the petrangol refinery was built in 1958 and supplied angola with petrol, diesel, and jet fuel and managed by belgium company petrofina sa . the refinery was to be attacked around 1am on 30 november with the intention to damage or destroy the distillation towers, fuel tanks and pipelines within the refinery complex. members of 1 reconnaissance regiment (1rr) would conduct the initial surveillance of the refinery and the actual attack while 4 reconnaissance regiment (4rr) would man the special forces barracuda boats and supply the divers with transport to and from the angolan capital of luanda supplied by the south african navy strike-craft. the mission was to be covert and blame laid on unita as being responsible and not the south african defence force. on 16 november, 1 rr was given training by 4 rr to refresh their knowledge with the boats and by 18 november with the two south african navy strike-craft. by 20 november the two strike-craft, sas "oswald pirow" and sas "jim fouche", left saldanha bay with the 4rr boat crews and a two-man 1rr reconnaissance team and arrived for refuelling on 22 november at walvis bay before heading northwards to angola. the survey vessel would arrive on 24 november at walvis bay from simon's town and picked up the members of 1 rr attack teams before heading northwards as well.