Ruiz

Ruiz, a Portuguese pilot, flies the only plane the MPLA has in Luanda: an aging DC-3 on which isolated garrisons depend for ammunition, food, and the evacuation of serious casualties. In a country where transport and communication are scarce, his flights make him a crucial link between scattered fronts and the capital, while the aircraft’s condition and uncertain landing sites leave that connection precarious.

Identity and Position

The DC-3 was built in 1943 and is in poor condition: its wings are patched, its tires bald, and its fuselage riddled with holes. Ruiz alone knows how to close its difficult door. The plane is not a reserve resource but the MPLA’s sole aircraft in Luanda, and it is used day and night. Its age and wear make each journey dependent not only on Ruiz’s flying but also on the machine continuing to function.

The scale of the territory sharpens the importance of this role. On the southern front, Comandante Farrusco’s 120-person unit is the only unit across a region described as one-third the size of Poland. The road to Lubango is its sole route through the surrounding bush, while inadequate transport makes retreat on foot or moving the whole unit by vehicle impracticable. Ruiz’s flights serve another kind of corridor: one that can reach fronts separated by distance and disrupted land routes, but whose capacity rests on a single aging plane.

Flights and Supply Work

Ruiz flies to Brazzaville to collect ammunition, then carries cartridge boxes and sacks of flour to a besieged city in the Angolan borderlands. He brings serious casualties back to Luanda. These journeys serve both sides of the supply chain: the forward delivery of materials needed to hold positions and the return of people who cannot be treated at the front. The account makes the stakes explicit: without his timely arrival, cities may have to surrender and the wounded may die.

The people waiting for him include soldiers in Luso, the garrison at Novo Redondo, and the cut-off defenders of Quibala. Luanda, too, depends on the flights for ammunition. Ruiz takes off at dawn, makes several trips in a day, and returns around midnight; the best chance of finding him is at the airport early in the morning, inspecting the motors. His working day is thus measured by departures, deliveries, and the condition of the engines rather than by a fixed route or schedule.

Risk and Unreliable Communication

Ruiz flies around Angola by memory because there are no air controllers, and it is uncertain whether the plane’s radio works. Even the destination can be unclear: the airport he is meant to reach may have been held by one side the day before and taken by the enemy since. He first flies over the airfield rather than committing to a landing. If he recognizes people he knows, he descends; if the plane is fired upon, he turns back and carries the news to Luanda.

The procedure turns recognition into a practical test of control. A familiar silhouette can make a landing possible, while hostile fire ends the attempt; neither the airport nor the route can be treated as secure. When a burned-out convoy is found beside the road, Diogenes describes the surrounding country as a place where leaving the road risks thirst and remaining on it risks ambush. Ruiz’s air service does not remove such isolation, but it offers a narrow and uncertain means of crossing it.

Maintenance and Final Mission

The plane’s mechanical condition is an operational danger in its own right. A problem with either motor could ground it and alter the course of the war, yet there are no spare parts and no mechanics. The aircraft is needed constantly, leaving little margin between routine wear and the interruption of the supply flights on which the fronts depend.

Ruiz’s last described assignment takes him to Porto Amboim with a group of sappers and crates of dynamite. Their objective is to destroy every bridge on the Cuvo River and cut the road between Benguela and Luanda. The account leaves the mission conditional—if they make it—rather than reporting its outcome. The episode extends Ruiz’s role beyond carrying supplies: the same pilot and aircraft that sustain connections across the front are now tasked with severing a key land route.