, 256 pages, with black and white and colour photographs throughout

South Africa's border war, 1966-1989

History

Steenkamp, Willem

Africa

African Books Collective

Of all the books about South Africa’s 21-year ‘Border War’ - fought on both sides of Angola’s frontier with present-day Namibia - South Africa’s Border War has always been rated as among the best. A significant, full-color volume, it originally sold 31,000 copies in South Africa alone and has been out of print for decades. This version is the first reissue of the original, written by Willem Steenkamp. Almost all the photos were taken by Al J. Venter who covered that conflict intermittently for almost two decades. Both Steenkamp and Venter have gone on to produce other works on that bitter conflict, but neither they nor anybody else has been able to match this beautiful coffee-table volume. Both agree that the book should be regarded as a tribute to a generation of fighting men, where sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers, serving in the same units a generation apart. Though South Africa’s ‘Border War’ started slowly with the first major clash of the conflict taking place on South West African soil at Omugulugwombashe in August 1966, hostilities escalated steadily, to the point where Moscow provided the Marxist Luanda government with all the military hardware it needed. Tens of thousands of Cuban troops were drafted into Angola after Portugal had abandoned its African territories. The conflict then entered several conventional phases that involved long-range South African armored strikes into Angola’s interior and several major tank battles that eventually brought hostilities to an end. Luanda by then had already used chemical weapons on a limited scale and Pretoria was considering deploying its newly developed nuclear arsenal. Willem Steenkamp, a seasoned war correspondent, covers all these historical issues in South Africa’s Border War, as well as ancillary military strikes in several other black African countries that included Zambia and Mozambique. The book is exceptionally well illustrated, with hundreds of color as well as black-and-white photos; truly a valuable addition to recent African military history.

South Africa's Border War 1966-89

Helion and Company

Volume 1 of "The Black Beret" starts with the early history of South Africa and ends with the invasion of Madagascar by the South African Forces during WWII. This volume covers topics such as how armor came to the battlefield, the use of horses vs armored car in German South West Africa in 1915, the first steps to mechanization, the birth of the Tank Corps, and the deployment into East Africa through Abyssinia to Addis Abba during the early years of WWII. We next experience the reverses and victories of the desert campaign with the 4th Armored Car Company amongst others, fighting alongside the Desert Rats, Operation Crusader, the disaster at Tobruk, through the Gazala gallop and on to the victory at El Alamein. We meet the newly reconstituted SA Armored Corps training at Khatadba in Egypt for deployment in the Italian campaign with the famous South African 6th Armored Division, and we ride with the armor element that takes part in the invasion of Madagascar. The development of the various marks of South African armored reconnaissance cars are touched upon but will be discussed in more detail in a later volume. This is an important and overlooked story, one told by Willem Steenkamp in a rich and unique style, and drawing on a significant number of sources, ably supported by many photographs and maps.

The Black Beret: The History of South Africa's Armoured Forces, Volume 1: Beginnings to the Invasion of Madagascar 1942

More than two years in the writing, this book is the warts-and-all story of the birth, career and death of the South African Defence Force’s 61 Mechanised Battalion Group (1979-2005) - generally acknowledged as the best fighting unit in Africa in its time. '61 Mech' was structured as a combined-arms unit with integral infantry, armored and artillery components – the first in Africa – and arduously trained in a fast-moving mobile warfare doctrine which was not based on adapted European tactics, but was specifically designed for fighting modern bush wars in the forbiddingly difficult African battle-space. It was mounted in various versions of the Ratel armored fighting vehicle, which was locally designed for African campaigning in frequently indescribable terrain conditions, and whose cross-country mobility and heavy firepower provided the means for applying the new doctrine. Backing it up were heavy weapons of local design, such as the world-class G-5 155 mm artillery piece - then the longest-ranged medium gun in the world - and its huge self-propelled wheeled version: the G-6. Led by some of the brightest officers in the army, '61 Mech' played a major role in the often hard-fought incursions into Angola between 1978 and 1988 and won all its battles - even though the South Africans were always vastly outnumbered by the armed forces of Angola, with their abundant Soviet weaponry and Russian and Cuban advisors (and usually with an unfavorable air situation). Written in an easy-to-read narrative style by two veteran military authors, the book includes many personal accounts by officers and men of '61 Mech' - some of them in harrowing detail - and describes the preparations for the various operations and the ongoing evolution of both the doctrine and the weaponry and equipment; but it also covers the broader context, including revealing glimpses into the hitherto almost unknown Angolan/Soviet/Cuban side of the conflict. Among other things, it explains how and why the SADF became involved in the struggle against the South West African People’s Organisation; pinpoints for the first time the moment when the counterinsurgency campaign in SWA/Namibia became entangled with the Angolan Civil War; and objectively analyses the much-debated question of whether there was ever a 'Battle for Cuito Cuanavale'. It is also salted with short snippets of information which help to make it an entertaining read for people from anywhere in the world. Backing up the narrative are many specially drawn maps and a large number of photographs - of which most are not generic, but directly related to the events in the narrative. For anyone needing a single blueprint on how to fight a successful conventional war in Africa, this is the book to read.

Mobility Conquers: The Story Of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978-2005

Heitman, Helmoed-Römer

Volume 2 of The Black Beret picks up where the previous volume left off, describing the bowing out of the South African Tank Corps, the formation of 6th South African Armoured Division and its subsequent campaign in Italy. Its exploits in Italy are recounted in detail, from its blooding at Cassino, the pursuit to Rome, the hard fight to breach the Gothic Line through to final victory. The final part of the book recounts the events of 1945-61, including the introduction of the Centurion tank. This is an important and overlooked story, one told by Willem Steenkamp in a rich and unique style, drawing on a significant number of sources, and ably supported by many photographs and maps.

The Black Beret: The History of South Africa's Armoured Forces. Volume 2: The Italian Campaign 1943-45 and Post-War South Africa 1946-1961

Military

Presenting a remarkable amount of experience drawing primarily from South Africa’s Border War in the form of case studies, supported fully by an extensive number of photographs and specially commissioned maps, this study has applications for historians, researchers, and contemporary military practice. This is an easy-to-read book with many real-life case-studies and examples which presents a yardstick for the enhancement of contemporary combat practices. In this context, the Namibian-Angolan-South African Border War serves as one of the principal benchmark studies. It was an armed struggle which typically evolved into a transnational conflict over time and which brought about all the imaginable political, diplomatic, military and social ramifications and complexities of African warfare. More so, this war included low as well as high intensity engagements across the full spectrum of warfare, playing out within a vast geographical expanse over an extended period – all elements holding valuable lessons to be learned from. The book therefore provides a knowledge resource for enrichment of the intrinsic know-how of commanders and young leaders for the successful conduct of warfare in Africa and similar battlefield environments. In this regard the pages contain a wealth of hands-on military concepts to be used for the conduct of conventional, unconventional or peace support operations or the more integrated form thereof. It is also significant to realize that southern Africa served as a leading laboratory for counterinsurgency warfare at the time of the South African Border War, from which much can be learned by military practitioners, historians and scholars worldwide. Many valuable lessons can be learned from the African way of warfare and what is referred to today as ‘4th Generation’ and/or asymmetric warfare, besides providing insights as to how this will influence future military needs and requirements, for instance the development of forces and the incorporation and employment of advanced technology.

Mobile Warfare for Africa: On the Successful Conduct of Wars in Africa and Beyond - Lessons Learned from the South African Border War

DeVries, Roland

Burger, Camille

Of all the books about South Africa's 21-year 'Border War' - fought on both sides of Angola's frontier with present-day Namibia - South Africa's Border War has always been rated as among the best. A significant, full-color volume, it originally sold 31,000 copies in South Africa alone and has been out of print for decades. This version is the first re-issue of the original, written by Willem Steenkamp. Almost all the photos were taken by Al J. Venter who covered that conflict intermittently for almost two decades. Both Steenkamp and Venter have gone on to produce other works on that bitter conflict, but neither they nor anybody else has been able to match this beautiful coffee-table volume. Both agree that the book should be regarded as a tribute to a generation of fighting men, where sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers, serving in the same units a generation apart. Though South Africa's 'Border War' started slowly with the first major clash of the conflict taking place on South West African soil at Omugulugwombashe in August 1966, hostilities escalated steadily, to the point where Moscow provided the Marxist Luanda government with all the military hardware it needed. Tens of thousands of Cuban troops were drafted into Angola after Portugal had abandoned its African territories. The conflict then entered several conventional phases that involved long-range South African armored strikes into Angola's interior and several major tank battles that eventually brought hostilities to an end. Luanda by then had already used chemical weapons on a limited scale and Pretoria was considering deploying its newly-developed nuclear arsenal. Willem Steenkamp, a seasoned war correspondent, covers all these historical issues in South Africa's Border War, as well as ancillary military strikes in several other black African countries that included Zambia and Mozambique. The book is exceptionally well illustrated, with hundreds of color as well as black-and-white photos; truly a valuable addition to recent African military history.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Steenkamp, Willem. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Steenkamp, Willem

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Steenkamp, Willem. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

South Africa's border war, 1966-1989

South Africa's Border War 1966-89

The Black Beret: The History of South Africa's Armoured Forces, Volume 1: Beginnings to the Invasion of Madagascar 1942

Mobility Conquers: The Story Of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978-2005

The Black Beret: The History of South Africa's Armoured Forces. Volume 2: The Italian Campaign 1943-45 and Post-War South Africa 1946-1961

Mobile Warfare for Africa: On the Successful Conduct of Wars in Africa and Beyond - Lessons Learned from the South African Border War

South Africa's Border War 1966-89