Name: They Live by the Sword – Col Jan Breytenbach
SKU: 1857
Price: 500.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock

They Live by the Sword – Col Jan Breytenbach

Secondhand

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R500.00

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Condition

Secondhand

Location

South Africa

Product code

1857

Bob Shop ID

647138236

This is a soldiers story about South African soldiers in southern Angola and Namibia and the enemies they fought. It tells of insurgency and counter-insurgency, guerrilla warfare and counter-guerrilla warfare, almost conventional warfare and conventional warfare. It tells of a conflict which to the world was unpopular, in which South Africa was perceived as the aggressor, but which South Africa saw as a war fought to stop what is now Namibia falling into the hands of the Soviet and Cuban backed SWAPO organisation. Finally the war was resolved by the democratic solution of UN supervised free and fair elections. SWAPO won the election, but there is now a strong opposition in the Namibian parliament as well. Perhaps that type of democracy wouldnt now exist in Namibia if the war hadnt been fought?

32 Battalion, of which the author, Colonel Jan Breytenbach, was the founding commander, because of the secrecy surrounding it, became the most controversial unit in the South African Army. Their story is the story of the Angolan/Namibian border war, because their involvement in it was greater than any other South African unit.

It is a story, too, which has never been told before for reasons of official secrecy.

The unit consists primarily of black troops and NCOs, originating from virtually every tribe in Angola, led by white South African officers and senior NCOs. Neither apartheid nor any form of racism has ever been practised in the unit.

The black troops do not originate from particularly warlike tribes, neither are they specially selected to meet the high standard of physical and mental fitness or stamina demanded of an elite unit. In short, they come from the same basic background as the FAPLA and SWAPO troops they were fighting and the UNITA troops they were supporting. In later years some were commissioned and they quickly proved their worth.

There has always been a sprinkling of white officers and NCOs from countries like Australia, Portugal, the old Rhodesia, Britain and America within its ranks, but latterly this element has shrunk to a few remnants. Their presence undoubtedly led to stories that the unit was a mercenary one, led by foreign white mercenaries. While it is true the black Angolan element might fall within the mercenary definition, the white leadership core has always primarily consisted of South African officers and NCOs.

Hardcover in good condition But some slight wear to the DJ as per pics

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