This book is a follow-up to the successful Bush War, which provided, for the first time, personal, first-hand accounts of the military conflict and civil war in Angola, as told by Soviet advisers to the Angolan army. This volume concentrates on the climax of this conflict, the months-long battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987/8, the largest military engagement on African soil since the Second World War. Here South African forces came to blows with Angolan FAPLA troops and their Cuban allies in a battle whose outcome is still hotly debated.

The Soviet soldiers' experience of the war and their views and assessment of their South African enemies as well as their Cuban and Angolan allies will surprise and fascinate South African readers. At the same time they offer new insights into the conflict.