Operation Hooper was a
military operation
A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may ...
in 1987-88 by the
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) ( Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence ...
(SADF) during the
South African Border War
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
. This operation forms part of what has come to be called the
Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought intermittently between 14 August 1987 and 23 March 1988, south and east of the town of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and advisors and soldie ...
. The Cubans' objective was securing the town of Cuito Cuanavale on the west of the river from capture. The SADF objective was to drive the
People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola
The People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola ( pt, Forças Armadas Populares de Libertação de Angola) or FAPLA was originally the armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) but later (1975–1991) became Ango ...
(FAPLA) west across the river or to destroy them, so as to ensure that FAPLA was no longer a threat to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (
UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( pt, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement fo ...
) in the south-east. The FAPLA advance was permanently halted, UNITA lived to fight on for another 15 years. The SADF never attempted to capture the town. Both sides claimed victory.
Background
Directly following on from
Operation Moduler
Operation Moduler (sometimes incorrectly called "Modular") was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War. It formed part of what has come to be called the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The An ...
, by November 1987 the SADF had cornered the remnants of three FAPLA units on the east of the Cuito River, across from the town itself and was poised to destroy them.
[ Gleijeses (2007)] The quite demoralised 59 FAPLA motorised infantry brigade, 21 and 25 FAPLA light infantry brigades, in positions near Tumpo and east of the Cuito River, were effectively cut off due to SADF artillery control of both the bridge and airstrip and to UNITA guerrilla control of the road from Menongue, which they had mined and were prepared to ambush.
[ Niddrie (1988), p. 2.][ Vanneman (1990), p. 79.]
With no functioning armour or artillery remaining, the FAPLA units faced annihilation. On 15 November, the Angolan government requested urgent military assistance from Cuba.
On 25 November the UN Security Council demanded the SADF's unconditional withdrawal from Angola by 10 December 1987 but without threatening any sanctions.
Cuban objectives
In the opinion of Cuba's leader
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
, a South African victory would have meant not only the capture of Cuito and the destruction of the best Angolan military formations, but, quite probably, the end of Angola's existence as an independent country. Thus Castro responded immediately by sending — in what was called "''Maniobra XXXI Aniversario de las FAR''" —
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specific ...
and 15,000 elite troops, retaking the initiative from the Soviets.
The first Cuban reinforcements in Cuito arrived by helicopter on 5 December 1987 with about 160–200 technicians, advisers, officers, and special forces.
[Barber, Simon in ''Castro'' explains, why Angola lost battle against the SADF, 27 July 1989]
General
Arnaldo Ochoa
Arnaldo Tomás Ochoa Sánchez (1930 – July 13, 1989) was a Cuban general who was executed by the government of Fidel Castro after being found guilty of a variety of crimes including drug smuggling and treason. Allegations from a former Castr ...
, a veteran of the 1976 Angola campaign and of tank battles in Ethiopia, was made overall commander of the forces on the government side. Ochoa and Castro were to have serious disagreements in the conduct of the war in Angola. These tensions were to have repercussions both during the war where Castro's interference with defense plans may have cost the Cubans dozens of lives and in the aftermath of Angolan hostilities a year later when Ochoa was arrested, tried and executed by firing squad after being found guilty of treason. General Cintras Frias was made commander at Cuito Cuanavale. The Cubans' initial priority was securing Cuito Cuanavale, but while reinforcements were arriving at the besieged garrison they made preparations for a second front to the west of Cuito Cuanavale in
Lubango
Lubango, formerly known as Sá da Bandeira, is a municipality in Angola, capital of the Huíla Province, with a population of 914,456 in 2022. The city center had a population of 600,751 in 2014 making it the second-most populous city in Angola a ...
where the SADF had been operating unhindered for 8 years.
[ Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1988), p. 59.]
South African objectives
Objective 1
Directly following on from
Operation Moduler
Operation Moduler (sometimes incorrectly called "Modular") was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War. It formed part of what has come to be called the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The An ...
, Operation Hooper's objective was defined as being to destroy the enemy east of the river or at least to drive them back across the river, inflicting maximum casualties but suffering minimum losses of their own.
Objective 2
The river crossings were to be fortified and handed over to UNITA, and the SADF were to withdraw from Angola as soon as that was achieved.
Restrictions
The order was that the town of Cuito Cuanavale would not be attacked unless it fell into SADF hands almost without a fight.
[''The SADF in the Border War, 1966-1989'', by Leopold Scholtz, pp. 316-319, 338-339][ George (2005), p. 214.]
The SADF units received fresh troops and equipment, but the units were reduced to about 2,000 men and 24 tanks for the rest of the operation. The new arrivals had to be acclimatised first.
Engagement
The bombardment started on 2 January 1988, with a mix of artillery and air strikes, and a UNITA infantry attack that failed. On 3 January the SADF destroyed the important bridge across the Cuito River using a
smart bomb
Smart or SMART may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014
* Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com
* ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper
* '' SMart'', a children's television se ...
. The Cubans managed to construct a wooden footbridge in its place which they baptised ''Patria o Muerte'' (fatherland or death).) They partly buried disabled tanks so that their turrets could be used as fixed artillery pieces.
The 32 Battalion and elements of other units harried the road convoys for weeks, destroying several hundred tanks and other vehicles, and inflicting an unknown number of casualties.
On 13 January the SADF attacked the 21 Brigade, starting with air strikes and artillery bombardments. Over two days the FAPLA unit was driven out of their positions, and lost 7 tanks with 5 more captured, various other vehicles were destroyed and captured, and 150 men were killed or captured. UNITA lost 4 dead and 18 wounded, and the SADF had one man wounded and one armoured vehicle damaged. However the SADF was again unable to exploit the momentum, due to a shortage or reserves and supplies. UNITA occupied the captured positions, and the SADF withdrew, but UNITA lost the positions later to a FAPLA counter-attack. A large Cuban and FAPLA column was on the way from Menongue for the relief of Cuito Cuanavale, but progress in the rainy season was slow due to the need to clear the UNITA minefields and guard against possible ambushes. They did not reach Cuito Cuanavale in time to take part in the first engagement.
The next attack was only on 14 February, against the positions of 21 Brigade that UNITA had lost, and the neighbouring positions of the 59 Brigade. They were counter-attacked by Cuban tanks. Both 21 Brigade and 59 Brigade were forced to withdraw. The FAPLA lost 500 men and a further 32 Cuban soldiers, along with 15 tanks and 11 armoured vehicles. The SADF lost 4 killed and 11 wounded, and some vehicles were damaged. FAPLA withdrew to the Tumpo (river) triangle, a smaller area east of the river and across from Cuito Cuanavale. The terrain was ideally suited to defence, and they laid extensive minefields.
In a skirmish on 19 February 1988 a FAPLA position was disrupted, and it resulted in the FAPLA 59 Brigade being withdrawn across the river. However the SADF had two vehicles damaged in the minefield. In the following days the Cubans stepped up their air attacks against South African positions. On 25 February another assault on the bridgehead ran into a minefield, and bogged down. In this engagement the FAPLA lost 172 men, plus 10 Cubans, and 6 tanks. In comparison the SADF lost 4 killed and 10 wounded, plus several vehicles damaged.
Operation results
The bridgehead survived, and the objective of clearing all of the Angolans from the east side of the river had still not been achieved.
[''The SADF in the Border War, 1966-1989'', by Leopold Scholtz, pp. 341-345] This concluded Operation Hooper. It was then succeeded by the brief
Operation Packer
Operation Packer was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War from March to April 1988. This operation forms part of what became known as the Battle of Cuito Cuanaval ...
.
See also
*
32 Battalion (South Africa)
32 Battalion (sometimes nicknamed '' Buffalo Battalion'', ''Three-two battalion'' or pt, Os Terríveis for ''The Terrible Ones'') was a light infantry battalion of the South African Army founded in 1975, composed of black and white commissione ...
*
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
/
South African Border War
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
*
List of operations of the South African Border War
This List of operations of the South African Border War details the military operations conducted by the South African Defence Force during the South African Border War:
* Operation Savannah (1975)
* Operation Bruilof (1978)
* Operation Sei ...
References
{{coord missing, Angola
Hooper, Operation
Hooper, Operation
Hooper, Operation
Conflicts in 1988
Hooper, Operation
Hooper
Hooper