One of the last modern conflicts which saw the extensive combat deployment of the T-34-85 was the Angolan Civil War. In 1975, the Soviet Union shipped eighty T-34-85s to Angola as part of its support for the ongoing Cuban military intervention there. Cuban crewmen...
After the Hippo APC, the Buffel was the second-ever mass-produced V-shaped hull, open-topped, Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) / Armored Personnel Carrier (APC). It was made and used by the South African Defense Force (SADF) at a time when South Africa was subject to ever...
The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious light tank that was introduced in the early 1950s and soon became the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the other Warsaw Pact armed forces. It was widely exported to other friendly states, like Angola, India,...
General Arlindo Pena Ben-Ben (17 November 1955 – 19 October 1998) served as the military commander of UNITA. Served as UNITA's army chief and later became chief of staff of the Angolan National Army following a peace settlement.
Cobus Claassens is a former South African Army paratrooper, mercenary, and security consultant. He is known for his work with the private military company Executive Outcomes in the 1990s and has since become a managing director for a risk management firm.
Executive Outcomes is a private military company founded in South Africa in 1989 by Eeben Barlow, a former lieutenant-colonel of the South African Defence Force. It later became part of the South African-based holding company Strategic Resource Corporation. The...
Gómez Planelles, Eddy (Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas, 11/6/68). Sapper. Died in a mine explosion on March 4, 1989, during the battles at Cuito Cuanavale. His body, completely destroyed, could not be recovered.
This is the Russian PMD-6 (ПMД-6), a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), rectangular, wooden, Anti-Personnel (AP), landmine that is designed to wound or kill by its HE-Blast effect also copied in China. The upper portion of the box overlaps the lower portion which...
This is the Russian TM-57, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), circular, sheet-metal-bodied, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine that is designed to damage or destroy a vehicle by its HE-Blast effect and was designed for mechanical laying. It is an improvement on the TM-46 and...
The engines of a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft roared in the sky above the South Atlantic, taking off on a mission from the airfield in Fedotovo near Vologda. Behind them was the Cuban airfield of Jose Marti, then the Angolan airfield in Luanda. The target was...
This is the Russian F1(Ф1), a High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), defensive, striker-release (SR), hand-grenade, nicknamed the Limonka (lemon-like), used as an Anti-Personnel (AP) hand-grenade and also used as part of a booby-trap (BTP), it has been copied in many...
This is the Yugoslavian PROM-1, a High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), pressure or tripwire (TPW) actuated, bounding, Anti-Personnel (AP), landmine. It consists of a cylindrical body with a pronged fuze inserted into the top of the landmine. The landmine is...
This is the Yugoslavian TMA-3, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), minimum-metal, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine made from cast explosive and covered in a coarse resin-reinforced fabric. On the top surface of the landmine, three threaded plastic fuze wells are set into...
This is the Russian TMD-44, a High-Explosive-Blast (HE-Blast), square-shaped, wooden-bodied, Anti-Vehicle (AV), landmine that is designed to damage or destroy a vehicle by its blast effect, similar in appearance to the Russian TMD-B of WWII and appears to be an...