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Battle of Quifangondo
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Battle of Quifangondo
The Battle of Quifangondo (popularly known as Nshila wa Lufu, or Battle of Death Road in Kikongo) was fought on 10 November 1975, near the strategic settlement of Quifangondo, Luanda Province, between the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Liberation Army of Angola (ELNA), armed wing of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The engagement marked the first major deployment of rocket artillery in the Angolan Civil War, as well as the last serious attempt by ELNA forces to seize Luanda, the Angolan capital. It occurred on the last day of Portuguese colonial rule in the country, which formally received independence only hours later.
After defeating a FAPLA garrison at the nearby town of Caxito, an army of ELNA militants led personally by Holden Roberto began advancing southwards towards Luanda. Roberto's forces included a composite battery of three BL 5.5-inch Medium Guns and two 130 mm Type 59 field guns manned by Zairean and South African artillery crews. Their objective was to dislodge FAPLA from the vital waterworks at Quifangondo and an adjoining bridge which spanned the Bengo River. Air cover for the ELNA offensive was provided by a squadron of South African English Electric Canberra bombers. The defenders consisted of FAPLA's 9th Brigade and just under a hundred Cuban military advisers, bolstered by a composite battery of ZiS-3 anti-tank guns and Grad rocket launchers.
Following a poorly coordinated artillery bombardment and an ineffectual South African air strike, ELNA and Zairean infantry attacked the bridge early on the morning on 10 November, but became trapped in the open while crossing an elevated roadway and shelled by the defenders' rockets. The ELNA advance stalled, and the attackers were unable to regain their initiative. Roberto committed his reserves, but by noon his entire force had been routed with heavy casualties and nearly all their vehicles destroyed. The ELNA forces broke into a disorderly retreat and could only be re-mustered the following day. Realising the battle was lost, the South African and Zairean artillery crews withdrew to the nearby port of Ambriz and were later evacuated by their respective governments.
While the battle was taking place, Portugal renounced its claims to Angolan sovereignty and withdrew the remainder of its colonial administrative and military personnel from Luanda. On the morning of 11 November, the MPLA proclaimed the People's Republic of Angola, which was immediately recognised by Cuba, the Soviet Union, Brazil, and several sympathetic African states. ELNA had suffered such a catastrophic defeat at Quifangondo that Roberto was unable to launch another major offensive; over the next two months his forces were gradually scattered and destroyed by FAPLA and its Cuban allies.
Since the late fifteenth century, Portugal had administered Angola as part of an African empire which included Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (modern Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau). Following the loss of Brazil and the erosion of its influence in the Americas during the early nineteenth century, Portugal increasingly refocused on the consolidation of its African colonies. As the largest, most developed, and most heavily populated colony in the Portuguese Empire, Angola came to replace Brazil as Lisbon's most valuable overseas possession. Angolan nationalists, led by the nascent Angolan Communist Party, periodically challenged colonial rule, to little avail. The trend towards global decolonisation during the late 1940s and 1950s delivered an unprecedented boost to nationalist confidence and ambitions, and in January 1961 the Angolan War of Independence broke out when radicalised peasants launched the Baixa de Cassanje revolt.
Between 1961 and 1964, three major nationalist movements rose to prominence in the fighting between the Portuguese security forces and local anti-colonial militants supported to varying degrees by the Soviet Union, China, and several newly independent African states. The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) was led by Holden Roberto and recruited mostly from the Bakongo population of northern Angola and the Cabinda exclave, an area traditionally dominated by the Kingdom of Kongo. In the central highlands and southern Angola, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was formed by Jonas Savimbi and drew its recruits from Ovimbundu farm labourers and peasants. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), was formed by the Angolan Communist Party and targeted the embryonic upper working class of public sector workers in Luanda. Most of its senior leaders, namely Agostinho Neto, were professionals and intellectuals educated in European universities. It was in this educated elite that the combination of anti-colonial resentment and exposure to international political theory came to be most articulated; for example, the MPLA invested heavily in lobbying campaigns overseas which won it support and recognition among political leaders in Africa and the Middle East. Its use of Marxist political language and open criticism of the United States in particular proved effective at winning support with the Soviet Union and leftist governments elsewhere.
All three movements quickly formed militant wings to coordinate their insurgent campaigns against the Portuguese: the FNLA formed the National Liberation Army of Angola (ELNA), UNITA formed the Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FALA), and the MPLA formed the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). The creation of three separate insurgent armies provoked internecine strife which doomed any attempt to present a united front against the Portuguese and limited their effectiveness on the battlefield. Until the formation of the militant wings, disputes between the movements had been largely confined to political theory. However, beginning in late 1961 there were a number of clashes between ELNA and FAPLA that became central to the rivalry between the FNLA and MPLA, and evolved into outright hostility. It was not uncommon for ELNA to intercept and kill FAPLA personnel who strayed into its area of operations. Hamstrung by violent divisions, the insurgents aggravated the colonial administration but did not threaten its control of the territory.
In late April 1974, Portugal's authoritarian Estado Novo government was toppled by the Carnation Revolution, which sounded the death knell for that country's pretensions as a colonial empire. Angolan nationalists perceived the political upheaval in Lisbon as an opportunity to upend the colonial order; the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA rejected ceasefire requests and demanded the Portuguese affirm an unconditional right to independence. General António de Spínola, head of the Portuguese provisional government, was initially in favour of retaining the colonies as semi-autonomous federal subjects, but found little support for this measure in the progressive atmosphere which dominated after the revolution. On 27 July 1974, he announced that the colonies were to be granted independence, unconditionally.
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Battle of Quifangondo
The Battle of Quifangondo (popularly known as Nshila wa Lufu, or Battle of Death Road in Kikongo) was fought on 10 November 1975, near the strategic settlement of Quifangondo, Luanda Province, between the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Liberation Army of Angola (ELNA), armed wing of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The engagement marked the first major deployment of rocket artillery in the Angolan Civil War, as well as the last serious attempt by ELNA forces to seize Luanda, the Angolan capital. It occurred on the last day of Portuguese colonial rule in the country, which formally received independence only hours later.
After defeating a FAPLA garrison at the nearby town of Caxito, an army of ELNA militants led personally by Holden Roberto began advancing southwards towards Luanda. Roberto's forces included a composite battery of three BL 5.5-inch Medium Guns and two 130 mm Type 59 field guns manned by Zairean and South African artillery crews. Their objective was to dislodge FAPLA from the vital waterworks at Quifangondo and an adjoining bridge which spanned the Bengo River. Air cover for the ELNA offensive was provided by a squadron of South African English Electric Canberra bombers. The defenders consisted of FAPLA's 9th Brigade and just under a hundred Cuban military advisers, bolstered by a composite battery of ZiS-3 anti-tank guns and Grad rocket launchers.
Following a poorly coordinated artillery bombardment and an ineffectual South African air strike, ELNA and Zairean infantry attacked the bridge early on the morning on 10 November, but became trapped in the open while crossing an elevated roadway and shelled by the defenders' rockets. The ELNA advance stalled, and the attackers were unable to regain their initiative. Roberto committed his reserves, but by noon his entire force had been routed with heavy casualties and nearly all their vehicles destroyed. The ELNA forces broke into a disorderly retreat and could only be re-mustered the following day. Realising the battle was lost, the South African and Zairean artillery crews withdrew to the nearby port of Ambriz and were later evacuated by their respective governments.
While the battle was taking place, Portugal renounced its claims to Angolan sovereignty and withdrew the remainder of its colonial administrative and military personnel from Luanda. On the morning of 11 November, the MPLA proclaimed the People's Republic of Angola, which was immediately recognised by Cuba, the Soviet Union, Brazil, and several sympathetic African states. ELNA had suffered such a catastrophic defeat at Quifangondo that Roberto was unable to launch another major offensive; over the next two months his forces were gradually scattered and destroyed by FAPLA and its Cuban allies.
Since the late fifteenth century, Portugal had administered Angola as part of an African empire which included Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (modern Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau). Following the loss of Brazil and the erosion of its influence in the Americas during the early nineteenth century, Portugal increasingly refocused on the consolidation of its African colonies. As the largest, most developed, and most heavily populated colony in the Portuguese Empire, Angola came to replace Brazil as Lisbon's most valuable overseas possession. Angolan nationalists, led by the nascent Angolan Communist Party, periodically challenged colonial rule, to little avail. The trend towards global decolonisation during the late 1940s and 1950s delivered an unprecedented boost to nationalist confidence and ambitions, and in January 1961 the Angolan War of Independence broke out when radicalised peasants launched the Baixa de Cassanje revolt.
Between 1961 and 1964, three major nationalist movements rose to prominence in the fighting between the Portuguese security forces and local anti-colonial militants supported to varying degrees by the Soviet Union, China, and several newly independent African states. The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) was led by Holden Roberto and recruited mostly from the Bakongo population of northern Angola and the Cabinda exclave, an area traditionally dominated by the Kingdom of Kongo. In the central highlands and southern Angola, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was formed by Jonas Savimbi and drew its recruits from Ovimbundu farm labourers and peasants. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), was formed by the Angolan Communist Party and targeted the embryonic upper working class of public sector workers in Luanda. Most of its senior leaders, namely Agostinho Neto, were professionals and intellectuals educated in European universities. It was in this educated elite that the combination of anti-colonial resentment and exposure to international political theory came to be most articulated; for example, the MPLA invested heavily in lobbying campaigns overseas which won it support and recognition among political leaders in Africa and the Middle East. Its use of Marxist political language and open criticism of the United States in particular proved effective at winning support with the Soviet Union and leftist governments elsewhere.
All three movements quickly formed militant wings to coordinate their insurgent campaigns against the Portuguese: the FNLA formed the National Liberation Army of Angola (ELNA), UNITA formed the Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FALA), and the MPLA formed the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). The creation of three separate insurgent armies provoked internecine strife which doomed any attempt to present a united front against the Portuguese and limited their effectiveness on the battlefield. Until the formation of the militant wings, disputes between the movements had been largely confined to political theory. However, beginning in late 1961 there were a number of clashes between ELNA and FAPLA that became central to the rivalry between the FNLA and MPLA, and evolved into outright hostility. It was not uncommon for ELNA to intercept and kill FAPLA personnel who strayed into its area of operations. Hamstrung by violent divisions, the insurgents aggravated the colonial administration but did not threaten its control of the territory.
In late April 1974, Portugal's authoritarian Estado Novo government was toppled by the Carnation Revolution, which sounded the death knell for that country's pretensions as a colonial empire. Angolan nationalists perceived the political upheaval in Lisbon as an opportunity to upend the colonial order; the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA rejected ceasefire requests and demanded the Portuguese affirm an unconditional right to independence. General António de Spínola, head of the Portuguese provisional government, was initially in favour of retaining the colonies as semi-autonomous federal subjects, but found little support for this measure in the progressive atmosphere which dominated after the revolution. On 27 July 1974, he announced that the colonies were to be granted independence, unconditionally.
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