[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  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.

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  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  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 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 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  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 .

[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.