32-Bataljon
32 Battalion ( Afrikaans , spoken: drie-twee Bataljon , English three-two Battalion, informally after the African buffalo and buffalo Battalion called Portuguese Batalhão Búfalo and occasionally Os Terríveis = "The Terrible") was an infantry - battalion of the South African Defense Force (SADF) in Apartheid - South Africa . It was mainly active in Angola's civil war .
The battalion was founded in 1975 by Jan Breytenbach , who primarily recruited soldiers from the former FNLA from Angola . The battalion fought together with UNITA units in southern Angola against the troops of the MPLA (Angola), the SWAPO ( Namibia ) and their Cuban supporters. Due to the fact that there were also volunteers from Great Britain , Rhodesia , Portugal and the United States in this battalion, especially in the early days , it was also known as the South African Foreign Legion .
Mainly used as an anti-insurgency unit, it was repeatedly involved in regular fighting. With 14 Honoris Crux awards for bravery in combat, it was the most highly decorated unit of the SADF.
history
The South African officer Jan Breytenbach founded the battalion in 1975 after the end of the decolonization conflict in Angola from former soldiers of the independence movement Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA). With the help of Cuba and the Soviet Union , another movement, the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), had asserted itself militarily against the FNLA and a third movement, the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA). Many FNLA fighters, who were unable to return to their base in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo , therefore fled to South West Africa (now Namibia ), which at the time was under South African control. The apartheid regime ruled in South Africa at that time .
The battalion consisted initially of two infantry companies , a mortar train , an anti-tank unit and a Maschinengewehrzug and then called Bravo Group. Before long, the South African Army renamed it 32-Bataljon and expanded it to include six infantry companies, a reconnaissance unit and a support unit with mortars, armor-piercing weapons and machine guns. The unit consisted mainly of black Angolan soldiers and NCOs and white South African officers. At the end of his time in Namibia in 1989 it was equipped with Ratel IFV armored personnel carriers and Valkiri rocket launchers.
32-Bataljon was stationed in southern Angola, where it served as a buffer between the regular troops of the South African Army and the troops of MPLA and Cuba . It supported UNITA in the fight against these troops.
Shortly before Namibia's independence, the battalion moved to South Africa in 1989, where it was again used in the counterinsurgency . On April 8, 1992, members of the 32nd Battalion took part in the "Phola Park Incident" in Gauteng . Soldiers and security forces shot civilians. The government had the Goldstone Commission investigate this event .
As a result of negotiations between the South African government and the African National Congress , the army disbanded the unit in 1993. Many members of the Bataljon later found a livelihood as private consultants with the companies Executive Outcomes and Sandline International , who fought on the part of the Angolan government against UNITA and thus against their former allies.
At the end of April 2015, it became known that several veterans of the battalion had been used as mercenaries for the Nigerian army against the terrorist group Boko Haram in Borno state.
Overview of the structure of the 32-Bataljon
Others
In the film Blood Diamond , Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of Danny Archer, a former member of the 32-Bataljon.
Web links
- www.32battalion.net (English)
- Web site dedicated to the 32 Battalion (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ on the Phola Park Incident (English)
- ↑ Liberation of Kidnapped Girls - The New Strength of the Nigerian Army. FAZ.net , April 30, 2015, accessed April 30, 2015 .