Operation Smokeshell was the first time that SADF deployed the Bike Squad operationally as forward scouts and tracking units to lead the armoured convoy through the bush. As we were fast and mobile on adapted Honda XR500s we could review the terrain and lead the convoy as well as eyeball the enemy positions at speed and get out of trouble fast.
We (Bike Squad) took no losses at all in Operation Smokeshell.
I distinctly remember sitting on a hill overlooking Luanda with the B25 radio bolted to the bike antenna high in the trees tuned to the BBC while Pik Botha SA foreign affairs minister ensured the world that we were not in Angola… as the bombs fell on the city.