The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought between South African/UNITA and Cuban/FAPLA troops in Angola over a seven month period from August 1987 to March 1988. This was a wide-ranging battle fought over nine-thousand square miles of southern Angola, making it the second largest battle on the African continent after El Alamein. First published in 2013 and now reproduced as a paperback by Casemate, Peter Polack’s The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War tells the gripping story of an intense battle in a crucial phase of the Angolan Civil War. Polack outlines the background of the conflict, which erupted from Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The main parties that fought for control were the communist backed MPLA, the US backed UNITA, Cuba, and South Africa. The civil war culminated in the two-part Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The MPLA’s armed wing was FAPLA, originally led by Soviet advisors who planned the ill-fated attack across the Lomba river. That led to a disastrous retreat.. Read more
Neil Smith
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought between South African/UNITA and Cuban/FAPLA troops in Angola over a seven month period from August 1987 to March 1988. This was a wide-ranging battle fought over nine-thousand square miles of southern Angola, making it the second largest battle on the African continent after El Alamein. First published in 2013 and now reproduced as a paperback by Casemate, Peter Polack’s The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War tells the gripping story of an intense battle in a crucial phase of the Angolan Civil War. Polack outlines the background of the conflict, which erupted from Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The main parties that fought for control were the communist backed MPLA, the US backed UNITA, Cuba, and South Africa. The civil war culminated in the two-part Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The MPLA’s armed wing was FAPLA, originally led by Soviet advisors who planned the ill-fated attack across the Lomba river. That led to a disastrous retreat.. Read more
Neil Smith
