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South African Soldiers
Registrace 21. 05. 2021
Chatting to those who served in the South African Defence Force during the 1960's to 1990's. During this time SA fought wars in numerous theatres and patrolled the streets of SA.
We aim to capture the stories of those who served in a variety of capacities, in all arms of the SADF. Not just in combat but in all parts of the giant machine that was a country at war. The memories are fading; they need to be preserved for future generations.
To be considered for an interview, please email stevedewitt2@gmail.com
We aim to capture the stories of those who served in a variety of capacities, in all arms of the SADF. Not just in combat but in all parts of the giant machine that was a country at war. The memories are fading; they need to be preserved for future generations.
To be considered for an interview, please email stevedewitt2@gmail.com
THE BORDER WAR - PART 3 - OKANKOLO - A South Africa Army conscript chats with his Corporal
PART 3: OKANKOLO
IN THIS EPISODE:
Stationed at Okankolo, Owamboland.
Patrols, the Finger Area, 32 Bn and Koevoet operations, interrogations, humorous anecdotes.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Steve and Pierre discuss their service in the SADF army 40 years ago. Called up for 2 years to 6SAI (6th South African Infantry) in Grahamstown. Recollections of 9 months training then 15 months serving in the Border War with Alpha Company.
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TOPICS COVERED IN THIS SERIES:
- Infantry training
- Patrolling the Limpopo River (SA/Zimbabwe border)
- Active service in SWA at Okatope, Okankolo, Alpha Tower, Ondangwa
- External operations into Angola
- Contacts, landmines, patrols, life in the bush, warfare tactics, Koevoet & 32Bn, the good and the bad, humorous and tragic events
IN THIS EPISODE:
Stationed at Okankolo, Owamboland.
Patrols, the Finger Area, 32 Bn and Koevoet operations, interrogations, humorous anecdotes.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Steve and Pierre discuss their service in the SADF army 40 years ago. Called up for 2 years to 6SAI (6th South African Infantry) in Grahamstown. Recollections of 9 months training then 15 months serving in the Border War with Alpha Company.
-------------------------------------------
TOPICS COVERED IN THIS SERIES:
- Infantry training
- Patrolling the Limpopo River (SA/Zimbabwe border)
- Active service in SWA at Okatope, Okankolo, Alpha Tower, Ondangwa
- External operations into Angola
- Contacts, landmines, patrols, life in the bush, warfare tactics, Koevoet & 32Bn, the good and the bad, humorous and tragic events
zhlédnutí: 3 460
Video
THE BORDER WAR - PART 4 - ALPHA TOWER - A South Africa Army conscript chats with his Corporal
zhlédnutí 3,5KPřed 2 lety
PART 4: ALPHA TOWER IN THIS EPISODE: Stationed at Alpha Tower at Oshikango, Owamboland. Patrolling in southern Angola, contacts - ambushes and being ambushed, SWAPO's PLAN attack on Alpha Tower, activities of Koevoet and Berede Unit. SERIES DESCRIPTION Steve and Pierre discuss their service in the SADF army 40 years ago. Called up for 2 years to 6SAI (6th South African Infantry) in Grahamstown....
General Geldenhuys reflects on the South African Infantry
zhlédnutí 23KPřed 2 lety
"They were the real heroes"
THE BORDER WAR - PART 2 - OKATOPE, OPS MEEBOS -A South Africa Army conscript chats with his Corporal
zhlédnutí 9KPřed 3 lety
PART 2: OKATOPE and OPS MEEBOS IN THIS EPISODE: Oshivelo, Okatope, SADF war strategy in Owamboland, Koevoet contacts, Ops Meebos, Ondjiva, Hitting landmines, SWAPO bases, MIG jets, Base 9 HAA, Puma shot down, Ops around Okatope, Kim Kallie music concert, guarding The Bridge SERIES DESCRIPTION Steve and Pierre discuss their service in the SADF army 40 years ago. Called up for 2 years to 6SAI (6t...
THE BORDER WAR - PART 1 - TRAINING & LIMPOPO RIVER A South African conscript chats with his Corporal
zhlédnutí 4,9KPřed 3 lety
PART 1 - Steve and Pierre discuss their service in the SADF army 40 years ago. Called up for 2 years to 6SAI (6th South African Infantry) in Grahamstown. Recollections of 9 months training then 15 months serving in the Border War with Alpha Company. Topics covered in this series: - Infantry training - Patrolling the Limpopo River (SA/Zimbabwe border) - Active service in SWA at Okatope, Okankolo...
Oom , dankie. We felt we were the best in the world. Those of us who trained others, trained them just as hard, if not harder, than we got trained at Infantry skool 1981
General Geldenhuys awarded my 10 year service medal. A man among men. Much respect. Also General Kat Liebenberg, General Earp and General Constand Viljoen.
General Geldenhuys was by far the most intelligent but yet the most humble officer that South Africa ever had. I met him when he was a colonel serving in Windhoek in 1973. What a person!
Drunk pik botha roelf du plessis and fw de klerk
The new SADF has deleted all our records
South Africa fought against communism. The West embraced it....
Delarey never got the recognition nor did you seems a pattern of betrayal started when the church got involved
Good day, I am doing research on these type of infrastructures. Are you available for more information?
Unfortunitly he died in 2018 and her was my grandfather
THATS MY GRANDFATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Just finished reading "Bush Brothers", great book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the Border War and what life is like for an infantryman. Definitely one of my favourite books on the subject.
6 SAI 79/80 Samajoor BieBap and with gumpoles in the ice rain to springs
Gentleman you will never know what you and thousands of others did to defend the RSA andsecure our lives.I am sure you recall what Winston Churchill said after WW2 that "never before did so many owe so much to so few".......Gentleman let me be very frank the world will never know how much they owe every South African soldier who defended our Republic...If South Africa fell to the Soviets the West would not have survived what would have followed....From the Suez to the Cape sea rout would have been Soviet controlled.At that moment the Soviets would have launched a tank assault to the West.What would have followed?..........WW3.So thank you for the chance you gave me and my children to be alive today in South Africa.....🙌
I was at the SA Police base at Okatope in 1980 about 1 km down the road from the the SA Army military base.
I was privileged to pick up this general's black cigarette lighter at Omathyia 61 MEG battalion in 1984 during the school of infantry operational training at Delta company. LT General JJ Geldenhuys was engraved on this Mercedes lighter.
Is the curriculum for the section leader course aviable online ? To my understanding it`s a 6 weeks course, much shorter than simmilar training than in Nato to my understanding. Thank you for your time.
Steve, you seem to have ignored my request to remove this video that you have no right to use. Please remove it ASAP
I was in Alpha co in 1975-76 we just did the one year. At 6 SAI Grahamstown. Have been at Ruacana, Sa Da Bandeira, Okatope, Opoho, Epupa falls, Montenegro, Oshakati. With Roodepoort Commando.
Phillip de Freitas and my self engineered the fixing of the ice cream machine , the Brigadier of sector 10 heard about it and made a special visit , R1 a fire bucket
At least Genl. Geldenhuys acknowledged the troopies and the job they also did in defending S. AFRICA. Unlike FW de Klerk, Pik Botha and the rest of the Nationalist party idiots who never recognised nor thanked us at all for the service we gave our country, nor those who died defending it. Thank you General Geldenhuys.
Ons se ook dankie Generaal ,sonder die op en wakker leierskap sou ons ook nie die sukses behaal het nie .Trots om my land en sy mense te kon dien in die Bos oorlog 78 iname
Generaal, my generaal.
Rhodesian army was outnumbered to a far greater extent and succeeded again and again, (attacked an enemy camp in Mocambique of 5000 with 185 soldiers…Chimoio 1979) we always thought your wonderful troops would be sent to help us, but we were betrayed, the border was shut and fuel and ammo cut off by the John Vorster govt. can never forgive ……call me a bittereinder. We fought for a place for the white man in his own country against Godless Marxists, where were you General Geldenhuys? Stand up and account for yourself… what was your share of the 30 pieces of silver?
"South Arican Soldiers", who gave you permission to use my video material on your CZcams channel? Please remove it or I'll get CZcams to do it. Regards, Efpe Senekal
This video was posted with no credit attached, as received. We respect you claim and ask the following - would you accept your name credited in an edit to this title page, together with permission granted? Alternately we will remove it if you insist. Regards, SA Soldiers.
@@southafricansoldiers4439 whoever you "received" it from, has no right to my material either. This is part of a documentary, "Buried Behind the Wall". Thanks for the offer of a credit, however my local shopkeeper doesn't accept CZcams credits in exchange for a loaf of bread. I do this for a living. Please do as I asked you and remove this
Straight leg Grunts. Queen of Battle!
General Jannie, a true officer and gentleman. Always admired you Sir! Always consistent and respectful but ‘iron handed’ in his leadership! So few against so many …
In regards to the structure of Koevoet and the Rhodesian Selous Scouts; although the structure and make-up may have been similar their operational methods were totally different. In country the Selous Scouts operated as pseudo groups. Their objective was to make contact with enemy groups, establish strength, composition and objectives. They would then call in Fire Force to deal with them so as not to compromise their operations. When operating internally the their area of operation was frozen; meaning other army units and police support units were not allowed to operate in that area for fear of blue-on-blue events which had occurred. They were known as "Eskimos" in this context. Externally Selous Scouts were used in direct operations and in support roles like tracking and Op's. Fire Force were heli-bourne strike units composed mainly of RLI and Rhodesian African Rifles (PF) that reacted to call outs based on OP's or Selous Scout/SAS operations where defined enemy groups were identified at a specific locations. The SADF did train RECCE units in this type of operation but I don't know if they was used in the same way as they were used in Rhodesia. The CZcams channel "Fighting Men of Rhodesia" provides a lot of detail and first hand experience of the men and operational styles used.
At 38 mins you mention the rough treatment of civilians by Koevoet and your discomfort. The reality of this war and the one in Rhodesia was that the ordinary tribesmen just wanted to get on with their lives and really had no particular interest in the politics of either protagonist. They were caught between a rock and hard place. During the Rhodesian war ( I lived through that) tribesmen who failed to shelter, feed and provide sexual gratification to insurgent groups were; all summarily executed by locking them in their huts and burning them alive; forcing the wife of the headman to behead her husband with an axe or brutal beatings, amputations of tongues, hands feet etc. The government tried to counter this by creating Protected villages that weren't popular. Hearts and minds programmes were introduced in 1977 and despite all that the brutal terror, false promises of wealth etc (still employed today) finally subverted large areas and ultimately got them into power.
You are so right general. Great reflection, despite the absolute lack of respect bestowed upon by the permanent force members on us lowly national servicemen and the PTSD so many came home with that was never addressed by the people that lead us. Shame on you all for that.
boss, grow a pair and move on. I wasn't PF and I never got any mistreatment or disrespect from the PF non-coms or officers, from one-liners to the OC, not a days disrespect. Basics is another thing but damn, we came out of that ready for whatever. So, just stop it, you disrespect your comrades in arms.
@@markthompson4859some of them experienced more shit than others.
Infantry School followed by 102 BN. 81/82 Looking at the shambles the SADF has become, makes me so angry. How the mighty have fallen.
I think Jannie is acting like a dodgy accountant here in claiming that only 3000 stood against the Angolans, Cubans etc Does this 3000 include SWATF, 32 Bn etc? It sure as fcuk doesnt include UNITA who must have lost a shit load of guys. This is not to say that the SADF soldiers weren't well trained. But Geldenhuys is right about incursions being minimal. During my time in Sector 10 in 87/88 apart from a mortar attack on Oshakati and a bomb in the bank there I dont recall any other such attacks.Even contacts by patrols were scarce and the reason for that is that the war had moved into Angola. But someone needs to shine a light on the strategy of the Generals around the Cuito saga because a lot of ordinary soldiers paid a heavy price for a lot of dicking around by the Generals.
THANK YOU General great respect !!!!
Un fucking watchable no volume
Skies maar my Pa was n Parabat...maar julle het ons gedrop. Nou maak ons ons kinders groot in die anc kak land. 1994 het julle vokol gedoen
Those men came back from Angola in pieces. YT isn't the place to talk about the atrocities that happened in the "Bush War" but it was very bad. The stories that I overheard as a kid were horrific.
I hope somebody will tell Berede's stories one day.
Thank you Sir. I was proud to be a part of it. 3SAI 81-82
In other words, necessity is the mother of invention.
2 SAI checking in.
You almost brought the insurgency to a complete stop by applying the only thing a sub Saharan African understands...a very heavy hand...it`s no secret that the reason that the first thing Mandela pushed for when he was out of prison and charming the world into becoming president was the disbanding of 32 Battalion because he knew that they could wipe out MK and all of the unrest in the townships in under a fortnight...there`s a very good reason too that the US and the UK never sent troops to SA to end the reign of the NP...they would have had their asses completely handed to them by the SADF on SA soil and they knew it...
2 years so that de klerk can give it all away. Is this what we now now have better?
Couldn't agree with you more .Fucken madness . The couple of 1000 conscripts we had could basically keep things stable both on border and internally.
Country given away without a fight and look at the totally predictable mess SA is in today…. keep patting yourself on the back General Geldenhuys
@@markmall7142vicious, ignorant fantasy
Watch the 32 Btn film as well where the founder stated that the war was to allow the politicians time to fix the democracy in ZA which they never did. I believe that the military was to buy time to bring in proper representation for elections which failed to manifest itself until the ANC and all others were unbanned. Yes, the SADF did well with nothing as it go closer to the end, the logistics and finance people ran the military based on budgets. South Africa lost the war as per General Geldenhuy's personal communique that the Army was to win the hearts and minds of the people, then the politicians screwed all the units that fought in SWA and were not part of SWA forces including 32 Btn. Protection of SADF personal was not included in the accord and as proven with DR Death, and noted in the current news, the oppressed want payback. I have found in my travels around the world that most of the NP and NGK propaganda was false. Stuff I leaned in History at school was incorrect and that there was very little space between religion and politics at that time. Having pissed off many domanie and chaplains in the army based on rational thinking proved that.
The S.A.D.F.fought against exactly what is happening all over the world now.I will always be proud of the people who were there,although I was not there myself.
Of course, the most important reason we were able to protect our borders is because God was there. When I was walking patrols in the Caprivi Strip I had this deep confidence that, were we to engage with the enemy, we would win. But my confidence was NOT in our ability, but God's. . But let us not kid ourselves: the war is not over. Paul tells us of another war (not against flesh & blood... see Ephesians 6:10-18.)
You need to get out of bible prison boet. The leaders belief in god is the reason you were there to begin with.
Poepol....
@@laurieprins6398 Howsite Laurie. Ja, I understand your view. There will always be politicians who use God and the Bible (or any other "holy book") cynically for their own purposes. But I was speaking from my own experience.
@@truth-Hurts375 Now THAT was an expressive, succinct answer!! But General Dan Pienaar said this: "No man can be a good general without God" And he was talking from solid experience. (En HY was geen poepol nie!)
6SAI 85, Rig op die regter vlank, voorwaarts Mars!!
Ons is afrikaners en ek was ook daar
56:13 There was no "civil war" in Angola after 1975. The internal race for the national leadership between FNLA, MPLA and UNITA was won by the MPLA. FNLA was defeated and they never had a major constituency to begin with, UNITA was not widely popular outside limited tribal confines. It was Apartheid South Africa and rightwing "cold warriors" in the West that decided to create a "civil war" by bolstering the remnants of UNITA and FNLA as their regional cold war proxies against the influence of the non-aligned and socialist allies of the MPLA Angolan government. They caused the deaths of so many ten-thousands of civilians!
Quick question, just out of curiosity, are you Angolan?
1985. Infantry School, Charlie Company Pletoon 3 💪
1989.Infantry School Charlie Company peleton 2.
@@jimmyroos1677 Good old days
General a high price was paid with many of us still suffering from PTSD and not all of us came back...
I Boer maak a plan man as jy niks het nie.
Soos baie ander was my eerste job with Malan Geldenhuys & Seuns. National Service 1987 - 1988.
21 minutes, well done, saying you were afraid takes a lot! Typically, guys want to pretend they were not terrified. Is'nt that just the reality of it all!
Thanks for your honesty!