The Neck:

Behind the neck the roads were mined and closed

David  parked his car and put the canvas (used to cover the car) to form a shelter to sleep under. He settled himself when he heard a noise. He takes up the story: " I heard tinkling and thought it was rain, stuck my head out and saw stars and realized that they were shooting airbursts at us. Fortunately the airbursts exploded too high and the tinkling was the shrapnel landing on the car. I tried to get under the car, but had parked it over bush. I had no other option but to enter the car again to sleep with the others inside. However it was so damn uncomfortable that I soon decided to trust the bad shooting and sleep outside again, I must have been right about the bad shooting, because I am still here."

Red Anthill:

This was just before the neck. It was so named because there were  many red ants on the hill. One could not sleep on the ground as you were soon covered by the biting ants. One night Eion woke up to find a six inch wide trail of ants walking over his head, fortunately we found hammocks and we used them to sleep above the ground.  It rained regularly and SF was particular about cleanliness and decided to shower. He carefully soaped up and then the rain stopped, just  suddenly. He begged for a long time for water to wash it off, we gave him a cupful after a while.

Bridge 14: Map 1

We could not use the periscopes to cross the bridge and had to drive with the hatches open both times. On Wednesday the engineers  built it out of logs and we went across this rather rickety affair. Dup radioed in three times asking for permission to move. Each time it was given- after the third time we asked him what the hell was wrong with him, couldn’t he hear? He replied “ I moved three times and they( the enemy) have found me three times.”  The enemy went for the bridge and Papa Troop pulled back retreating across the bridge under fire from Stalin Organs and Mortars. South Africans with their medium range cannon under Commander Van Der Westhuizen returned the fire, taking out one enemy Cannon and seriously damaging three others. That night. the engineers rebuilt the bridge with steel plates and the next morning we went across again.  Eion went first. After the battle we saw the enemy had had a braai- with ribs- we went closer and found it to be the remains of a Cuban solider who had a 5.5 shell landing next to him.

 It was called Bridge 14 because it was 14 kms from the neck.

120mm mortar half in the ground which shot at us

 When we stopped there was a building to the left of the road and we took up positions to the right of the road. The house was full of kitbags of the Cuban soldiers. Our Unita soldiers decided the war was now over for them and had a fashion parade and nothing could get them to take up positions until they had sorted this primary consideration of apparel out, then wearing their newfound glory they agreed to take up positions.

Once we had established our positions, we required the gun mechanics to regas our 90 mm cannons. We radioed them and gave specific instructions where we were, and not to go further than the house on the left with us parked on the right of the road. We heard them coming in a Mercedes recovery vehicle and waited on the side of the road for them, unfortunately they sped by and the only response to our waving arms was them waving back at us. This was the last we saw of them, but we heard them on radio Luanda the following day. They were our first soldiers to become prisoners of war. It was only after several years that they were free to come home. It left us very short of mechanics for our weapons so this was a disaster for us.

 Peu Peu:

This place had an awful jail- we went to release the prisoners- but there were none left. The 2^nd time we stayed at the airport Sada Bandera 

The jail looked like a barracks.

  Santa Comba:

We slept on the tar and it was lovely ,  warm and comfy. We spent Christmas here- with the cows who came in to lick our urine. Everywhere we went we saw a chain of smoke as the enemy lit fires to warn their troops of Papa Troop's movements. Christmas was a day we expected to be attacked because the Communists do not believe in it. It made the day very tense, but to relieve the tension we had a small Christmas tree in a coffee tin, with lights on it. Our food for the day was not a rations pack with small tins in it, but a ration pack with large tins of the same stuff. A big tin of baked beans, a big tin of viennas and a big tin of bully beef. Real festive stuff!

While here Dave Katz  turned 21, he remembered at 5pm that day that it was his birthday..

Corporal Jaco Van Der Merwe from Zeerust had his armored car attacked by Cubans, he escaped them, he spent 3-4 days in the bush trying to get back. He was very stressed and had to be sent back home An RPG 7 killed Lombard and the car rocked onto its side, two guys were left in the car. They played dead and locked the car; they were picked up two days later by us. They also had to be sent back due to the experience.

Worst of all was the liquor, it tasted worse than petrol. For an army guy this is the worst thing that can ever happen.

THE DEAD:

Neville Roland Beechie.  29.10.75

He was shot down in the first plane fatality- we do not know where.

Neville Lombard 23.11.75

49 men died in Angola and were awarded the ProPatria posthumously