Operation Nobilis was a special forces and naval operation in 1984 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. Its objective was the destruction of three Angolan OSA missile boats in Luanda harbour with alternative targets of other Angolan naval or commercial transport vessels in the military harbour.
Operation Nobilis | |
---|---|
Part of the South African Border War | |
Location | Angola |
Objective | Destruction of three Angolan OSA missile boats or alternative ships. |
Date | 15 July – 7 August 1984 |
From 1982 until 1983, six Osa II were transferred from the Soviet Navy to the Angolan Navy. Though the South African Navy Minister-class strike craft could outmatch these Angolan vessels, it was their missile systems and in particular their radar systems that could end the dominance the South African Navy (SAN) had in Angolan waters. [1] : Ch10 These Angolan vessels were now being deployed not only in Luanda but other coastal ports such as Soyo, Lobito and Moçâmedes. [1] : Cp10
On 10 July, the SADF orders where issued to destroy three Osa II missile boats by the end of July. [1] : Cp10 If these could not be attacked, then military cargo vessels should be attacked as long as they were not flying Soviet flags. [1] : Cp10 UNITA would be asked to claim responsibility and hence the mines would be placed close to the surface so as to give the impression of divers not being used. [1] : Cp10
4 Reconnaissance Regiment would supply the attack team and the medical team came from 7 Medical Battalion Group. [1] : Cp10 The navy would supply the SAS Oswald Pirow and SAS Jim Fouche strike craft to deliver the special forces team to the submarine SAS Johanna van der Merwe, before retreating back to the Cunene River, retrieving them at the end of the mission, with the SAS Protea in support off Luderitz. [1] : Cp10 The attack dates were from 28 to 31 July.
Five 5 kg Torpex mines would be carried with a sixth dummy mine used to implicate UNITA. [1] : Cp10 The mission would not use the entrance of the bay but the team would be boated close to land, leave the water and cross a peninsula, re-enter the water in the bay and resume swimming to the vessels to that were to be mined. [1] : Cp10
After loading the zodiac boats and the mission cargo on board the submarine SAS Johanna van der Merwe the previous evening, the submarine sailed from Simon's Town naval base at 11h00 on 16 July and headed north up South Africa's west coast. [1] : Cp10 On the evening of 22 July, the strike craft SAS Oswald Pirow and SAS Jim Fouche arrived at Saldanha Bay. [1] : Cp10 At 09h00 23 July, having boarded the special forces team and the medical team, the two craft would leave heading northwards. [1] : Cp10 The three vessels would rendezvous on the early evening of 26 July with the special forces team transferring to the SAN submarine and removal of some of its personnel to make space. [1] : Cp10
On the night of the 27 July, the SAN submarine arrived off the Luanda. Late that evening, two zodiac boat was launched and headed to the peninsula that creates the bay in Luanda for a preliminary reconnaissance prior to the attack mission. [1] : Cp10 Two divers were then launched and they swam to the shoreline close to the Panorama Hotel. [1] : Cp10 The vehicle and pedestrian traffic was enough to prevent them leaving the water and by 03h10 the team was back aboard the submarine. [1] : Cp10 During the briefing that followed the reconnaissance, the probability of using the bay entrance instead was discussed with another reconnaissance and possible mission planned for the following night. [1] : Cp10 But on the night of 28 July, the mission was scrapped due to equipment engine issues and postponed until the next night. [1] : Cp10
On Sunday evening 29 July, the submarine surfaced and the three boats were launched and headed for the peninsula but the traffic was found to be too heavy to cross the road by foot to reach the harbour so the boats headed for the entrance of the bay. [1] : Cp10
The three boats approached the naval base in Luanda harbour and it was soon established that both the strong currents and patrols within the base made the targets too dangerous for a successful mission. [1] : Cp10 But between the naval base and a military quay on the opposite side of the bay, the South African attack team found two merchant vessels at anchorage awaiting a space at the military berth and so were assumed to be carrying military cargo. [1] : Cp10
With the three boats and crews remaining tied to a wreck in the bay, six divers then swam for the wreck with their mines. [1] : Cp10 On the swim to the ships, one mine was lost due to a faulty flotation device. [1] : Cp10 The five remaining mines were attached and after all divers re-joined, swam back to the wreck. Their boats were forced to move around the wreck after a patrol boat illuminated the wreck. [1] : Cp10 The boats and teams were recovered from 03h14 after the submarine had found them as they had drifted 1500 metres north from their rendezvous point due to strong currents. [1] : Cp10
Pick-up was rapid as radar contacts by a possible patrol boat had been made and the submarine would be followed before the contact was broken. [1] : Cp10 Explosions were seen at 04h50 30 July followed by radio interceptions of Luanda's Port Authority of mayday calls being received from the two ships. [1] : Cp10 By 21h00 on 1 August, the SAN submarine had rendezvoused with the two SAN strike craft and the attack team were transferred to the vessels. [1] : Cp10 The two SAN would arrive back at Saldanha Bay on 3 August while the submarine would arrive back, after making repairs, on 7 August. [1] : Cp10
UNITA would later claim responsibility when they released a communique out of Lisbon, Portugal on 2 August 1984 stating they had sunk a Soviet and Cuban ship, destroying war material. [1] : Cp10 The Angolan news agency ANGOP announced an Angolan and East German ship had been damaged by saboteurs with American mines, a statement the Americans quickly denied. [1] : Cp10 The Angolans and Russians had studied the dummy mine and their investigations concluded it was too unsophisticated to have been the type that had caused the destruction and that the operation was the work of the South African special forces though the use of a submarine was not suspected. [1] : Cp10 Anti-diving countermeasures would be introduced in the harbour as well as increased naval patrols.
The two ships that had been attacked were, the MV Arendsee a 7,500 ton East German cargo vessel and the MV Lundoge a 9,000 ton Angolan vessel. [1] : Cp10 Arendsee, carrying heavy vehicles, artillery and industrial cargo, was sunk by two explosions and resting on the bottom stern up would be towed to a sandbar four hours later. [1] : Cp10 . [2] A dummy mine would later be removed from her, her cargo removed and as she was unable to be repaired, towed out to sea and sunk on 30 August. [1] : Cp10 The Lundoge, carrying military equipment and foodstuff, was hit by two explosions, was sailed by its crew to a nearby quay before settling. With most of her cargo destroyed she was patched up and sailed to Rio de Janeiro where she was repaired and re-entered service until 1995. [1] : Cp10
The Type A Ko-hyoteki class was a class of Japanese midget submarines (Kō-hyōteki) used during World War II. They had hull numbers but no names. For simplicity, they are most often referred to by the hull number of the mother submarine. Thus, the midget carried by I-16-class submarine was known as I-16's boat, or "I-16tou."
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, combatant diver, or combat swimmer. The word frogman first arose in the stage name the "Fearless Frogman" of Paul Boyton in the 1870s and later was claimed by John Spence, an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and member of the OSS Maritime Unit, to have been applied to him while he was training in a green waterproof suit.
The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force.
The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defense of Portugal.
Italian submarine Scirè was an Adua-class submarine, built in 1930s which served during World War II in the Regia Marina. It was named after a northern region of Ethiopia, at the time part of Italian East Africa.
The Russian commando frogmen, informally called "commando frogmen" in civilian media, are a Russian Naval Spetsnaz unit under operational subordination to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). It is the special forces unit of the Russian Naval Infantry and is composed of highly trained and elite marines within the Naval Infantry. By virtue of belonging to the Russian Naval Infantry, frogmen fall under the Coastal Troops of the Russian Navy service arm. The Russian Navy proper does not field any special forces or special operations units. Russian FSB special forces Alpha Group and Vympel also have frogman units in their respective naval components.
Operation Paraquet was the code name for the British military operation to recapture the island of South Georgia from Argentine military control in April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War.
From 31 May to 8 June 1942, during World War II, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle. On the night of 31 May – 1 June, three Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines, each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour, avoided the partially constructed Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net, and attempted to sink Allied warships. Two of the midget submarines were detected and attacked before they could engage any Allied vessels. The crew of M-14 scuttled their submarine, whilst M-21 was successfully attacked and sunk. The crew of M-21 killed themselves. These submarines were later recovered by the Allies. The third submarine attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser USS Chicago, but instead sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. This midget submarine's fate was unknown until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off Sydney's northern beaches.
Operation Daisy was a military operation conducted from November 1–20, 1981 by the South African Defence Force and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) in Angola during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War. This conflict was sparked when the South African Defence Force decided to try to halt the regroup of the active military branch of SWAPO, also known as the People's Liberation Army of Namibia.
I-30 was a Type B1 submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. After operating in the Indian Ocean she participated in a Yanagi mission, aimed at connecting Japan and Nazi Germany by submarine. She was the first Japanese submarine to reach Europe, arriving at Lorient, France in August 1942. I-30 returned to Singapore loaded with military technology and information, but hit a mine outside the harbour and sank. Only part of her cargo was salvaged.
German submarine U-735 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.
I-124, originally named Submarine Minelayer No. 52 and then named I-24 from before her launch until June 1938, was an I-121-class submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy that served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. During the latter conflict, she operated in support of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and was sunk during anti-shipping operations off Australia in January 1942.
South Africa currently does not have a marine corps, though in the past it did. It was originally set up as a sub-branch of the South African Navy during the apartheid era, with the primary purpose of protecting the country's harbours (1951-1955). Then it was recreated in 1979 during the South African Border War as 1 Marine Brigade with the aim of serving as marine infantry (1979-1990). Today, the SAN Maritime Reaction Squadron is the closest analogue to a marine corps South Africa has.
The Raid on Souda Bay was an assault by Italian Royal Navy explosive boats on Souda Bay, Crete, during the first hours of 26 March 1941. The motor boats were launched by the destroyers Francesco Crispi and Quintino Sella on the approaches to the bay. After negotiating the boom defences, the small craft attacked the Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS York and the Norwegian tanker Pericles. The Allied vessels were both sunk in shallow waters by the explosive charges and eventually lost.
Operation Kerslig was a South African Defence Force special forces raid on an oil refinery outside Luanda, Angola. The raid took place on 30 November 1981 by members of the 1 and 4 Reconnaissance Regiments.
SAS Outeniqua was a sealift and replenishment ship operated by the South African Navy between 1993 and 2004. During her operational career she conducted several "flag-showing" cruises to African ports and provided support for South Africa's Antarctic research program. Outeniqua was also the venue for unsuccessful peace talks between Zaire's President Mobuto Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent Kabila in May 1997.
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Wikipedia's articles on recreational dive sites. The level of coverage may vary:
M24 Japanese Midget Submarine wreck site is a heritage-listed former midget submarine and now archaeological site located in unincorporated waters off Sydney's Northern Beaches in New South Wales, Australia. The Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarine was designed by the Imperial Japanese Navy and built from 1941 to 1942 by Kure Naval Yard or Ourazaki Naval Yard. The site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 7 December 2007.
Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.
Operation Lark was two special forces naval operations in 1978 conducted by members of the South African Navy (SADF), 4 Reconnaissance Regiment and Rhodesian SAS during the South African Border War. Its objective was the assassination of Robert Mugabe at his residence in Maputo, Mozambique.