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In 1981, I was serving my two years National Service with the South African Defence Force, and took part in a major operation into Angola in the middle of that year. The name of the operation no longer matters, although I’m sure there will be many South African men reading this that can guess. The purpose of the operation was to clear the southern part of that country of SWAPO fighters, and the Angola National Army who supported them. I had volunteered, along with five of my regiment buddies, to drive a buffel, an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) with drop-down sides for quick deployment, as a means of getting onto the operation. A buffel is an Afrikaans word for buffalo. We had a quick one-hour lesson from a driver in the transport platoon, and off we went. We had a lot of fun, even though there was the constant danger of injury and death, fire-fights with the enemy and having the troop-carrier that I was driving being blown out from under me by a TM57 Russia-made anti-vehicle mine. I have often thought about the things that happened during those seven weeks, and wondered if I would write a book about it. And so it happened, thirty-one years later, I write that book that has been floating around in my head. Those seven weeks are printed in indelible ink on the walls of my mind. It was those seven weeks that inspired and led me to some of the events in this book – like the Angolan Army’s pay office that was robbed. Names of my old comrades-in-arms have been changed to protect them from any fall-out this book would cause. This is a work of fiction, but inspired by events during those seven incredible weeks.
Paperback, 312 pages
Published May 2014
About The Author:
Steve Reeder was born in England and raised in Africa. He has lived in Zimbabwe, South Africa, England, Ireland, and Spain. Currently living in the Garden Route of South Africa and running several businesses.
Worked as; salesman, sales manager, marketing manager and even did three bouts of commentary on national motorcycle racing for the Top Sport program. Owner of several businesses including a golf tour & events company. Now spend most of his time in Knysna and Durban with trips to Spain and home to England when the weather there is pleasant. Steve is a combat veteran with the South African army – combat in Angola. He survived two fire fights with the enemy and having vehicle blasted out from under him by an anti-vehicle mine. Several years later he competed in national and provincial motorcycle racing championships in South Africa where he won the 1989 provincial 400cc championship. Other notable challengers that Steve took on was to bungee off Victoria Falls Bridge (over the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia), and to parachute naked at 4000 feet over Moroccan desert (it was a dare from a friend!)
Steve owns a publishing firm based in South Africa where he publishes and helps to market novels by local authors, as well as a film production company, a marketing consulting firm and has just started an advertising agency too.
