Elementos cedidos por um colaborador
do portal UTW
Foto cedida pelo veterano J. C. Abreu
dos Santos
John
P. Cann
John P. Cann, oficial-aviador da Marinha
norte-Americana na reserva, fez parte do gabinete do
Secretário Auxiliar da Defesa para Operações Especiais e
Conflitos de Baixa Intensidade e, depois, do gabinete do
Subsecretário de Estado da Defesa.
Doutorado em Estudos de Guerra pelo King's College, da
Universidade de Londres, tem publicado artigos sobre o
tema da contra-insurreição. Prestou também serviço no
Pentágono e no comando Ibérico da Nato, em Oeiras.
O livro:
"The Flechas"
(Insurgent Hunting in Eastern Angola,
1965 - 1974)
"The Flechas: Insurgent Hunting in
Eastern Angola, 1965-1974"
author: John P. Cann
publisher: Africa@War Volume11 (paperback sold by
Amazon)
1st ed. Oct2013
72 pages (with maps and photos)
In 1961, Portugal found itself fighting a war to retain
its colonial possessions and preserve the remnants of
its empire. It was almost completely unprepared to do so,
and this was particularly evident in its ability to
project power and to control the vast colonial spaces in
Africa.
Following the uprisings of March of 1961 in the north of
Angola, Portugal poured troops into the colony as fast
as its creaking logistic system would allow; however,
these new arrivals were not competent and did not
possess the skills needed to fight a counterinsurgency.
While
counterinsurgency by its nature requires substantial
numbers of light infantry, the force must be trained in
the craft of fighting a 'small war' to be effective.
The majority of the arriving troops had no such
indoctrination and had been readied at an accelerated
pace. Even their uniforms were hastily crafted and not
ideally suited to fighting in the bush.
In reoccupying the north and addressing
the enemy threat, Portugal quickly realized that its
most effective forces were those with special
qualifications and advanced training. Unfortunately,
there were only very small numbers of such elite forces.
The maturing experiences of Portuguese
and their consequent adjustments to fight a
counterinsurgency led to development of specialized,
tailored units to close the gaps in skills and knowledge
between the insurgents and their forces.
The most remarkable such force was the
Flechas, indigenous Bushmen who lived in eastern Angola
with the capacity to live and fight in its difficult
terrain aptly named 'Lands at the End of the Earth'.
Founded in 1966, they were active until the end of the
war in 1974, and were so successful in their methods
that the Flecha template was copied in the other
theaters of Guinea and Mozambique and later in the South
African Border War.
The Flechas were a force unique to the conflicts of
southern Africa. A Flecha could smell the enemy and his
weapons and read the bush in ways that no others could
do. He would sleep with one ear to the ground and the
other to the atmosphere and would be awakened by an
enemy walking a mile away. He could conceal himself in a
minimum of cover and find food and water in impossible
places.
In short, he was vastly superior to the enemy in the
environment of eastern Angola, and at the height of the
campaign there (1966-1974) this small force accounted
for 60 per cent of all enemy kills.
This book is the story of how they came to be formed and
organized, their initial teething difficulties, and
their unqualified successes.
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Para visualização do
conteúdo clique no sublinhado que se segue:
Os
Flechas uma das melhores forças antiguerrilha ao serviço
de Portugal
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Armas capturadas:
Governador-Geral
Rebocho Vaz
Flechas na Zona
Militar do Leste (ZML)
