BATTLEFIELD TOURS
The national servicemen who served with 61 Mech Battalion Group during the Border War were probably the national servicemen in the SADF who were exposed the most to conventional warfare; having to deal with attacks on enemy bases in Angola, mobile enemy columns around Cuito Cuanavale, air strikes from MiG fighter jets, artillery bombardments and Russian tanks.
The 61 Mech Veterans Association realised that many of these former national servicemen (and professional soldiers) may, because of these intense encounters during their youth, be yearning to the find closure on these hectic experiences. One way to deal with this was to arrange tours back to the battlefields where they as young men had to go into combat and returned battle hardened.
In August 2009 the first battlefield tour of Namibia and Angola took place, led by the renowned WO1 Koos Moorcroft. At that stage Angola was not yet a friendly place for military veterans to travel to, and the first tour party felt somewhat apprehensive about what to expect. In the end all turned out well. Frank van Zyl lured the tourists into a well-planned ambush just outside Windhoek where the tourists were exposed to hospitality which bordered on assault which is accompanied with the intent to do grievously bodily harm…A visit to Omuthiya was followed by the border crossing at Ruacana and a journey through towns and villages which were much bigger than just a physical journey.
This tour was followed by another in 2010, with good contact being made with the inhabitants of the places visited. In Namibia the touring met up with the likes of Frank van Zyl again, and this time they also met up with the late Brigadier-General Karel Ndjoba who, prior to joining the Namibian Defence Force, served in the SADF’s 101 Battalion. Also present were Lieutenant-General Martin Shali, who commanded PLAN, and Colonel Ben Kadila, the commander of the NDF Special Forces. In Angola the formal contact with the Angolans still eluded the party. Deon Lamprecht was sent by the Rapport newspaper to cover this tour, while Dr Louis Bothma, author of the “Die Buffel Struikel”, penned a book afterwards with the name “Anderkant Cuito: ’n Reisverhaal van die Grensoorlog”.
During 2015, Johan Booysen, a former national serviceman, a soldier at 61 Mech, visited Cuito Cuanavale. He met and struck up a friendship with the military officer in charge of that region, General Fernando Mateus. They came to the idea of bringing together the former enemies at Cuito Cuanavale to commemorate the fallen and to help combatants find peace and closure. This friendship led to the next Angolan tour in 2018 with the informal name of “Unidade de Amizade”, or “United in Friendship”.
There were also two former Soviet advisors with the South Africans who flew into Cape Town and drove all the way up with their former enemies. The media release contained this all-encompassing idea, which politicians and other leaders would do well to learn from: “The human story of sacrifice and fortitude should be told by soldiers and civilians; of triumphs and disasters shared; of how former foes became friends once peace ensued.”
Speaking of the trip in May, Colonel Kobus Loubser reminisced that when they got together at Rundu – one of the main SADF bases in northern Namibia and which hosted a key air base – it was like the unleashing of energy. Seeing old comrades again made the 30 years of no contact disappear. The bond was there.
He said when they set foot in Angola, they were received and treated like kings, by none other than their old enemy. He added further: “This journey cemented, strengthened and reconfirmed our own 61 veterans bond of brotherhood again… The trees that we planted next to the tank with call sign 53, were cemented in by our Angolan friends and that is now a permanent monument to our last big battlefield. And that was our final bond of friendship with the Angolans… And most importantly, the bridge at Cuito Cuanavale, the bridge that was once a bridge too far and the source of pain and suffering, is now the bridge of peace and friendship that connects us forever…”