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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
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The Flechas - Insurgent Hunting in Eastern Angola, 1965-1974 (Paperback)
Loot Price: R497
Discovery Miles 4 970
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The Flechas - Insurgent Hunting in Eastern Angola, 1965-1974 (Paperback)
Series: Africa@War
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List price R556
Loot Price R497
Discovery Miles 4 970
You Save R59 (11%)
Expected to ship within 9 - 17 working days
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In 1961, Portugal found itself fighting a war to retain its
colonial possessions and preserve the remnants of its empire. It
was almost completely unprepared to do so, and this was
particularly evident in its ability to project power and to control
the vast colonial spaces in Africa. Following the uprisings of
March of 1961 in the north of Angola, Portugal poured troops into
the colony as fast as its creaking logistic system would allow;
however, these new arrivals were not competent and did not possess
the skills needed to fight a counterinsurgency. While
counterinsurgency by its nature requires substantial numbers of
light infantry, the force must be trained in the craft of fighting
a 'small war' to be effective. The majority of the arriving troops
had no such indoctrination and had been readied at an accelerated
pace. Even their uniforms were hastily crafted and not ideally
suited to fighting in the bush. / In reoccupying the north and
addressing the enemy threat, Portugal quickly realized that its
most effective forces were those with special qualifications and
advanced training. Unfortunately, there were only very small
numbers of such elite forces. The maturing experiences of
Portuguese and their consequent adjustments to fight a
counterinsurgency led to development of specialised, tailored units
to close the gaps in skills and knowledge between the insurgents
and their forces. The most remarkable such force was the flechas,
indigenous Bushmen who lived in eastern Angola with the capacity to
live and fight in its difficult terrain aptly named 'Lands at the
End of the Earth'. Founded in 1966, they were active until the end
of the war in 1974, and were so successful in their methods that
the flecha template was copied in the other theaters of Guine and
Mozambique and later in the South African Border War. / The flechas
were a force unique to the conflicts of southern Africa. A flecha
could smell the enemy and his weapons and read the bush in ways
that no others could do. He would sleep with one ear to the ground
and the other to the atmosphere and would be awakened by an enemy
walking a mile away. He could conceal himself in a minimum of cover
and find food and water in impossible places. In short, he was
vastly superior to the enemy in the environment of eastern Angola,
and at the height of the campaign there (1966-1974) this small
force accounted for 60 per cent of all enemy kills. This book is
the story of how they came to be formed and organized, their
initial teething difficulties, and their unqualified successes.
General
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