Battle Group Juliet
Commandant Frank Bestbier took over at the end of January 1978 as officer commanding of 1 South African Infantry Battalion at Tempe in Bloemfontein, after Commandant Joep Joubert became commander of the infantry branch at the newly established Army Battle School at Lohatla.
In 1977 legislation was passed in Parliament which extended national service from 12 months to 24 months, the reason being that it was neither cost effective nor economical to spend most of a year giving an intake of national servicemen intensive basic and advanced training, ending up with a couple of months’ regimental service and then sending them back to civilian life before starting all over again with a new intake of raw recruits.
This legislation became applicable immediately. Individuals who wanted to go and study the next year were exempted from this additional year of service and they were allowed to clear out to commence with their studies.
As a result of this the combat strength of 1 South African Infantry Battalion dropped instantly to about 200 men, who were formed into a new A Company under Major Ep van Lill which stayed at Etale base in Ovamboland while the training of the 1978 intake commenced at 1 SAI.
This company returned to Bloemfontein to collect Ratel infantry combat vehicles which were stored at Grootfontein with one infantry platoon to maintain it, while the rest of the troops would be deployed elsewhere.
Commandant Joubert’s brief at the Army Battle School was to investigate and evaluate the development of a conventional combat group for mobile bush warfare. A readily available source of suitable guinea-pigs were at hand – Van Lill’s thoroughly trained mechanised infantrymen who were relocated to the vicinity of the Oshivello training ground, near where the future 61 Mech’ base would be constructed.
They joined hands with an armour car squadron under Major P.W.D De Jager and an tillerry battery under Major Piet Uys – the adjudant was Lieutenant Koos Liebenberg, who would later see much service with 61 Mech – and the RSM, WO1 R.D. Oosterlaak.
Combat Group Juliet, named after Commandant Joep Joubert, as the experimental unit was called, had the first production models of the Ratels, Eland armoured cars, Buffel MPVs, Unimogs, the first of the sturdy, locally designed and produced SAMIL logistics load-carriers and the old trusty 140mm guns which had first made their name during the Second World War.
They spent an arduous month at Oshivello, panel beating the concept under Joubert’s personal supervision – and arduously it certainly was. Major Hans Kriek, Juliet’s second in command, recalls that “once at Oshivello the integration and training of the battle group started in earnest. As second-in-command the training and logistic planning was my responsibility, and we spent day and days training for a yet-to-be determined mechanised cross-border operation, plus the logistical support for it…As a basis for ammunition planning we used the standard South African Army WETs (War Establishment Tables), which was a complete overkill.” Much of what later became standard practice was discovered the hard way during the exhausting month. According to Ep van Lill, ”with no other doctrine except what Roland de Vries had written so far for conventional ops, we had to find our own way by means of trial and error.”
The training was rounded off with a field exercise; although this took place in the reasonably open surroundings of Oshivello, the final conclusion and recommendation was that Ratels could be successfully employed in close terrain as well.
With the exercise over, the combat group returned to Oshivello and the troops were given a rest day while preparations were put in hand to take the vehicles and equipment back to Grootfontein base next morning for care and maintenance storage in case any ad hoc operations eventuated.
“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
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