1 Recce, volume 2. Alexander Strachan
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the rank of colonel. His ‘new identity’ did not always pass muster, and once he was confronted head-on by a Rhodesian who inquired: ‘Colonel, who are you?’ to which Möller responded: ‘I am a Rhodesian officer on the staff of COMOPS.’ But the Rhodesian replied: ‘Sir, with respect, that’s not true because I know all the officers on the COMOPS staff and you are not one of them.’
Möller was part of the COMOPS planning team that crisscrossed Rhodesia and visited all the JOCs. The purpose of the visits was to determine the operational needs of each JOC as well as specific logistical needs with which the SADF could assist the Rhodesians.
The Combined Operations team sometimes also visited Special Forces bases, such as Fort Bendura and Fort Buffalo Range. The bases were manned exclusively by the Selous Scouts, and there they were briefed on operations, methodology, training, and success or failure with regard to ‘turning’ captured enemies. It would then also be established what support the SADF could provide and a shopping list would be handed to EMLC,9 a highly specialised and secret engineering company that supplied special equipment to Special Forces.
During one such visit Hans Möller talked to two Zipras ‘who had been turned. To my great surprise, I found myself sitting next to these two gentlemen on a flight to Pretoria. All I heard later was that they had been under way on a mission to “a foreign country”.’
Möller personally relayed Rhodesia’s requirements to Malan and Maj. Gen. PW van der Westhuizen, Chief of Staff Intelligence (CSI). These included weapons and ammunition and any other armaments the Rhodesians required for specific operations or for their war effort as a whole. Malan and his top structure would then approve or turn down the requests.
At COMOPS, the first briefing session in the morning was a general briefing about what had happened on the operational front over the past 24 hours. During the second session, too, general feedback was given, and depending on the morning session, future operations would be planned. The third session would take place on an ad hoc basis, and this was where special operations of a strategic nature were discussed. This type of operation was elaborated in the utmost secrecy, and the ‘need-to-know’ principle determined who was allowed to be present.
By virtue of his appointment as military attaché in Salisbury, Col. Fourie had access to intelligence sources that were not always accessible to liaison officers. Hence he was in a position to give valuable input with regard to requests for support in operations, which he did.
After a stint of about ten months (from June 1977 to March 1978) as liaison officer in Rhodesia, Möller was retransferred to South Africa and returned to his position at MI. Before long he was transferred to the Special Forces HQ in Pretoria as Senior Staff Officer Operations Army (SSO Ops Army). Here he served on the staff of the general officer commanding (GOC) Special Forces, Maj. Gen. Fritz Loots. Capt. (navy) Woody Woodburne was the SSO Ops Navy, and Col. Karel van Heerden the SSO Ops Air Force. Möller was the most senior of the three, and Gen. Loots employed him as his second in command (2IC) within Special Forces.
During Möller’s deployment at Special Forces, he was very closely involved in the planning regarding the organisation’s future. He was inter alia involved in the so-called Serfontein Commission (1977–1979) that had been appointed to investigate Special Forces’ structures and deployment and make recommendations. This was a very stimulating time for Möller, as he had a natural aptitude for and interest in organisational work and investigations of this kind.
He is remembered as a very popular officer who was universally liked. He excelled as a sportsman as well, and played wing for both Northern Transvaal and the Junior Springboks. On the rugby field he had the reputation of being one of the toughest players to bring down as he was an enormously strong runner and exceptionally firm on his legs. The highlight after many challenges in his military career was his appointment as officer commanding of Eastern Transvaal Command with the rank of major general.
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Col. Ewald Olckers replaced Hans Möller as liaison officer in Rhodesia. He and his wife Isabel, along with her ginger cat Tau, flew to Salisbury with two suitcases filled with clothes on a South African Airways flight on 19 April 1978. On their travel documents, the purpose of their visit was merely stated as ‘on business’. Olckers had been given an undertaking by Gen. Loots that his deployment ‘would only be for a year’.
Like Möller, Olckers was a paratrooper and former commander of 1 Parachute Battalion. A year and ten months would go by, however, before he was relieved as liaison officer when Cmdt. André Bestbier, another paratrooper, took over from him on 22 February 1980. The functions Olckers and Bestbier performed in Rhodesia were similar to Möller’s. On the day of Olckers’ return to South Africa (with ginger cat and all), thousands of supporters were thronging the airport to await the arrival of Robert Mugabe.
Olckers recommended Bestbier to Gen. Loots as the appropriate person to replace him.10 He and Bestbier were good friends, had stayed together in the officers’ mess at Oudtshoorn, holidayed together, practised sports together, and on occasion served together as barmen.
Olckers has fond memories of the Rhodesian phase. ‘Besides the fact that I enjoyed the work, I met lots of people and learnt to speak English well into the bargain … which would later stand me in good stead in Durban. On Saturday afternoons, in a jacket and tie, I would go with Isabel to the Owners and Trainers VIP box at Borrowdale Race Course for diversion. It was also an institution to go for drinks at the Monomatapa Hotel.11 Because of the upcoming election, additional Recces were deployed under cover in Salisbury, and on more than one occasion I had to broker peace between the Recce operators and the Philistines.’12
On his return from Rhodesia, Col. Olckers was appointed as the SSO Ops Army at Special Forces. On 2 March 1981 he became the first commander of 1 Reconnaissance Regiment (1 RR), which originated from 1 Reconnaissance Commando (1 RC). He served as the commander until 30 March 1983.
Apart from his strong leadership qualities, Olckers would also be remembered by his men as the proverbial ‘man’s man’. At the Bluff in Durban he dived with them and joined them in fishing at the whaling station. He was an outstanding sportsman and even played rugby for the SA Army.
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Cmdt. André Bestbier, Olckers’s successor as liaison officer, comes from a family with strong military ties. His father was a WO1 in the SADF and his elder brother, Frank, an infantryman and paratrooper who rose to the rank of brigadier general. On top of that, his youngest sister is married to a former paratrooper and commander of 5 Recce, Col. James Hills. Bestbier started his initial military training in 1964 at the then Army Gymnasium at Voortrekkerhoogte. After that he inter alia did duty in Walvis Bay, South West Africa, and at the Infantry School in Oudtshoorn. There he underwent a ‘recce selection’ under Jan Breytenbach and subsequently also completed the basic parachuting course in Bloemfontein.
His path was not always ‘strewn with roses’, and among other things he had a serious personal clash with Breytenbach, which, to his regret, caused a stiffness in their relationship. When he reported for the jump course in Bloemfontein, his reception at 1 Parachute Battalion was also by no means cordial. He nonetheless did his best to complete the course successfully, and passed it.
Moreover, the following year he was transferred to 1 Parachute Battalion. Once again he was given a chilly reception by the commander and some of his personnel. But Bestbier performed his tasks to the best of his ability in his respective roles as platoon commander, company 2IC, transport officer, and commander of the parachute training wing. Throughout, he was focused and determined to reach the highest level in his field.13
After he had completed the SA Army’s senior command and staff course in 1978, Gen. Loots informed him that he had to relieve Col. Olckers as liaison officer in Rhodesia. Until that happened, however, he first had to report to the Special Forces HQ to make the necessary preparations. He stayed in the KG VI officers’ mess, and Olckers briefed him on his tasks. These would mainly involve liaising with the chief of the Rhodesian armed forces, as well as with the chiefs of the army and the air force.
Bestbier was also introduced to the chief of the Special Branch, whom he experienced as an exceptional person and considered to