Author: Al J. Venter
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 191311810X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 562
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Book Description
Following the publication of Al Venter’s successful Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa - shortlisted by the New York Military Affairs Symposium’s 'Arthur Goodzeit Book Award for 2013' - his Battle for Angola delves still further into the troubled history of this former Portuguese African colony. This is a completely fresh work running to almost 600 pages including 32 pages of color photos, with the main thrust on events before and after the civil war that followed Lisbon’s over-hasty departure back to the metrópole. There are also several sections that detail the role of South African mercenaries in defeating the rebel leader Dr Jonas Savimbi (considered by some as the most accomplished guerrilla leader to emerge in Africa in the past century). There are many chapters that deal with Pretoria’s reaction to the deteriorating political and military situation in Angola, the role of the Soviets and mercenaries in the political transition, as well as the civil war that followed. With the assistance of several notable military authorities he elaborates in considerable detail on South Africa’s 23-year Border War, from the first guerrilla incursions to the last. In this regard he received solid help from the former the head of 4 Reconnaissance Regiment, Colonel Douw Steyn, who details several cross-border Recce strikes, including the sinking by frogmen of two Soviet ships and a Cuban freighter in an Angolan deepwater port. Throughout, the author was helped by a variety of notable authorities, including the French historian Dr René Pélissier and the American academic and former naval aviator Dr John (Jack) Cann. With their assistance, he covers several ancillary uprisings and invasions, including the Herero revolt of the early 20th century; the equally troubled Ovambo insurrection, as well as the invasion of Angola by the Imperial German Army in the First World War. Former deputy head of the South African Army Major General Roland de Vries played a seminal role. It was he - dubbed ‘South Africa’s Rommel’ by his fellow commanders - who successfully nurtured the concept of ‘mobile warfare’ where, in a succession of armored onslaughts ‘thin-skinned’ Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicles tackled Soviet main battle tanks and thrashed them. There is a major section on South African Airborne – the ‘Parabats’ –by Brigadier-General McGill Alexander, one of the architects of that kind of warfare under Third World conditions. Finally, the role of Cuban Revolutionary Army receives the attention it deserves: officially there were almost 50,000 Cuban troops deployed in the Angolan war, though subsequent disclosures in Havana suggest that the final total was much higher.
Author: Harold Robbins
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 031271114X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 447
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Book Description
Win Liberte has it all. He prides himself on never having worked a day in his life. He has everything he wants - fast cars, beautiful women, a racing yacht, a penthouse in Manhattan. Orphaned at eleven, Win inherited an international diamond business that is managed by his uncle. Then Win loses it all when his uncle commits suicide after investing all of Win's money in a scheme that fails. His single remaining asset is a bankrupt diamond mine in Angola, a steaming, war-ravaged country in equatorial Africa. In the blood and muck of central Africa, Win experiences the "Diamond Curse" first hand. Battles over Angola's vast wealth in gems occur daily, and fights for control of the diamond industry have wiped out generations. Thriving on the challenge, Win founds an international diamond business that challenges a powerful cartel's stranglehold on the market. Loved by two women - a movie goddess who sears men's souls and a dedicated UN worker who risks her life in Africa - Win doesn't find anything worth living for until he loses love. From the tunnels of the diamond mine to the stage at the Academy Awards, from the beds of beautiful women to a battle with warlords, Win has to fight to get back everything he ever wanted. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Angola
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Author: Hilton Hamann
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 1770222278
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 399
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Book Description
What really happened during South Africa’s military involvement in Angola? Did the military leaders always see eye to eye with the politicians – and with each other? Was South Africa responsible for the death of Mozambican President Samora Machel? What was the extent of South Africa’s nuclear programme? How did South Africa’s military machine deal with the end of apartheid? Based on interviews with the former generals of the South African Defence Force, Days of the Generals addresses these and many other fascinating questions. The book looks in detail at South Africa’s intervention in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique. It examines the armed struggle of the ANC and the state’s war against the liberation movements. It investigates chemical and biological warfare, the ‘third force’ and other top-secret issues. For the first time, the generals – Magnus Malan, Constand Viljoen, Jannie Geldenhuys, Georg Meiring, Hein du Toit and Chris Thirion – have opened up and given their account of events in southern Africa from the 1970s to the present. Theirs is an explosive story, giving behind-the-scenes information about covert operations, secret meetings, strategic alliances and full-scale war. This is essential reading for anyone interested in southern African politics and military history. The author, Hilton Hamann, entered the South African Defence Force as a conscript in 1975, and was stationed in Angola. He subsequently became the Sunday Times’s military correspondent and wrote for a number of well-known international magazines and newspapers, such as Soldier of Fortune. In this role he travelled extensively with the SADF, often accompanying them into battle. He currently runs a news syndication company.
Author: Simon van Garderen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846830341
Category : Bush pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
Author: Cameron Blake
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 1770221220
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340
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Book Description
National Service had a powerful immediate effect on the men who served in the SADF, immersing them in an unfamiliar military world. But its impact reached beyond them - to the families and loved ones at home - and it has left its mark decades after the conscripts re-entered civvy street. From Soldier to Civvy explores National Service from a number of different angles. It contains in-depth accounts from a diverse selection of former conscripts - a Recce, a dog handler, a mortarist, a Parabat, a gunner, a loadmaster, a military policeman and a marine - who take you through their entire military careers and provide detailed insider’s information on each role. A number of frank and humorous letters home from a soldier to his fiancée are also included, and there are interviews with women - mothers, sisters, wives and girlfriends - who talk about how National Service affected them and their men. And, finally, former soldiers look back at their time in the army and reveal the powerful and lasting effects it has had on them and how they view it from the perspective of the present. From Soldier to Civvy provides valuable new insights into National Service and its far-reaching consequences. It will entertain, enlighten and challenge readers to reconsider this crucial period of our history.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on African Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Angola
Languages : en
Pages : 216
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Book Description
Author: Brody Mullins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982120592
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 624
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Book Description
"Two veteran investigative journalists trace the rise of the modern lobbying industry through the three dynasties--one Republican, two Democratic--that have enabled corporate interests to infiltrate American politics and undermine our democracy."--]cProvided by publisher.
Author: Fred Bridgland
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612004938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
A “gripping” story of the Angolan Civil War and how it evolved into a Cold War struggle between superpowers (New York Journal of Books). Lasting over a quarter of a century, from 1975 to 2002, the Angolan Civil War began as a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the MPLA and UNITA—but became a Cold War struggle with involvement from the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa, and the United States. This book examines the height of the Cuban-South African fighting in Angola in 1987–88, when three thousand South African soldiers and about eight thousand UNITA guerrilla fighters fought in alliance against the Cubans and the armed forces of the Marxist MPLA government, a force of over fifty thousand men. Fred Bridgland pieced together the course of the war, fought in one of the world’s most remote and wild terrains, by interviewing the South Africans who fought it, and many of their stories are woven into the narrative. This classic account of a Cold War struggle and its momentous consequences for the participants and the continent now includes a new preface and epilogue. “Highlights just how much political and social considerations dictate the outcome of war . . . A highly detailed work of military history, The War for Africa can tell us a lot about the nature of counter-insurgency warfare and how small states can become contested battlegrounds between superpowers.” —New York Journal of Books
Author: John Frederick Walker
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802194427
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 693
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Book Description
“Walker . . . weaves a surprisingly fascinating story around one animal, involving colonialism, revolution, biology, and politics . . . Hard to put down.” —Booklist In A Certain Curve of Horn, veteran journalist John Frederick Walker tells the story of one of the most revered and endangered of the regal beasts of Africa: the giant sable antelope of Angola, a majestic, coal-black quadruped with breathtaking curved horns over five feet long. It is an enthralling and tragic tale of exploration and adventure, politics and war, the brutal realities of life in Africa today and the bitter choices of conflicting conservation strategies. A Certain Curve of Horn traces the sable’s emergence as a highly sought-after natural history prize before the First World War, and follows its struggle to survive in a war zone fought over by the troops of half a dozen nations, and its transformation into a political symbol and conservation icon. As he follows the trail of this mysterious animal, Walker interweaves the stories of the adventurers, scientists, and warriors who have come under the thrall of the beast, and how their actions would shape the fate of the giant sable antelope and the history of the war-torn nation that is its only home. “A Certain Curve of Horn deserves to be ranked with Peter Matthiessen’s classic, The Snow Leopard.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
