Author: Peter Dickens

Teddy the Recce

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Some units roared like Lions and others literally where Lions and a lot can be said for members of South Africa’s Reconnaissance special forces (or commonly known as “Recce” units).  To celebrate the Recce veterans and their role in South Africa’s protection, here is this stunning image of “Teddy”, the Recce mascot at Fort Doppies.

Terrie was a Cuando lion who held a Recce Operators status and he is seen playing at Kwando River with Obie Oberholster, cira 1980.

To get a full story on Teddy – please visit the South African Special Forces website – here is the link:

Teddy the Lion on the official Recce website

Published by Peter Dickens.  Copyright and big thank you to Obie for the image.

The silent terror of the Angolan Border War

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Forgotten to many as to why the Bush War was so closely felt to the South Africans conscripted to fight it, this image illustrates what many conscripts and volunteers felt they where there to do – protect innocent civilians from the ravages of the Angolan war and armed insurgency into South West Africa/Namibia.

A trademark of both the Angolan War and the Bush War was the silent terror of mines, the worst of which is the Anti Personnel Mine (APM). This type of mine is cheap to make can be easily concealed and extensively mined – it has a small charge designed to maim its victim, not kill, simply by blowing off a foot or leg – its design in essense is to demoralise and strike fear into every step.

This picture was taken by a medic whilst they where based temporarily next to the range at 101 Battalion’s Head Quarters in Oshakati during tte ‘9 Day War’ in April 89. This local Namibian child was moving amongst the Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicles looking for food and entertainment. He remained under the wing of the medics for a couple of days.

Realistically summarised by BJ Taylor who took the photo in light of the frequent sight of such carnage of war on the civilian population as an ‘AP Mine victim, one of many … ‘

Image copyright and courtesy of BJ Taylor.

The Border War & the Lockerbie bombing connection!

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You may be wondering, what the heck does the South African Border War on the SWA/Namibia and Angola border in the late 80’s have in common with Pan Am Flight 103 and the Lockerbie bombing?  Well, there is an interesting and uniquely South African connection.

Heralding the end of The Border War in 1988, as part of the pathway to peace, the United Nations pre-empted the process and appointed a Swedish UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson. In the eventuality of South Africa’s relinquishing control of Namibia.

Commissioner Carlsson’s role would be to administer the country on behalf of the UN, formulate its framework constitution, and organise free and fair elections based upon a non-racial universal franchise.

On their way to sign the brokered peace accords to end the Bush War on the 22nd December 1988 in New York, the South African VIP contingent including Pik Botha (the then Foreign Minister) and the United Nations representative – Bert Carlsson all booked their passage to New York on Pan Am Flight 103.  Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York.

Sadly and very tragically, the UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was not present at the signing ceremony. He was killed on Pan Am Flight 103 when it exploded and crashed on Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 en route from London to New York City – killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew, in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing after large sections of the aircraft crashed onto residential areas of Lockerbie, United Kingdom, killing 11 more people on the ground.

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South African foreign minister Pik Botha, and the official South African delegation of 22 members had a very lucky escape. Their booking on Pan Am 103 was cancelled at the last minute and Botha, together with a smaller delegation, caught the earlier Pan Am 101 flight to New York.

Handed over by the Libyans and found guilty,  a Libyan terrorist, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was jailed, the only person to be convicted for the attack. In 2003, Gaddafi, the Libyan despot, accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims.  However many questions still exist on the motive and responsibility of the bombing – with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi protesting his innocence all the way to his death bed.

With Gaddafi out of the picture now, I guess we will never know the full picture, and a tantalising titbit of a possible International terrorist conspiracy to derail the Namibian Peace Accords and/or deliver a killer blow to South Africa’s National Party elite and their policy of Apartheid will forever remain unanswered.

Bernt Carlsson
Pik Botha

Pictured left is Bernt Carlsson and right is Pik Botha.

Written and researched by Peter Dickens

End of Soviet Communism signals the end of the Angolan Bush War

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Colonel Archie Moore of The South African Defence Force (SADF) leads the joint military monitoring commission on an inspection of the SADF built pontoon bridge crossing the Kavango river .

With him are once enemies from Cuba, the Soviet Union (Russia) and FAPLA . On this day the political and socio-economic landscape in Southern Africa would change forever. The SADF would withdraw, so too would the Cuban, FAPLA (Peoples Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola), and PLAN forces (SWAPO’s Armed wing). South West Africa/Namibia would then implement resolution 435 and the war would come to an end.

The ramifications of the end of the Bush War would have a resounding effect and change the course of history of the sub continent and South Africa specifically.  The war had always been fought on a “Cold War” status – the fight of western styled capitalist democracy (as South Africa viewed itself albeit an Apartheid one) and the spread of Communism.

A number of factors came together to herald the change in South Africa’s disposition to the war, the primary one been the collapse of Soviet communism in 1988, the loss of the USSR satellite states, all cumulating in the collapse of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989 and the eventual collapse of Russian communist domination in its wake.

This seismic change to global politics encouraged the National Party of South Africa (who were fiercely anti-communist) to review its position continuing the “Cold War” in southern Africa.   The Nationalists where beginning to feel comfortable enough that the stage could be set for a democratic election in Namibia, which would occur not on the back of a Communist backed militant overthrow, but on terms which would not see South Africa fighting a protracted Communist led war on its own border against Cuban and Soviet forces building up in the region.  This fear, not entirely unjustified, fundamentally underpinned most of South Africa’s rational for maintaining the Border War and its interests in Namibia.

The writing on the wall began in late 1987 and early 1988 as eastern Soviet block countries started demanding independence from Russia and the Soviet Union began unbundling, the process for South West Africa’s transition to independence from South Africa also began against this backdrop, and by May 1988, a US mediation team – headed by Chester A. Crocker, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs – brought negotiators from the MPLA, Cuba, and South Africa, and observers from the Soviet Union, together in London.

Intense diplomatic manoeuvring  in the context of the military stalemate of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale characterised the next 7 months. The parties worked out agreements to bring peace to the region and to enable the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 435.

At the Moscow Summit of leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May-1 June 1988), the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola was linked to Namibian independence. In this way, the Cubans could claim to have played a part in Namibian independence and the dismantling of Apartheid, while the South Africans could claim success in getting the Cubans to withdraw from Angola and the end of the Communist threat to South Africa.

The New York Accords – agreements to give effect to these decisions – were drawn up for signature at UN headquarters in New York in December 1988. Cuba, South Africa, and the People’s Republic of Angola agreed to a total Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. This agreement – known as the Brazzaville Protocol – established a Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC), with the United States and the Soviet Union as observers, to oversee implementation of the accords.

A bilateral agreement between Cuba and Angola was signed at UN headquarters in New York City on 22 December 1988. On the same day, a tripartite agreement between the MPLA, Cuba and South Africa was signed whereby South Africa agreed to hand control of Namibia to the United Nations.

Funnily, today we look back and view these simple facts which heralded the end of The Border War in a different light, Nambian and South African current governments and many young people preferring to take up the romantic idea that “Apartheid” South Africa was somehow beaten back by the combined liberation forces of Nambia (SWAPO) and South Africa (ANC).  When the truth of matter is that history records facts and to those of us who actually lived through this era and saw this war – these are the facts.

The argument that the battles along the Lomba and at Cuito Cuanavale had somehow taken the fight out of South Africa are simply untrue.  The fact of the matter is that South Africa maintained a military force that constituted a regional super-power with nuclear capability, staunch discipline, highly motivated and highly resourced.  The Nationalist government was a highly conservative, intensely God fearing, belligerent, introspective and aggressive one, and one founded on a history of taking up arms against all odds  – fully prepared to put itself and the country’s military at odds with any adversary, armed with a simple belief founded in 1838 – that God was on their side.

In an unassailable position of power in 1989 with a growing majority white support, the only people who could change the course of the South Africa’s history, dissolve themselves from power and redress the injustice of their policies where the National Party themselves – and as an inconvenient truth goes, that’s exactly what happened.

 

Written and Researched by Peter Dickens. Featured image – Photo copyright – John Liebenberg

I’m not pro Boer, I’m British, this isn’t OUR way!

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There are few times you see a balanced documentary on the The South African War (1899-1902) a.k.a. the Boer War when it comes to the issue of the British concentration camps and this landmark documentary “Scorched Earth” is another in a line up that gets it right and wrong all at the same time.

As South Africa addresses its history from a holistic perspective,  the complete story of the 2nd Anglo Boer War starts to emerge – the scale of the concentration camps as not strictly a “white” issue, but a “black” issue too is now becoming highly apparent.  That the war is now been viewed in both contexts and in the context of its historical time opens up new questions on the deep scars of hatred, still not fully addressed, affecting all of South Africa’s ethnic groups.

Apportioning ‘Blame’ 

That the concentration camps are a human tragedy on an epic level is not debatable. The key question to be addressed is the aspect of “blame”.

Can blame be put at one man’s feet – Lord  Kitchener under whose watch and policy this tragedy unfolded and a man with a disdain for the Boer nation, or does blame lie in cultural misunderstanding – actually going as far as blaming the women themselves for not following British heath regulations for tented camps, not trusting the nursing and hospital staff due to language and cultural barriers and using ancient remedies which accelerated the deadly social diseases instead?

Or, more to the point, does blame lie in the complete British maladministration of the camps, lack of medicine and lack of site and logistics planning by the British policy makers and proponents of the camp system?

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White Concentration Camp of the 2nd Anglo Boer War

Does blame lie with the Boer Commanders insistence on continuing a war after it had been “lost” through conventional war – fully in the knowledge that their kinfolk and entire nation’s survival was heading to complete annihilation?

Does blame lie in the sheer racism and lack of human respect to ‘Blacks’ by prevailing Victorian’s considering them ‘less civilised’ in need of white patronage and the even harsher racist attitudes and laws in the two Boer Republics to purposefully ignore an unfolding human tragedy in the ‘Black’ camps? Does blame even lie with men at war with one another and the propaganda to paint one another as somehow lesser human beings?

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Black Concentration Camp of the 2nd Anglo Boer War

Does blame lie in the British initiating a medieval policy of putting to the crucible those women and children whose menfolk where still fighting and rewarding those whose men had stopped fighting with extra food by way of incentive?  And then the very thorny question – does blame lie in a system used by the British which had the potential to decimate a nation’s youth?

In essence, there is a strong case to argue that the concentration camps where a punitive measure to stop a phase of war which nobody really understood – the conventional war was lost when the Boer’s capital cities were taken, the decision by the Boer commanders and “government in the field” to take the war into a guerrilla one – supplied and fed by homesteads – simply brought the homesteads into the line of fire and war’s ravages – especially disease which proved the biggest killer.

To the Victorian men and women the unfolding tragedy in South Africa was shielded for much of the war and when exposed in the media by the likes of Emily Hobhouse it only really highlighted the plight of the ‘whites’. In this respect Emily Hobhouse’s words to Kitchener are sharply poignant “I’m not pro Boer, I’m British, and this isn’t our way”.

Or is the blame as simple as blaming a virus. The biggest killer in the Boer War was measles, a child’s disease which killed 30% of the white camp population, most of whom were children. It was also not this first or the last time a measles epidemic killed Boer children – epidemics existed in Voortrekker lagers log before the Boer War, with the same devastating consequences. The simple truth – the biggest killer of British soldiers in the Boer War was Typhoid, more died of disease than bullets – the same is true of the civilian populations – the British ones under Boer siege at the opening of the war, and the Boer ones under British camp oversight at the end of the war.

In Conclusion

There is a very long way to go – but the future in reconciling the true effect of this war and redressing it as a nation – is to understand that the Boer War was not only a “white” man’s war, nor the concentration camps strictly about Afrikaans women and children, a much bigger story exists and which needs to be reconciled with – and that is the suffering of South Africa’s black population and the extraordinary losses they experienced in concentration camps too – which only now are becoming fully understood.  For more on the ‘Black’ concentration camp history do visit this Observation Post link for a fuller story: To fully reconcile The Boer War is to fully understand the ‘BLACK’ Concentration Camps

The redress for white Afrikaners in South Africa as to any form of global awareness and world condemnation of this tragedy to their nation lies in the reconciliation of the history with the previously unwritten and misunderstood “black” history behind The 2nd Anglo Boer War.  Only if it is a national issue, a common cause and a national healing process implemented to dealt with it – will amends and long-awaited apologies from the British be found.

Written by Peter Dickens.  Image copyright, Imperial War Museum.  ‘Scorched Earth’ documentary, Director Herman Binge, produced for M-Net by Pearson Television, copyright 2001.

Operation Market Garden, a South African Captain remembered

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Not many people know it, but a small number of South Africans participated in Operation Market Garden during World War 2.  Today we remember one of them.

Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation pioneered by Field Marshall Montgomery to end the war by Christmas 1944, it was fought in the Netherlands and involved taking bridges ending with the prize bridge over the Rhein at Arnhem and then on into Germany. This key bridge was to be taken and held by British paratroopers from the 1st Airborne Division and they were due to be relived by XXX Corps an Allied ground force rushing up through the Netherlands taking key strategic points as it went.

But largely due to intelligence failures, delays crossing rivers, logistics issues and communication breakdowns the relief never arrived leaving the British paratroopers in a desperate and un-winnable fight. Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne operation up to that time and it was an unmitigated Allied failure with severe loss of life.

The air re-supply of the British airborne forces in the Arnhem area was particularly hazardous as they became isolated and surrounded.

This image taken on 19 September 1944 shows a burned-out Douglas Dakota Mark III, KG401, of No. 48 Squadron RAF based at Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, which crash-landed in a field near Kessel, Holland, after parachuting supplies over Arnhem.

The aircraft had just dropped its supplies from 700 feet when it was met with intense anti-aircraft fire. Sixteen aircraft of 48 Squadron participated in MARKET III, flying through intense flak with no fighter escort.

Many aircraft were hit and two, (KG401 and KG428), failed to return. Over the following four days the Squadron lost another six Dakotas on re-supply missions to Arnhem.

One of these was piloted by Captain C.H Campbell, a South African Air Force (SAAF) officer seconded to 48 Squadron RAF and was lost in his RAF C47 Douglas Dakota on 21st September 1944.

Some additional information courtesy Sandy Evan Hanes

CAMPBELL, C.H, Colin Herbert, 25
Captain 12211V
SAAF, Pilot
48 RAF Sqn C-47 Dakota Mk.III, KG-346

21.09.1944
KIA Runnymede Memorial, Panel 264, United Kingdom

Son of John W. and Hilda M. Campbell, of Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa

May he rest in eternal peace, his sacrifice to the freedom of Europe as we know it today remembered with honour.

Image copyright – Imperial War MuseumSouth

3 Legendary South African fighter pilots who never came home

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Now this is a unique and rather sad photograph.  Three of South Africa’s most legendary fighter pilots in the North African theatre of operations during WW2, all of which were ultimately killed in action.  Major J E “Jack” Frost, Commanding Officer of No. 5 Squadron SAAF sits between two of his most experienced pilots, Lieutenant Robin Pare (left) and Captain Andrew Duncan, at LG 121, Egypt.

“Jack” Frost joined No. 3 Squadron SAAF as a flight commander in 1940, having been a member of the South African Permanent Force for five years. He saw considerable action in Somaliland and Ethiopia, scoring a number of victories over Italian aircraft, before he was evacuated in May 1941 with acute appendicitis.

On his recovery he was appointed to command 5 Squadron, leading them to Egypt in early 1942 and through the heavy air fighting during the Battle of Gazala in May and June. Although Frost was posted to the staff of No. 233 Wing on 31 May, he resumed command the Squadron when his successor, Captain (now Major) Andrew Duncan, was killed that same day. Jack Frost in turn was shot down and killed over El Adem by German fighters on 16 June.

He was an outstanding pilot and leader, and remains the SAAF’s top scorer with 16 aerial victories.

Robin Pare, also a member of the South African Permanent Force, was commissioned in the SAAF in April 1940 and posted to No. 1 Squadron SAAF, seeing action over East Africa until April 1941. After a period as an instructor in the Union, he joined 5 Squadron in December 1941. He was promoted commander of ‘B’ Flight on 31 May 1942, but was shot down and killed by Oberleutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille of I/JG27 near Bir Hacheim on 3 June, just after scoring his sixth victory.

Andrew Duncan was the son of the Governor-General of South Africa, Sir Patrick Duncan. After qualifying as a pilot with the Active Citizen Force in December 1939, he was posted to No. 1 Squadron SAAF and fought in East Africa. He returned to the Union in April 1941 as a Captain, and joined 5 Squadron in June as commander of ‘A’ Flight. Duncan succeeded “Jack” Frost as the Squadron Commander on 31 May, only to be shot down and killed that evening, south of Acroma, after shooting down his sixth victim earlier.

Image copyright – Imperial War Museum Collection Copyright.

When the SAAF went to Warsaw, we Remember – 1st August 1944

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Take a few minutes out of your day today to remember the 1st August 1944 and watch “The Men Who Went to Warsaw”: The Warsaw Uprising Airlift 1944 – a short dramatisation and interviews of the brave South African men who actually went on this mission.

Produced by Tinus le Roux as a non commercial historical archive, this film and others he has produced, all aim to capture the stories of South African Airmen in WW2 before they are lost.

70 Years ago, 13 August 1944; the first South African Air Force Liberators took off on a suicidal mission to Warsaw. This was the start of arguably one of the most daring and tragic series of missions ever flown by heavy bombers as they had to fly at night only 450 feet high at landing speed over the enemy infested city.

Watch and learn their story.

South Africans at war against the Japanese! … the story of Pik van Noorden

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South Africans in special forces units in the Second World War. The Advance on Rangoon March – May 1945 and here Gurkha paratroops check their equipment before being dropped around Rangoon during the Burma campaign. Now, what have these legendary Gurkhas and South Africans in combat have in common?

Involved in this drop and attached to the Gurkhas for their attack on Elephant Hill against the Japanese was one of South Africa’s most remarkable soldiers, a man who subsequently went on to command 5 South African Infantry Battalion after the war and become the SADF’s Director of Infantry.

“Pik” van Noorden served in North Africa during World War 2 as an artillery officer, firing at German tanks over open sights at Tobruk, escaping as the garrison fell, fighting at Alamein and then volunteering for the Royal Marines.

Trained as a commando, he led his platoon ashore on D-Day with 47 (Royal Marine) Commando and was involved in some heavy fighting as they executed an independent task. Later withdrawn to undergo parachute training, he was dropped behind German lines to carry out a secret mission.

Next he was posted to 42 (RM) Commando in India and participated in the amphibious assault on the Japanese at Myebon in Burma, as well as the subsequent bitter battle for Hill 170 near Kangaw.

Later, van Noorden was attached to the Ghurka parachute battalion that jumped at Elephant Point during the capture of Rangoon (see picture of the said Ghurka airborne which accompanies this article). During the battle the Gurhka battalion reached Elephant Point, and close-quarters fighting then took place, with flame-throwers being used against several Japanese bunkers guarding the battery. About forty Japanese soldiers and gunners were killed during the assault, and the battalion also sustained several casualties. After the battery had been secured the battalion dug in around Elephant Point and awaited the arrival of the relief force.

After the war van Noorden commanded 5 SA Infantry Battalion and the Infantry School, became Director of Infantry and retired as a Major General. His medal group is also of great interest because it includes the France & Germany Star and the Burma Star, as well as the Union Medal and the Pro Patria.

Article reference – The South African Military History Society – Eastern Cape Newsletter – primary contributor and with thanks to McGill Alexander, supplementary information – Wikipedia. Image copyright and caption reference -The Imperial War Museum.

War in Darfur – Operation Cordite

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Looking into South Africa’s more recent involvement in Peacekeeping Missions in Africa.  Here, on  2 August 2010. South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Lieutenant Justin Heath, from Boksburg (greater Johannesburg), forms part of the UN peacekeeping mission to the Sudan for 7 months.

He is seen here patrolling in Tiksas, a village abandoned by the population some years ago due to the war in Darfur.

The War in Darfur is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur’s non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur’s non-Arabs. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Estimates of the number of human casualties range up to several hundred thousand dead, from either combat or starvation and disease. Mass displacements and coercive migrations forced millions into refugee camps or across the border, creating a humanitarian crisis.

The Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement in February 2010, with a tentative agreement to pursue peace. However, talks were disrupted by accusations that the Sudanese army launched raids and air strikes against a village, violating the Tolu agreement. The current situation is that the JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, vowed to boycott future negotiations.

Operation Cordite in Sudan began in July 2004 with the deployment of South African National Defence Force staff officers and observers to Darfur, Sudan, in support of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) It was an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force operating primarily in the country’s western region of Darfur with the aim of performing peacekeeping operations related to the conflict in Darfur.

The AU mission was terminated in December 2007 when it was integrated into the United Nations mission to form the UN African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in January 2008. it was the first African Union-United Nations hybrid mission. An Infantry Protection Company and an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit were added to the deployment, which was increased further in February 2005.

Operation Cordite made an immense contribution to the successful referendum on the future of Sudan, which resulted in the relatively peaceful division of the country into two: Sudan and South Sudan. Additional South African soldiers were sent to Juba, the capital of the new country, South Sudan, to assist with security for the independence celebrations in July 2011. In addition to this, South Africa also helped secure the air space for the duration of the celebrations. South Africa also trained police, prison officials and air traffic controllers: currently stationed at Juba International Airport

However typically, successful military operations are so often undermined by political antics of governments and Operation Cordite is no different.

In April 2016, South Africa withdrew it UN forces from Sudan, ending Operation Cordite after a short and unspecific Presidential statement – coincidentally and unsurprisingly it was marred with controversy and against a backdrop of political scandal which started in June 2015 when President Omar Al Bashir – who was visiting South Africa to attend an African Union summit, was allowed to escape South Africa in a private jet.

His escape, allegedly with the connivance of President Jacob Zuma, came in defiance of an order by the South African High Court, pending a decision on whether to hand Al Bashir over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in accordance with international arrest warrants for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The decision remains highly controversial in South Africa today, so too South Africa’s strained relationship with the ICC (South Africa taking the standpoint that the ICC should not interfere in South Africa’s legitimate obligations to African Union AU).

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The repercussions on how South Africa sees its compete military role in United Nations Peacekeeping remains to be seen, hopefully in future it will positively underpin the great work of the majority of good South African men and women who enter the armed services and have the privilege of wearing the United Nation’s “Blue Beret”.

Photo copyright Albert Gonzalez Farran / Unamid