As the Angolan Civil War broke out, Cuban intervention in Angola was a large-scale intervention to support the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Cuba had provided military support to MPLA since the early 1960s, while they combatted Portuguese forces and in 1963 provided military training to guerrillas in Algeria during the Sand War. In late-1974, Cuba sent Major Alfonso Perez Morales and Carlos Cadelo to assess the situation in Angola after receiving requests for military aid. As the South African Border War intensified and more foreign actors entered into the Angolan Civil War, Cuba grew more involved. On 3 August 1975, a second Cuban mission arrived and provided US$100,000 to the MPLA. By 15 August 1975, Castro had demanded that the USSR provide more assistance to the MPLA, though the demand was declined. Cuban troops began to depart for Angola on 21 August 1975; important personnel utilized commercial aircraft while standard troops were transported by cargo ships. On 4 November 1975, Castro launched "Operation Carlota," with Cuban special forces arriving in Angola shortly after on 9 November. In the Battle of Quifangondo (10 November 1975), the MPLA, supported by Cuban troops, defeated the apartheid army. On 25 November 1975, as the South African Defence Force (SADF) tried to cross a bridge, Cubans hidden along the banks of the river attacked, destroying seven armored cars and killing upwards of 90 enemy soldiers. By the end of 1975, over 25,000 Cuban troops were deployed into Angola to assist the MPLA. In February 1976, Cuban forces launched Operation "Pañuelo Blanco" (White Handkerchief) against an estimated 700 FLEC insurgents. This operation succeeded in annihilating the FLEC force. The Cuban troops came to have in the first campaign of 1975–1976 some 400 tanks, and in the final campaign of 1988, near 1,000 tanks.