Archive for May, 2011

Hi there I was called up in Nov 1975 and the CTH regiment after mustering at Wingfield were airlifted from  Ysterplaast in SAA Boeing 707s..full kit staal dak and rifles! Tight Fit!!! At Windhoek we then transferred to C 130 Herkie birds and we made a very sharp landing in the Operational Zone and diembarked. We were then given a pep talk by Kommandant Bud O 'Brien, OC CTH, about how he knew for the honour of CTH that we would all volunteer  just like the South Africans in CTH did in 1939...no conscription owing to the Second Boer war being so close in history. 99.9% of us duly volunteered and we did a weeks familiarisation  trench digging fire and movement and as I was a Vickers gunner in Headquarters Company we were duly  issued Second World War guns. After the most amazing braai of Kudu etc put on by local farmers we formed a convoy of Landrovers going North...more to follow...

Hi, Icewolf. It's really great to hear from you. I was in 1973-5 as a small arms tiffie. It's not often one gets to make contact with guys from the 70s. Especially since in my case I did no camps, I am fixed in a kind of time warp. How about joining www.warblogs.co.za and telling some of those stories! Kind regards Phillip

Phillip, thank you for this overwhelmingly positive, moving and in-depth review; it is both encouraging and generous. It even makes me want to go out and purchase a copy! Troepie Snapshots was, without a doubt, the most challenging of the trilogy to create – but it was the one I enjoyed the most, in spite of working at it for hundreds of hours. The project took about two years, on and off, to complete, and was an intense labour of love. Recording ex-servicemen’s memories is one thing, but describing photographs is something else. While I had to check, confirm and verify what the interviewees had to say in order to produce two textual books as accurately as possible, I knew that a Ratel-60 be called a Ratel-60, and NOT a Ratel-90, using an extremely basic example; or when the R-4 rifle was introduced; or when a certain aircraft was manufactured and flown in the SAAF for the first time; or the intricacies of life in Basics. And yes, guilty as charged: by some daft oversight, in one caption I called a dixie a varkpan. I don’t know how that happened, but at least in another caption a varkpan is correctly named as such. The Operation Protea collection was especially important. The slides were unnumbered and in complete disarray. All I could do was match them in the sequence corresponding to my research. I have yet to learn from reliable sources as to whether I am essentially correct. A pictorial account of National Service is never something to be taken lightly. Obviously I endeavoured to do the best I could. By producing such a book, one takes on an incredible responsibility. I knew that I would be judged. I knew that I would be held to account. And I knew that hundreds of thousands of men would be observed by history and future generations through it. How could I not but do the best that I have? I chose to give a basic yearly synopsis, yet simultaneously didn’t want the text to overwhelm the photographs and captions. I openly admit that there are no new revelations in Troepie Snapshots – these are best left to professional historians to uncover – and as you recognised, this is neither the point nor the objective of the book. Even with today’s technology, some photos were beyond colour correction. I personally “cleaned up” a lot of them; the smudges, dirt-spots and exposure faults. The publishers decided to leave them as provided. On this note, the publisher’s layout designers were severely restricted for space. Otherwise, with the number of photos, combined with printing costs, Troepie Snapshots would have been prohibitively expensive. For years we have been fortunate to find various publications on the Border War, the specialized units, autobiographies and biographies. While the shelves currently fill up with similar books, even photographic accounts similar to Troepie Snapshots, I always look forward to seeing future pictorial and textual publications, especially those dedicated solely to National Servicemen. Even with the vast choice of internet sites devoted to the subject, it is always a pleasure to page through a hardcopy in one’s hands. All my best Cameron

Dd you ever get hold of Bdr van Wyk? as I am trying to get hold of a Bdr Roloef van Wyk 1975

Hey all. I have completed my book 'On the flightlines' and I have set up a web site related to the book. On the website are a number(50%) of chapters so that you can get a feel for it. It covers my life in aviation from taking lessons as a schoolboy, to my years in the SAAF, working on the oil rigs and flying as a mercenary in South America. Come take a look and let us know what you think. Kind regards, Mike www.ontheflightlines.net

Hi Phillip Only came across your review a few days ago, but it is only now that I have had the opportunity to reply. Thank you for this; I always appreciate it when both the time and effort has been given to one's work, whether positive or negative. Your review leaves me little to add; it was good (and a relief) to see how you compared the two books. It gave me a refreshing view from where you mention the difference between an empathetic, female observer and a generalised, male account. In a nutshell, that's spot on and accurate, as obvious as it seems. I am also grateful for your positive words. Books such as these are very easy to condemn and criticize. In particular is one of the editors at the Natal Witness, Robin Crouch, whose opinions on From Soldier to Civvy are cutting. He calls it a 'failure, incompetent, bad, laughable and dull'. Eina! Yes, some points are valid and I understand where he (may) be coming from, but my point is why focus purely on the negative? He points out that the best and first was An Unpopular War (AUW - released July 2006). I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am most grateful and indebted to Jacqui's book. Were it not for AUW, I very much doubt I would've had the idea and motivation to do Troepie and the subsequent follow-ups. It is also without doubt that her book paved the way for future books on the subject. But I also believe Clive Holt's At Thy Call (released 2004) should also be given the credit it deserves. So, too, am I in agreement with Jacqui; if my books motivate others as her book motivated me, then it all will have been worthwhile. Let the floodgates open wider. After reading AUW, and having quite a few interviews on tape, I knew I had to categorise my text differently. This is how and why Troepie is arranged according to the general sequence of a national serviceman's 'career', and not into specialised themes as in AUW. When starting out with Troepie, I doubted and questioned myself throughout the entire two years as to what the hell I was actually doing! Going up against AUW was daunting. But, if Troepie were ever to get published, it was always my intention that it work as a companion to, and not in competition with, AUW. Thanks again, Phillip. Your review means a lot. All my best Kind Regards Cam

Not sure if you were aware, but there is a mod for John Tiller's Squad Battles games that deals with wars in Africa in the last century.   Here is the link to the page which will of course get you to the entire site which has all kinds of mods for all kinds of Squad Battles games by John Tiller.   http://tfe4.wordpress.com/graphics-and-sound-mods/africa-at-war/   Take Care.   Mark Adams

Hi, i am trying to find friends that were with me in 26 squadron and in angola during july 1986 to june 1988.Captian Endly was CO. frank verdon

Warm greetings to you all from Down Under, This year on 25 th April, we took part in our sixth Anzac Day parade, marching as a proudly ex-South African contingent in honour of our Fallen. The link below is a video clip of us marching in Perth , Western Australia . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZcV5stWiSE On the 29 th of May 2011 we will also be laying a wreath in laceName w:st="on">Kings Kings laceName> laceType w:st="on">Park Park laceType> in memory of the Boer men, women and children who passed away during the Anglo Boer War as well as in the spirit of reconciliation. Mooi bly en alles van die beste. Garth A Pienaar

When one writes a book on a narrow or specific topic, it is not difficult to control one’s material. One must marshal one’s thoughts, but the material defines itself by its very nature. Within the context of Border War literature, for example, this would apply to writing one’s own memoirs. One’s own experience gives the story shape, and the main problem becomes that of selecting the material to include and communicating it in such a way as to engage the reader. Books such as Troepie and Troepie Snapshots, on the other hand, are fraught with difficulties in the writing. How widely does one research? How many of the 600 000 former SADF conscripts can one possibly interview? What criteria for selecting the material to be included? How does one organise all this material into a cogent narrative? It depends very much on the perspective of the authors, and the point they are trying to make. Recently a critic reviewing Troepie Snapshots commented that the kind of book just outlined is the easiest to write, and that it can tend towards the superficial if the field of candidates is too small. I am not sure that I agree. An ex-serviceman author of an SADF book, for example, would be able to empathise with the stories of others which are different to his own, simply on the grounds of the wide common culture he shared with them, and to produce a representative and varied selection. It is always very easy to be querulous about details in such a book, and to overlook the very real achievements of the author. Regarding Troepie Snapshots, the critic draws attention to two examples of inaccuracy, concerning vehicles and rocket launchers. But such points, while they might be crucial in a scholarly book on SADF weaponry, are really not of such importance here. Blake’s aim is to give a pictorial account of the Border War, to recreate its life and atmosphere. If I were to make a criticism, far more serious, in one photograph, would be his inadvertant reference to dixies as varkpanne! Blake, of his own free admission, has no Border experience at all. He volunteered for service in 1992, was classified G3 and trained as a tiffie, though he ended up as a draughtsman in a media office for the majority of his 12 months. But he has expended much effort and time in entering into the experiences of border troepies, and has recreated the atmosphere of these years with an uncanny reality. In this he has succeeded not once, but twice, and the two books are remarkable achievements. I have already reviewed Troepie in another place, but for the purposes of Troepie Snapshots, it is useful to look at it again. In Troepie he has taken the narratives of a range of soldiers and worked them into a convincing continuum which recreates the unmistakable atmosphere of those years. Reading through the book, even with its variety of different experiences, is like reliving one’s own two years from beginning to end. I would like him to have given some clue as to his sources, if only for perspective; their year of call-up, call-up age and corps would have been helpful information in this regard. Without knowing the basis of his interviews, it is difficult to judge why, unlike JN Thompson in her An Unpopular War, he has not done so. One must not allow this, however, to detract from the achievement of this book. If, as I believe, his aim was a vivid recreation of the SADF experience, then no matter what petty criticisms might be raised, he has been overwhelmingly successful. Troepie Snapshots is an even more impressive achievement. My school pupils, looking at the book, were disappointed at first. “Why are the pictures so bad? Why are they so small?” It took a lot of explaining to get them to see the book as an ex-serviceman would see it. Photographs of this mileu are not easily available; secrecy restrictions on photography, the relative quality of cameras in the 70s and 80s, the difficulty of obtaining quality prints, the fact that these are not professional photos for the most part, but kikis, and the aging of photos, especially colour prints from that era, all contribute to the ultimate quality of the pictures. Digital photography was, of course, unknown then. Add to this the exaggerated blues of the old Kodak film, the reds of Agfa, and it is remarkable that many usable photos exist at all. Just amassing this collection of photographs must have been a major effort. Then sorting them, organising them into a comprehensive whole, laying out so many pages and captioning them, must have been a Herculean task. Blake has described his effort well in saying that Troepie was the voice of conscripts, whereas Troepie Snapshots is their eyes. And “snapshots” is the correct description. This book really is a narrative in pictures, and alongside Troepie, presents a moving picture of those days. Photographs, even more than words, call forth nostalgia. In fact, the very age of the photos, with their characteristic 70s and 80s look, contributes positively to the nostalgia that the book inspires. Looking today at what we were then, one’s perspective is so different. Then, one took the events portrayed in the book for granted, simply as what happened. Today one looks at those troepies in the photos: how young we were, how fit and strong, the bare and basic environment in which we had to live, and how we made it livable. Comic books, cameraderie, radios, alcoholic beverages, bush pets, grass and so on, all in the stark setting of the Border, with its camps, patrols, tedious base life and everything else that made it what it was. And those worn-in brown uniforms and boots, almost like a second skin! Were we really there, and almost, one asks, did it actually exist? That world was so real and all-embracing to the soldiers of the time. Today, Ozymandias-like, almost nothing remains. If this kind of re-creation is what Blake was aiming at, then he has succeeded admirably. He has not followed a strict chronological plan, but rather allowed the book to develop psychologically. Beginning with the early police patrols, he works through the Seventies. Having introduced the Border and its earlier history, he then takes us back to the very beginning of military life: conscription, basic and second phase training. Only after this does he take up the story of the Eighties. Effectively, he plunges us into the war itself, with a “flashback” to how it began for each individual troep, before finishing his main narrative. Immediately after this comes a section on the townships. Blake then gives us a series of images focussing on specific areas of SADF life: Base life (including a longish sequence on the SPG); a chapter on the Bats, the only corps to receive such treatment; the inevitable images of uitklaar and camps, three chapters on medals and memorials, and finally, and justly, a chapter on the ECC. There is a series of useful and interesting appendices. Each reader will find something different of value in the book. For me, one of the benefits was seeing something of the navy, an unknown quantity for most army guys. But whatever publications the future might bring, Blake has trail-blazed with this book. Hopefully, others will follow, and we will see many more photographic records of the Border War. In a nutshell, for me it awoke so many memories. It drew forth a sadness at the pathos of the era, the harsh life of an SADF troep, and the real and substantial responsibility that he carried on his young shoulders. It drew forth memories of cameraderie and solidarity; you were all in it together, and you all suffered and triumphed together. And above all, underneath it all, it drew forth a massive pride in having been there, having survived and grown strong, of having taken part in something that changed one’s life forever. Being an SADF troep was for me, as for so many others, a tremendous experience, and Blake has brought it back to life in pictures. But whether you were a soldier yourself, whether your dad or your brother were, no matter. This book will tell you the story. It is one you will want to keep on your bookshelf, and page through from time to time.