The start of the 80's would see a new escalation in the war in Angola.
Operation Sceptic or Smokeshell was initiated in mid 1980 to eliminate the SWAPO command post of Chifufua.
This required driving approximately 250 km through the Southern Angolan bush to reach the group of 13 active complexes.
Paratroopers and aerial bombardment was timed in such a manner to coincide with the arriving mechanized armor.
Not everything went according to plan, but SWAPO suffered heavy losses in men and material as was becoming the norm.
SADF losses were mainly from antiaircraft guns being used in a ground role with 3-4 Ratel fighting vehicles being hit in quick succession.
Once again things on the ground proved to be far more complex than initially envisaged and a lot of intelligence was gained regarding alterations to SWAPO's tactics and their increasingly tighter integration with the Angolan conventional army and their Soviet advisers.
This growing threat would continue to escalate and result in even larger mechanized preemptive strikes in the months to follow. The largest of these being Operation Protea.
Previous posts in this series can be found at the bottom of these chapters:
The South African Border War - 1976, The end of a chapter and the beginning of a new phase.