South Africa's Border War, 1966-89 by Willem Steenkamp

South Africa's Border War, 1966-89 by Willem Steenkamp

Of all the books about South Africa's 21-year 'Border War' - fought on both sides of Angola's frontier with present-day Namibia - South Africa's Border War has always been rated as among the best. A significant, full-color volume, it originally sold 31,000 copies in South Africa alone and has been out of print for decades.

This version is the first reissue of the original, written by Willem Steenkamp. Almost all the photos were taken by Al J. Venter who covered that conflict intermittently for almost two decades.

Both Steenkamp and Venter have gone on to produce other works on that bitter conflict, but neither they nor anybody else has been able to match this beautiful coffee-table volume. Both agree that the book should be regarded as a tribute to a generation of fighting men, where sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers, serving in the same units a generation apart.

Though South Africa's 'Border War' started slowly with the first major clash of the conflict taking place on South West African soil at Omugulugwombashe in August 1966, hostilities escalated steadily, to the point where Moscow provided the Marxist Luanda government with all the military hardware it needed. Tens of thousands of Cuban troops were drafted into Angola after Portugal had abandoned its African territories.

The conflict then entered several conventional phases that involved long-range South African armored strikes into Angola's interior and several major tank battles that eventually brought hostilities to an end. Luanda by then had already used chemical weapons on a limited scale and Pretoria was considering deploying its newly developed nuclear arsenal.

Willem Steenkamp, a seasoned war correspondent, covers all these historical issues in South Africa's Border War, as well as ancillary military strikes in several other black African countries that included Zambia and Mozambique.

The book is exceptionally well illustrated, with hundreds of color as well as black-and-white photos; truly a valuable addition to recent African military history.

Willem Steenkamp has experience in a large amount of fields over a broad spectrum of interests through occupation, hobbies and interests. Previous occupations were in the fields of Television and Video-productions where he operated cameras, did editing, acted as producer in a variety of productions, trained many students and held some very specialized positions. His DIY skills served him well as Handyman and he has worked for and helped many clients through his network at BNI (Business Network International). He finds interest in how things work and to pursue what else can be done with this knowledge and his accumulative skills. After previously publishing poetry, he now wants to share his knowledge through non-fictional books and videos to benefit those who want to achieve personal gratification by creating something unique. As a person who does not like to waste and loves a clean environment, Willem has turned hoarding and storing broken/redundant items into cost-saving hobbies, art projects and many useful products and enjoys coming up with solutions with whatever he has close at hand. He finds gratification in reusing or adapting something to be useful again in a different form, as a fix or a totally new concept, often stating that he has been recycling long before it became the modern buzz. He asks that you not only enjoy the ideas as entertainment but make at least a few unique products and continue thinking and evolving.Talk about it, share it and pass it on to those who can benefit from it.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780620139670
ISBN 10	0620139676
Title	South Africa's Border War, 1966-89
Author	Willem Steenkamp
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	African Books Collective
Year published	1992-02-01
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.