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The war in Angola had taken a definitive turn against the MPLA. Now advised by American special forces and armed with more planes and guns, the Angolan Army was growing more powerful-- and one of MPLA’s chief backers, namely the People’s Republic of China, collapsed into internal strife and their support consequently waned drastically. Soviet weapons and planes contested the sky, but the degradation of MPLA forces on the ground began to reach such an advanced state that the war was becoming a foregone conclusion.

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Chianda Pocket

In spring of 1974 the Angolan Army completed its wide flanking maneuver around the MPLA, arriving in Kinjama. The depleted MPLA 7th Brigade advanced to stop them, checking the AA advance to the west of Kinjama. The 1st Independent Regiment withdrew, leading to the 7th Brigade advancing into Kinjama and digging in.

The 1st IR relieved the Uige Brigade, at present resisting the advance of several battalion-strength formations of militia in the east. Uige Brigade then advanced on Kinjama, striking the 7th Brigade and engaging in a lengthy battle that resulted in the 7th, already depleted, falling back. This was catastrophic, as it drove them back onto the last route out of Chianda.

A subsequent Battle of Lucusse resulted in the badly-damaged and now demoralized 7th Brigade breaking and routing, reconstituting at regimental strength to the north, covering the rear of the 2nd “Brigade.”

MPLA commanders, now surrounded, organized a breakout operation independently of direction from Saurimo, with which they no longer had any communication given the ongoing siege of the latter. They fought effectively back-to-back, with one brigade fending off the Angolan Army contingent in the south and the other driving over the Lungwebungu River in the north. Combined with a counterattack by the remnant 7th “Brigade”, the two brigades managed to escape encirclement. They began a long march through the brush towards Lumeje, intent upon redeployment to other desperate combat zones.

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Lucusse Breakout

The entire southern army of the Democratic Republic of Angola was now free to advance through Lucusse in pursuit of the retreating MPLA formations. The three mechanized units, sitting atop supplies stockpiled during the siege of Chianda, exploded through the gap moving east. Infantry followed them, breaking both east and west and engaging the 7th “Brigade”, driving it back through their superior numbers.

In the east the militia scrambled back over the Zambezi, left to look across the water at the pursuing Angolan Army. Stymied at the great river, the Angolan Army turned back west and smashed the remnants of 7th “Brigade”, compelling the long retreat of the 2nd “Brigade” to the east to rejoin the 5th and 6th MPLA Brigades.

The resultant redistribution of MPLA and DRA forces changed the battlespace fairly comprehensively. Multiple DRA brigades now joined the massed force preparing near Saurimo, bringing the full strength of the offending force to three brigades, one regiment, and one mechanized regiment. Munhango Force had a brigade of reinforcement and prepared for a long operation against Luacano to bisect the territory held by the MPLA. A full brigade joined CU Orange in a supporting attack on Luacano, advancing on a parallel path to the north.

For their part, the MPLA had three brigades freed up and distributed them to build a new southern defensive line roughly following the river Kasai. Luacano became the base for the depleted 5th Brigade, 6th was left to fortify the small chokepoint at Cassai-Gare, and the 2nd “Brigade” was sent on a long march to Cazombo, to anchor what was intended to be a defensive line along the Luacano-Cazombo line. The collapse of the south favored them insofar as it allowed them to establish a newer, more realistic defensive line.

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Operation Arrowhead

Munhango Force began the drive to Luacano in fall 1973, after the reposition of DRA forces was more or less complete. The attack came with significant and close-range air support now that the Luena Airfield was secure and OV-10 wings were operating out of it. Soviet-supplied planes disrupted several missions and downed a handful of OV-10s, but the ground attack went off fairly effectively. Munhango Force kept constant pressure on the defenders of Leua as the Lumeda Brigade sent two battalions along footpaths their reconnaissance elements discovered in the hills to launch a flanking attack from the north. The Leua defense collapsed, withdrawing to the next defensive line at Lumeje.

Lumeje sat on the eastern bank of a swampy region, which gave Munhango Force a difficult time. The skirmishes happened daily as MF attempted to push through it, making it over the river but finding the assault against the town on the far side prohibitive. Once again, Lumeda Brigade embarked on a northern flank attack, wading through the swamps towards Cachala-- where MPLA awaited them. They, too, were bogged down.

The northern wing experienced much greater success. CU Orange and their support in 3rd Brigade vastly outnumbered the MPLA unit, itself only battalion strength, defending against their advance. They simply blew through the defending battalion of militia and advanced almost unopposed to their objective at Nova Chaves.

A reshuffle of MPLA forces began after the loss of Nova Chaves, bringing units north and weakening the defenses along the Zambezi. This freed the 5th Brigade for a counterattack against Nova Chaves in mid-December 1973, itself inconclusive as the DRA defense held fairly effectively, maintaining the crossroads. 6th Brigade was pulled from Cassai-Gare to march north and assist 5th Brigade in a new offensive on Nova Chaves in spring 1974.

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Siege of Saurimo

Begun late in 1972, the siege initially went poorly for the Angolan Army as they lacked the strength to drive the militia and later the 4th Brigade from the city. Efforts to penetrate the city resulted in savage street-to-street fighting, and many of the southern quarters of the city were devastated by shelling and subsequent fires. Roads were blocked, citizens firing wildly from behind the blockades.

For much of the first half of 1973 this is how things proceeded until the Lucusse Breakout. Reinforcements for the Army quickly turned the tide of the fighting. Newly-arrived brigades crossed the rivers Luachimo and Chicapa well away from the city, fanning out to the east and west of Saurimo and beginning the effort to encircle the city.

In the east the Luando Brigade reached the town of Luachimo, which bridged the river that bore its name, and cut Saurimo off from all forces to the south. In the west, the Longa Brigade reached Pimbe and achieved the same but with forces in the west. Saurimo was truly isolated but for radio communications now, and the vice began to close on it.

Augustinho Neto declared Lucapa the new capital city and moved the government there over the last land link left to it. The defenders of Saurimo struggled on throughout the rest of 1973, defended on two borders by rivers that bought them much time. Luando Brigade eventually reached the eastern outskirts of the city and found much less resistance than in the south, taking much of the eastern parts with only sporadic fighting until more organized infantry arrived to contest them, grinding their advance to a halt.

Bombings and shellings contined to wreck the city as the defenders ground out a stubborn defense. The advance of the Luando Brigade opened a land route around the city, giving CU Foxbat room to advance. Using civilian roads the mechanized unit crossed behind the Luando Brigade and advanced north, seeking to fully surround Saurimo. They encountered next to no organized resistance and reached the northward route out of the beleaguered city in November. Saurimo was now fully surrounded, a significant blow to morale.

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1974: Arrowhead Counterattacks

The MPLA began its assault to retake Nova Chaves in spring 1974, now reinforced by a second brigade. The offensive was successful, driving the Angolan Army out of the crossroads and reestablishing a land connection to Saurimo-- except for where it was severed far to the north in Luachimo. Still, it was a critical opportunity to move forces north while they could hold the route open. Discussions were had both in Lucapa and in the various commands throughout the south, with the general agreement that the MPLA needed desperately to withdraw to defensible positions and reinforce its boundaries while the route remained open.

As such, a series of counterattacks along the southern front would hopefully buy time for forces around the Zambezi to retreat north. This was not a popular order to the Zambezi militias that believed they would be defending their homes-- not towns far off to the north, where they’d be leaving their own to the mercy of the attackers. As such, these orders were broadly ignored by the Zambezi militias.

The second assault on the Nova Chaves front went well, leading to the broadening of the passage north. A mass barrage of mortars on Munhango Force drove them into cover while the 2nd Brigade retreated towards Luacano and from there over the Kasai. The defenders of Luacano, confusingly retaining their moniker from their days as a UNITA formation (which was also 2nd Brigade) fought desperately to hold the town against Munhango Force to keep a pathway open for Zambezi forces to escape-- little were they aware that the Zambezi forces had all but mutinied and were not coming. Perhaps half of the unit survived to escape over the Kasai before the river ferry was sunk and the Muhango Force left in possession of Luacano.

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Reaching the Congolese Border

While Munhango Force established order in Luacano, their supporting brigade from Lumeda continued east towards the Congolese border. They reached Luau within a month, just before June, and crossed the Kasai over a footbridge thirty kilometers east that was undefended by the MPLA, stretched as desperately thin as it was.

An effort to move towards Nova Chaves was blocked by the formerly-UNITA 2nd Brigade, the exhausted formation that had just months prior escaped Luacano. They put up a spirited defense at Muvala village, but lacked the strength to fight for long.

Constant campaigning in this theater for the best part of six months had taken its toll, truly. MPLA units were exhausted from retreats and long marches back into their own territory, and DRA units were exhausted from chasing them. The front settled in while the summer heat beat down in June and July, allowing the Angolan Army to prepare for a fall offensive and the MPLA to dig in to defend against it.

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Saurimo: Spring-Summer 1974

Things grew desperate in the city as the weather warmed up. The noose tightened around it, the bombings grew worse, and more than 60% of the city was partially or totally destroyed. People were homeless, people starved. Public opinion began to turn on the defense, and the militia’s zeal began to wane with the government retreating far north. The Angolan Army began to make easier advances. Soon all but the city center and the western parts of the city were taken, and 4th Brigade developed a plan to break out to the north and abandon the city altogether.

Relocating to the northern flank of the siege, 4th Brigade broke out in the early summer, driving through CU Foxbat with heavy casualties for both units. The last MPLA administrators and functionaries fled with them, carrying reams of documents that couldn’t be burnt and hadn’t yet been relocated to Lucapa when the siege began. The breakout led to a decent formation escaping into the northern plateaus to assist Neto in defending the last redoubt of the MPLA.

With the escape of the 4th Brigade the morale of the Saurimo militia collapsed, and Saurimo surrendered the following day to the Angolan Army. The effect on the MPLA’s morale was disastrous, and the southern units began a general retreat north towards Lucapa, leading to an extended chase by almost the entire Angolan Army.

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The Great Chase of 1974

In late summer 1974 three brigades of demoralized, undersupplied, and exhausted MPLA troops retreated north towards Muriege in an effort to make it to safety before the Army could capture that crossroads and surround them in the south.

Angolan Air Force attacks occurred on these marching columns daily, killing many dozens as they dove for cover. They couldn’t stop marching, however. Mechanized Army formations nipped at their heels, constantly engaging an ever-shrinking rearguard. 5th Brigade effectively ceased to exist upon reaching Tixige, the surviving elements being incorporated into the 6th Brigade. The 2nd Brigade (not the UNITA variant, more on them shortly) reached Muriege before the Army could, defending against attacks from the direction of Saurimo by a regimental-sized force. They held, allowing for the 6th Brigade to catch up.

6th Brigade was followed almost immediately by the mechanized components of the army, which together formed almost a brigade-strength formation that crashed into the 2nd Brigade with armored cars and mortars, followed in a handful of days by several brigades of infantry that joined in a second, devastating offensive that broke the back of the 2nd Brigade and sent them fleeing after the 6th Brigade.

To catch up on the formerly-UNITA 2nd Brigade, they were in Muvala when the retreat began and arrived to find that Nova Chaves was held by the Angolan Army. They made a last stand east of the city but were compelled to surrender by overwhelming Army forces.

The retreat left the two brigades utterly exhausted and without any heavy equipment. They carried only rifles and whatever dwindling supplies they had on hand and very little else-- their trucks had long since run out of fuel and been shot up and left on the side of the road so as to be useless to their pursuers. They had finally escaped the Air Force, now outside of the range of the OV-10s, which bought them some slight respite.

After a months-long retreat the 6th Brigade, much shrunken by desertion and constant attacks, reached the far-northern town of Maludi in the fall of 1974. The 2nd Brigade totally broke down after their retreat from Muriege, with some members joining the 6th Brigade and others throwing down their weapons and walking home. The Army detained many of those, processed them, and sent them on their way. They were tired of the war, unarmed, and had weeks of walking ahead of them-- they were not deemed a threat worthy of internment.

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The Center

Forgotten about by most sides in the whirlwind drama of the collapse of the MPLA’s south, the central force-- about the strength of two brigades-- still held the mountains west of Saurimo against roughly equal Army formations. The terrain favored them greatly, and the Army was content to pin them in place in support of the more important offensive in Saurimo. With the fall of Saurimo, however, these forces needed to be dislodged.

Longa Brigade left Saurimo and proceeded west, arriving at Macandala in the fall and dispatching messengers into the mountains. Saurimo had fallen, they informed them, and the MPLA had retreated to Lacapa well to the north. They could not reach Lacapa as many brigades of Army forces stood between them and their goal. Would they surrender?

Ambundu Brigade and Quarimo Brigade both agreed to lay down their arms, but 3rd Brigade preferred to fight it out. The Battle of Cambacanungo was short, fierce, and likely would enter into the annals of MPLA history as one of the highest moments of gallantry as the vastly-outnumbered 3rd Brigade defended its mountain pass on both ends. Even so, the unit was wiped out with a few hundred wounded survivors eventually surrendering to the Army.

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Going into 1975

The MPLA has been mostly restricted to the northern territories, criss-crossed by valleys and plateaus, finding itself in the same situation as it was in in the early 1970s-- the terrain saves them, but allows for little offensive capacity. The civil strife in China has resulted in the swift decline in outside assistance for the MPLA leading to an even more rapid collapse.

Adding to the bad news for MPLA, the Portuguese Garrison in Cabinda has cleared many of the westernmost mountain hideouts of their forces. They still hold the higher, more difficult to assault eastern ridges and the dense jungle is of critical assistance, but it seems the plan-B of the MPLA is in dire jeopardy.

The Angolan Civil War is swiftly becoming a foregone conclusion.