Episode 20 – The Battle at Bridge 14 part I

This is episode 20, the Battle at Bridge 14. Operation Savannah was supposed to be winding down but two of the most important clashes were to take place at the tail end of this op. I explained last week how the Bridge over the Nhia River near the town of Catofe was seen by both the MPLA and the SADF as a key position. It lay 250 kilometers away on the main road from Luanda to the capital’s South East. It lay was the main route south heading towards the crucial Benguela Railway where minerals from Katanga province of neighbouring Congo – or Zaire as it was now called – could be transported to the Atlantic Ports of Lobito and Benguela. So far during this Operation the SADF had defeated the MPLA’s armed wing Fapla, overrunning dozens of towns and villages and taken Lobito and Benguela – but had suffered its first big defeat at the Battle of Ebo only a few days before Bridge 14. So we left off last episode with the SADF south of the Nhia River and the engineers planning to rebuild Bridge 14 using wood from a nearby forest. We also heard how a special forces unit had been dropped north west of the river in an attempt at seizing the high ground but this unit was caught in an ambush and one of the members killed. Meanwhile, Comandante Ochoa who was officer commanding the Cubans and Fapla had similar goals to Colonel Swart. The Angolan’s fighting each other on both sides – Unita and the FNLA with the South Africans and Fapla, the MPLA’s armed wing with the Cubans were all highly trained.