Photo of combat jump

[old grunt]

Totally amazing stuff. What kind of weapon did you guys use in those days? South African R4 or one of those FN FAL's(that would be fun to jump...NOT!)? Would love to see more pics,especially uniforms,weapons patches etc. Have a tremendous repect for the SADF and your Rhodesian cousins of that time period.

[blackflagg509]

Awesome pic and an Outstanding tale to go with it Bro; rep inbound most definately.

[Lower_Jumper]

There is no greater entry into the brotherhood of the Airborne than participating in a combat jump. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we're glad to have you as a member.

All the Way!

[Guymullins]

Our force was made up of Citizen Force with a tiny smattering of Permanent force in the form of the Officer Commanding, Col. Jan Breytenbach (also renowned for founding our Reconnaissance Regiments as well as 32 Bn) and some Permanent Force Observers and airforce crew. Colonel Breytenbach heard that I was a TV Cameraman in civvy life, so he asked whether I would be interested in shooting some film and pictures in addition to my normal duties as a rifleman in the attack company. I jumped at the chance for two reasons. Firstly, it would enable me to openly use my personal 35mm camera, which was strictly forbidden, and it would give me carte blanche on the battlefield after the initial assault was completed. I was issued with an army 16mm movie camera, and an army 35mm camera. It was a bit of a hard task to operate all 3 cameras on the jump, so I strapped my personal camera to the reserve of the paratrooper behind me, Sgnt Des Steenkamp and he had to hit the shutter and the autowind would shoot a shot every few seconds. This is one of those shots, the others are all blurred and dark shots of the aircraft interior and sky and boots outside. My 16mm film was re-possesses by the army when we returned to base, along with the 35mm film shot on the army camera. When the Lt Colonel at base demanded the film from my personal camera, I gave him some reels of unexposed films I had in my pocket. This is how I still have the pictures.
The jump was a box-drop to surround the base which was protected on 3 sides by trenches and bunkers, and on the 4th side by a large river. The space between the river and the base was about 600 meters so the plan was to squeeze the attack companies in here and begin an immediate assault as there was no room or time to regroup. As usual, things go wrong and half the attack force was dropped on the correct side and some in the water and the other half on the wrong side of the river. This had the effect of exposing those of us who managed to land on the base side to the full force of their defence, but also destroyed our surprise element while we waited for the rest of the force to join the party. Our armament consisted of FN type folding-but 7.62 Nato rifles, some captured RPGs, MAG machine guns, a section of 60mm patrol mortars without base plates and some large anti-tank mines to mine the approaches to the base in case the Cuban garrison 20kms away came to their pals assistance. We were unaware of the 3X14.5 AA guns the enemy had and which they used in both a ground role as well as against us in the air. Unfortunately, the 16mm film I shot was taken by the army and showed on public TV before we returned to civilization and that was the last anyone ever saw of it. Because we lost the element of surprise, the battle took much longer than anticipated and by the end of the day, a large armored column of Cubans had joined the punchup. We neutralized them , with the help of a Mirage which after running out of rockets continued to buzz the column at treetop height while our RPG boys hammered the tanks and APCs. It was reported later that 150 Cubans were killed in that skirmish. The remnants of the base surrendered, but due to the lack of helicopters (this was 250km behind enemy lines) we could not extract them, but left them to tell the tale to their buddies, which they did to such effect that Cassinga Day is a Public Holiday in Namibia to this day, while we paratroopers celebrate it in a little more subdued manner annually.

[Guymullins]

Thanks for the good wishes , all of you. Remember that Matt Olivier on this site also jumped with me, in fact from the same aircraft. There are a few more pictures in my album. I am sorry I cannot really publish more because they have been mis-used in the past by left wing publications who have changed captions and used them as anti-SADF propaganda, so I am very wary of letting them out of my immediate control.

[mphellon]

Thanks for the good wishes , all of you. Remember that Matt Olivier on this site also jumped with me, in fact from the same aircraft. There are a few more pictures in my album. I am sorry I cannot really publish more because they have been mis-used in the past by left wing publications who have changed captions and used them as anti-SADF propaganda, so I am very wary of letting them out of my immediate control.

Great Pic with a great story, if you do decide to post more pics, probably best to do it in the backroom. AATW.

[Zimmy]

Great story!

[Hendo]

It wasnt as relaxed as it looks. We had about 25 secs in the air and I was shooting a 16mm movie, some stills with a 35mm camera , trying to miss the river and unhitch my weapon simultaneously.You can see a Company Medic kit attached to my harness, with a compliment of drips included, full first line ammo with two machine gun belts, 4 water bottles and a few grenades and smoke bombs. You can imagine, the landing was inelegant.

Jeez Louise!! It's all I can do to lower my equipment and keep my weapon from breaking my ribs before I land. I have taken the occasional pic or two, but not while being shot at! This one's for you bub .











Isn't Cassinga Day on May 4th? That's my birthday !

[Guymullins]

Yes it is Hendo. I remember that from last year. In 1978 it was also Ascension Day (40 days after Easter). I dont know whether it is a holiday in the States but it used to be here.

[Guymullins]

You will see that we didnt use weapons containers. We always tried to jump with all of our equipment on us so that there is no unwrapping and messing around when you land, you can immediately get into a fire fight. One exception was the guys carrying the RPG rockets. We had never jumped with them before and luckily, someone spotted some small print on the cannisters saying "not to be air dropped" in Russian. We established that the rockets could easily get armed by a hard landing, so one of our troopers designed some polystyrene boxes to hold them and these were put into weapons containers and released to hang below the trooper in the usual manner. The RPGs worked well, much to the disgust of the Cubans. Although our full-bore rifles and MAGs are a pain to jump with, they are very nice to fight with. For instance, when we swept through a military vehicle park, we were being shot at by enemy hiding behind the wheels of the huge Russian trucks. Our 7.62 rounds simply penetrated the steel wheels and whacked the enemy behind. The 7.62 AK47 round was not capable of doing that.The FN action is a little prone to stoppages in sandy conditions, not nearly as forgiving as the AK, but with constant cleaning and care, plus setting the gas regulator to maximum, you could get it to be very reliable, albeit with quite a swift recoil.

[brothers all]

Really a great story and picture. Sounds like you Paratroopers gave them what for.

[old grunt]

Thanks Mike ! We sometimes forget that you guys had a full-blown communist-backed insurgency on your hands in those days! Amazing stuff. Look forward to more posts. As a 16 and 17 year old I followed the actions of the SADF and the Rhodesian Army through SOF magazine,the only guys reporting on that stuff stateside.

[Feetasshead]

Great pics and even greater story Guy. You were laying the smack down while I was watching Scooby Doo and sitting in daycare. Badass!
As for your movie, some rear echelon shitbirt is telling his wife and family it was him filming it. Douche bags are everywhere.

Keep em coming!

[zuluzerosix]

Awsome....Even better that the Cubans should have stayed out of Africa. They got their asses handed to them.

[Guymullins]

Yea, we kicked the Cubans asses together with some Russians as well. I "liberated" a nice pair of Russian binoculars, a watch (which I hoped was Russian), a Russian Fur hat with Communist Star badge and a Cuban fatigue hat.On closer inspection, the watch, which the Russian I shot was wearing, was a bloody Timex, which was a bit of a disappointment. I think one of the main reasons we kicked ass so thoroughly was that we were 250 km behind enemy lines. This really gives you no choice, but to win. Walking home was not a realistic option. Good fire control is also very important in a box-drop situation and the FN has the added advantage of being completely unmanageable on full-auto, so we never used it that way. This not only avoids blue on blue but conserves ammo as you only pull the trigger on what you can see and what you know you can kill. I only used 3 magazines during the whole days battle.