Portuguese Colonial War

T-34/85

T-34/85

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...

Arlindo Chenda Isaac “Ben-Ben” Pena

Arlindo Chenda Isaac “Ben-Ben” Pena

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.

4 Oct 1971 Massenguece Bridge

During the morning of Monday, October 4, 1971, a vehicle from the 3rd Company of the 14th Hunters Battalion (3rd/BCac14) of the Military Region of Mozambique (RMM), while carrying out a routine patrol on the route between the Marrupa barracks and the Metarica Island...

1st Cavalry Group

1st Cavalry Group

The 1st Cavalry Group GCav1 headquarters was in Silva Porto (Bié), Angola (Portuguese: Grupo de Cavalaria n.º 1), until 1968 the Reconnaissance Group of Angola (Portuguese: Grupo de Reconhecimento de Angola), and commonly known as the Dragoons of Angola (Portuguese:...

Francisco Daniel “Danny” Roxo

Francisco Daniel “Danny” Roxo

Staff Sergeant Francisco Daniel "Danny" Roxo (1933–1976) was a Portuguese soldier from Mozambique. Born in Portugal, he moved to Portuguese East Africa as a civil servant, before working as a big game hunter in the Niassa Province. During his military career, Roxo...

Flechas

Flechas

Flechas units were created and employed in Angola, during the Portuguese Colonial War, under the command of the PIDE (renamed DGS in 1969). Despite being a paramilitary police force, they were thus a police unit, not being under military command as the remaining...

Almerindo Mourão da Costa

Almerindo Mourão da Costa

Almerindo Mourão da Costa, was born on the 19th August 1944, in a small village in the north of Portugal. Mourão da Costa was a member of the FLECHAS, elite unit of the DGS in Angola. Almerindo joined the SADF in February of 1975, completed the Special Forces...

PMD-6 & 7 Landmine

PMD-6 & 7 Landmine

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...

TM-57

TM-57

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...

Cloud over St Helena

Cloud over St Helena

  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...

F1 Hand Grenade

F1 Hand Grenade

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...

PROM-1 Landmine

PROM-1 Landmine

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...

TMA-3 Landmine

TMA-3 Landmine

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...

TMD-44 Landmine

TMD-44 Landmine

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...

RGD-5 Hand Grenade

RGD-5 Hand Grenade

This is the Russian RGD-5 (РГД-5), Granata Distantsionnaya, Distance-Hand-Grenade or Time-Delayed (DLY) hand-grenade, a post World War 2, High-Explosive-Fragmentation (HE-Frag), Anti-Personnel (AP), defensive, hand-grenade, designed in the early 1950s, also made in...