The disbandment of 61 Mech Battalion.
In November of 2005 a regiment called 61 Mech Battalion was formally disbanded at the Combat Training Centre at Lohatla in the Northern Cape Province, 27 years after it had been founded in 1979 at Omuthiya in South West Africa (now Namibia). It started off in 1978 as a composite unit called Battle Group Juliet, composed of Eland armoured cars and brand new Ratel infantry fighting vehicles.
In that short lifetime it participated in no less than 37 large-scale actions and operations, earning a well-deserved name as one of the finest fighting units in South Africa’s military chronicles. This reputation was carried forward as the unit’s role changed with the end of the Border War and its relocation to Rooikop in 1989 and subsequently to Lohatla in 1991.
It was a day of great loss, not only for those who had served with it during its short but hectic career, but also for the South African National Defence Force: It had dispensed with a unique combat-tested unit specifically designed for conventional warfare in an African arena.
The first combined-arms infantry unit.
61 Mech, as it was universally known, was the first permanently established combined-arms infantry unit in South Africa’s military annals. A combined-arms unit is one in which elements of the infantry, artillery and light or heavy armour form organic parts of its structure to create a fighting machine capable of quick reaction. It is characterised by an ethos of tactical flexibility, high mobility, aggressive action and heavy firepower.
The three teeth arms would not merely be cooperating, they would form one integrated whole, with all that that implied, both operationally and doctrinally.
The infantryman, the armour man and the gunner would be fingers on the same mailed fist; the dividing line between armour and mechanised infantry in particular would now become blurred, once and for all.
61 Mechanised Infantry Battalion was also the crucible in which the modern South African mechanises infantryman was forged, with a distinctive character that sprang from a combination of a finely tuned doctrine and hands-on experience of conventional and semi-conventional African bush campaigning.
“In strategy, the longest way round is often the shortest way there; a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender’s hold by upsetting his balance…The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of the battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.”
-Sir Basil Liddel Hart
You are invited to subscribe as a member of the 61 Mechanised Battalion Group Veterans Association, to share your stories and step into yesterday with us, lay old ghosts to rest and maybe relive some treasured moments.
The 61 Mech Veterans Association
Since its inception until 2005 thousands of soldiers entered and exited the gates of this unit, whether it was at Omuthiya, Rooikop or Lohatla.
The 61 Mech veterans who served during all these different periods are now united again as members of the 61 Mech Veterans Association where they treasure the history of this unit and commemorate the memory of their fallen brothers with dignity.
It is recognized by the 61 Mechanised Battalion Group Veterans Association that not only the veterans, but also their grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters and children were effected by their experiences and that is why it is important to us to meet up with each other again so that together we can find peace where we may still be fighting a war deep within ourselves.
