The Buffalo Soldiers: The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion 1975-1993

The story of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 32-Battalion from 1975 to 1993, South Africa's most elite and controversial infantry unit.
Breytenbach, Jan
the-buffalo-soldiers
978-1-919854-11-3
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Title: The Buffalo Soldiers
Subtitle: The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion 1975-1993
Author: Jan Breytenbach
Publisher: Galago
Genre: Military history
Cape Town, South Africa 2009
ISBN 9781919854113 / ISBN 978-1-919854-11-3
Softcover, 14 x 17 cm, 360 pages, numerous bw- and colour photos, maps, English

Description: The Buffalo Soldiers: The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion 1975-1993

The Buffalo Soldiers: The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion 1975-1993 begins with grouping guerrilla irregulars during the South African military intervention in Angola in 1975 to the 32-Battalion by Colonel Jan Breytenbach. This unit not only became one of the most successful fighting units in the South African Army, it also became the most controversial. The Buffalo Soldiers is a story from a soldier's view about war in southern Angola and Namibia and the enemies they fought. It tells of insurgency and counter-insurgency, guerrilla warfare and counter-guerrilla warfare, almost conventional warfare and conventional warfare. The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion tells of a conflict which the world saw as unpopular and unjust, in which South Africa was perceived as the aggressor. But most South African soldiers saw it as a conflict fought to stop Namibia falling into the hands of the Soviet and Cuban-backed SWAPO and expected after Namibia, South Africa would be next. They saw the whole conflict as an extension of the Cold War, which, in contrary to the rest of the world, in Africa was hot. No apologies are made for the sometimes poor quality of illustrating photographs, most of which are unique, having been shot under adverse active service conditions some 25 years ago with inexpensive cameras by men who never pretended to be anything other than amateur photographers.

Content: The Buffalo Soldiers. The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion 1975-1993

Picture Credits
Officers Commanding / Regimental Sergeant Majors
Acknowledgements
Colour, black and white pictures and maps
Bibliography
Foreword
The reluctant staff officer
The training mission
Shaping the unit
Is UNITA the enemy?
Towards the furnace of war
UNITA: The first clash
Pereira de Ega
Attack on Sa da Bandeira
Mogamedes
Regrouping
Catengue
Cubal
Benguela
Marking time
Nova Redondo
Cela
Operation Savannah: Thoughts in retrospect
Legio patria nostra
Learning to be guerrillas
Guerrilla tactics pay off
Living by the sword
My goodbye to 32-Battalion
Jacks of all trades
And masters of war
Recce Wing
This is my guerrilla battalion' General Viljoen
32-Battalion to the rescue
Enjoy this war, the peace will be worse: Operation Modular, 1987
Operation Hooper and so on
Back behind the enemy lines
The Western Front
Move to Pomfret
A new kind of war
Bolt from the blue
32-Battalion disbanded
And they died by the sword
32-Battalion: Roll of Honour
Organisation and equipment:: Enemy forces
Organisation and equipment:: Own forces
Glossary/Abreviations
Index

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