War of Intervention in Angola: Volume 1 - Angolan and Cuban Forces at War, 1975-1976 (Africa@War)

This is a comprehensive guide to Angola of mid-1970s, by two authors that did their homework.The book starts with a study of local, pre-independence factions (including their financing!) and ethnic groups, and the wide range of other parties involved, including South Africans, the Cubans, the Portuguese, the Soviet Union, the USA and even France. These are all described well and clearly, although their sheer number and extremely complex relations are often making the story hard to follow.The most interesting part is the detailed description of the Cuban and Angolan forces in action: commanders, equipment, training, and lessons learned are all nicely described. Of particular interest are cross-examination of their, the accounts by South African participants and foreign mercenaries: turns out wildly exaggerated claiming about enemy losses were as widespread as popular between all the involved parties.The book is supported by few but very good maps, explaining diverse operations at operational- and tactical level. Photographs are well selected, bringing personalities to life and illustrating the equipment used by various factions.Overall, a well researched book, valuable not only for those interested in the wars in Africa, or the Cuban military, but also those curious to read about warfare during the times of the Cold War.

It's not easy to find a book describing the wars in Africa, I found this book well documented to each battle and also the strategy each side had used. The first few chapters were dedicated to the build up post colonization by Portugal, then how the super powers tried to influence each side. Each battle was well depicted with types of weapons used and strategies. There were a lot abbreviations used so it could be a bit confusing initially as there were so many different fractions in these wars. I have already ordered other books written by the same author.

Many people like to argue that there are very few books about the border wars that raged across the frontiers of Angola and Namibia from 1975 to 1988. While there may not be as many books as there are for other modern wars, there are actually a fair number of well written books. But to access the full range of those books, one has to be able to read Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Afrikaans. This is a skill that very few people have. The only one who comes to mind is the great American diplomatic historian Piero Gleijeses. The other problem with reading histories about the border war is that the accounts are highly politicized. This high level of polarization usually comes down to the same old argument about who won the battle of Cuito Caunavale.The good thing about the "War of Intervention in Angola" is that it tries to look at multiple perspectives to cover the period from 1975 to 1976. The authors are as neutral as they can reasonably be. It is so nice to read such a non-polemical account of the early years of the war. I cannot wait until the second volume is published. I have feeling this may be the best account that we will find until one day a future military historian with the linguistic gifts of Piero Gleijeses writes an account. Highly recommended.

I had a mate who came back a broken man from this war.... He was on the SA side.... The horror of what happen in Angola is disguised in this narrative.... Read between the lines...

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