1 Recce. Alexander Strachan
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the ones responsible for executing the task since it was of strategic importance that no fingers could be pointed at South Africa’s involvement.
Survival in (to the Recces, rather cohabitation with) the African bush is another central theme. Among the stories told in the book is that of the renowned male lion Teddy who lived together with the Recces at their secret and concealed base, Fort Doppies in the wooded Caprivi. As Teddy matured and increased in size, the operators started calling him Terry (short for terrorist). His fate has been the subject of much speculation, and his handler, the crack tracker and bush expert Dewald de Beer, lifts the lid on what actually happened to him. The lion’s co-existence with the Recces on the banks of the Kwando River was closely connected to their affinity and affection for the African bush in which they lived, thrived and fought.
During the Border War 1 RC was regularly involved in firefights in Angola, among other places. In time they would also be increasingly drawn into the war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During this phase they would, as usual, be employed in the strictest secrecy. It was, after all, in the nature of the Recces to operate invisibly behind the scenes.
ALEXANDER STRACHAN
‘The night belongs to us’
Moving stealthily, Hannes Venter’s group stalk the Shatotwa 1 base. In the bright moonlight, their surroundings are clearly visible. Their weapons are cocked, the safety catches set on ‘fire’. As they come closer, they see the grass roofs of the huts gleaming in the moonlight. It is ominously quiet; not even the sound of a dog barking. It worries them – the thought that no dogs are barking. Surely every camp has a dog or two; why aren’t the dogs picking up their scent?
With everything shrouded in total silence, the group anxiously lie waiting for first light, that brief grey period between daybreak and sunrise. It is a pleasant winter night, though, as expected, somewhat cool. The closer it gets to morning, the more the temperature drops. But when the Recces took off their backpacks, their backs were dripping with sweat. In the chilly breeze they are now starting to feel cold.
In front of them, the sleeping Swapo base is waking up. The silence is suddenly broken by sounds of motion, men coughing and grunting as they get up and stretch their bodies after the night’s sleep. Muted muttering and dry coughs can be heard from all sides. The guards at the entrance to the base – barely 40 m from the attack force – light cigarettes and start chatting unsuspectingly. But there is always the risk that something may alert them to the presence of the Recces on their front stoep.
At a distance of some 300 m, Charl Naudé’s group lie waiting. Positioned about 20 m from the Shatotwa 2 base, they are waiting for Hannes to ‘spring’ the attack on Shatotwa 1 at first light. The moment Hannes and his team start firing, Charl’s group will attack. According to their information, there are about 120 soldiers at each of the two Swapo bases.
As they wait for Hannes to launch the attack, someone steps out of a hut right in front them. It is a Swapo fighter without his gun, heading towards the concealed Recces. He is walking straight towards Lt. LC Odendal, who has dug himself in next to a metre-high bush. The rest of the team shift slightly and then they are again stock-still. But every AK-47 is now firmly trained on the approaching man. Adrenaline pumps through the operators’ veins. They hold their breath, their hearts in their mouths.
The man stops right in front of LC. He is evidently still half asleep, for the next moment he urinates on top of LC without spotting him. This is too much for LC, and he shoots the man dead there and then.
The moment the shot rings out, everyone simultaneously opens fire on the base with AK-47s and RPG-7s. At the same time all hell breaks loose 300 m away, where Hannes’s team bombard Shatotwa 1 with AK-47s, RPG-7s and mortars.
Their first target is the guards at the control point and sentry post. They were either killed instantly or have fled, as they stop returning fire after a few moments. Some of the Recces’ RPG-7 rockets hit the huts. At least three right ahead of them catch fire, creating a wall of flames 15 m in front of the attack force that brightly illuminates the Recces’ own positions. Above their heads, tracers and ordinary bullets pierce the air with sharp banging sounds.
Shots are now also being fired from the main base in the direction of Charl’s group. This fire is not really noteworthy since the whole camp has clearly been caught asleep. At Shatotwa 1, Hannes’s force now all rise from their positions and start advancing. Immediately they come under fire from light machine guns (LMGs). The LMG positions are in the north-western section of the base and fairly close to the Recces.
Hannes’s force continue their attack with fire-and-movement tactics. They do not run as usual, however, but execute the attack at a rapid walking pace. Walk and shoot, walk and shoot without stopping so that the group maintains its momentum. RPG-7 rockets and mortar bombs are exploding everywhere in the base and ripping it apart. The Recces shoot with lots of tracer bullets in their magazines, which causes the dry grass to catch fire. Eventually the whole camp is ablaze. In the glow of the flames they see the Swapos running and zigzagging to dodge the bullets.
The base has been caught so off guard that most of the Swapo soldiers’ weapons are still in their huts. The Recces mow down a great many of them with PKM machine guns, AK-47s and RPG-7s, with the mortars delivering overhead fire from a short distance. In the early-morning serenity of the bush, the roar of the explosions and machine-gun salvoes is deafening.
Tracer bullets whizz through the air trailing bright streaks of light a metre above the ground, and people wilt before the onslaught like blades of grass. The Recces continue to advance.
Perhaps the battle lasted only some minutes. Afterwards, it was impossible to recall the duration. To some Recces it might have felt like hours, but after a few minutes they had already moved through the objective.
Then the deathly quiet that is so characteristic of firefights set in. Their ears buzzing, the Recces did not even know whether or not Swapo kept returning fire, they were too focused on their own task. In the din of battle, they would not have been able to hear the enemy fire anyway. But now, in the silence, for the first time they become aware of the groans of the injured Swapo fighters.
* * *
As in the case of the above attack, the men of 1 Recce often used the cover of night to maintain the element of surprise against a numerically superior force. (The full story of the attack on the Shatotwa bases is told in chapter 12.) Accordingly, their motto was ‘The night belongs to 1.1 Commando’. For the Recces, the night was the ideal time to conduct their operations – it rendered them invisible to the enemy and to other prying eyes that might betray their presence. During daytime they preferred to lie motionless in their hide. From that concealed position they would scan the environs with an eagle eye to gather information about what was happening around them.
Inconspicuousness was the watchword, and the team would not betray their presence through sounds, smoke, smells or tracks. Maintaining the element of surprise was crucial. The operators employed advanced tactics such as anti-tracking to avoid detection – they erased their own tracks behind them so that the enemy would not even know they had entered the area.
The Recces conducted prior reconnaissance operations to identify their target, and in some cases higher authority (e.g. Military Intelligence) initiated the deployment. Depending on its sensitivity, the operation would be authorised by the Chief of the Defence Force or by the minister of defence – in some cases by the state president himself.
The Recce team’s leaders would plan an operation in the strictest secrecy with as few people as possible involved. At unit level, the Recce commander was responsible for the planning. Only after the plan had been rehearsed in the finest detail over weeks or months would the Recce teams be deployed on the mission under their unit commander.
Inside enemy territory, the team would lie up in one place during the day and then, just after last light (the period between sunset and darkness), move out of their hide under the cover of night. The objective was now to infiltrate the target they would attack at an appropriate time (midnight, for instance). Their withdrawal plan would have been worked out to the last detail, with all possibilities having been considered: