teach them how to war"

 William Shakespeare

 3rd TRIP 1975/6: going into Operation Savannah

It was the beginning of November. When we saw the rows of cars at Rundu, we realized something was up as  they were camouflaged. However they were not to our standards so we decided to camouflage them further with paint and sand and stuff, we were experts by now at this.  We were sent up to relieve the other half of our squadron, comprising of Ed Stone, David Katz etc., We got angry because  we wanted to be home by Christmas, then five weeks away. 10 weeks later we were still there. S.F. eventually stormed an ops meeting demanding we go home.

Fortunately central Angola is very tropical and a lot of fruit grows wild. This supplemented our ration packs and if we had not had it we would have starved. Once we gathered so much fruit that we made a massive fruit salad for the 12 of us.

We were having a break and lazing around, when we saw a wooden log hanging from a tree- high up! Curious to what this was we threw stones at it, when we eventually hit the log, we found out rather swiftly that we had a beehive of very cross bees! We ran for the armoured cars, but a few of us were stung, specifically Dup who was stung above the eye. He must have been allergic to the sting since half his face swelled up and he looked like a Chinaman from the side. 

At Ebo we captured a Cuban called Carlos. Carlos could speak a little English and while visiting him in hospital, David asked him why he was fighting in Angola. Carlos replied he worked in a textile company and thought he had a job in Angola in their textile factories. On arrival he was given a weapon and told to fight. 

We were beaten at Ebo and found out after our retreat that the Cubans were ready to cede the battle.