ROOIKOP

61 Mech Battalion Group was stationed at Walvis Bay as part of the Chief of Army’s reserve, with the potential to deter violence and armed conflict during South West Africa’s progress towards an independent and sovereign Namibia.

In practice, however, the unit was but a shadow of its former self. While two of the infantry companies were actually staffed, they were both deployed to the East Rand of Johannesburg (Katorus Area), without their vehicles and heavy equipment, in what would today be called ‘stabilisation operations’.

The other sub-units enjoyed the limited maintenance services of skeleton staff, ranging from a troop of national servicemen from the School of Armour to a company minus of volunteer reserves from the Cape Corps.

The main purpose of the rear HQ in Walvis Bay was to maintain the unit’s prime mission equipment that was occupying all of the available hangar space at Rooikop. With most of the Battalion HQ’s personnel being new at the job and the unit stripped of its combat troops, 61 Mech Battalion Group could by no stretch of the imagination be called even marginally combat ready.

While the unit’s small complement of troops resided in dormitories at Rooikop, the married personnel were housed in dwellings in the town of Walvis Bay. Most of the junior leader group were accommodated in a military hostel, along with other officers and NCOs from the military area. Duty buses, often somewhat sandblasted by the ‘Oosweer’, were provided for the majority of personnel to commute between Walvis Bay and Rooikop, where a standard military unit routine was adhered to.