Bushman Battalion

 Welcome to the Home Page dedicated to those Soldiers of 31 Battalion who served and died in the service of South Africa.

Introduction

                                                                                            The Bushman's history has been one of relentless persecution in Southern Africa, more than 10 Millenniums ago they were already settled at the Cape of Good Hope… a gentle people without guile, their livelihood depended on hunting and gathering    

According to their folklore Kxau was the first man created by their God! Khu, and! Khu gave him a wife, Zan.

Evil visited their world, and! Khu made a bond with Kxau and promised him he would care for him and his loved ones….  True to his word, he taught them how to hunt, make poisoned arrows, use sharpened sticks to dig up edible roots, and how to use reeds to reach water below the surface.

In the 16^th Century the Bantu started migrating South and the Bushmen found their nomadic lifestyle with their legends, campfires and nightly dancing under threat, unfortunately this migration coincided with the first white settlers arriving at the Cape. The peaceful coexistence that the Bushman had shared with the Hottentots was shattered and they found themselves to be treated as vermin by black and white alike. The blacks ruthlessly exterminated whole clans and enslaved whatever survivors there were. The whites were no different; they "indentured" those survivors that were left after their punitive raids. The Bushman's only crimes were that they did not understand the concept of possession and treated cattle as game to feed on.

In the face of this Genocide the Bushman retreated, those in Natal hid in the Drakensberg, those in the Cape fled to the deserts of South West Africa and Bechuanaland. All over Southern Africa one can see the legacy of these kind and gentle people from the Karoo to the Orange Free State to the Transvaal and Natal. By the time "Wars of Liberation" had come to Southern Africa it was estimated that there was approximately 47,000 Bushmen in the Subcontinent of which 4,700 were in Angola. The Portuguese quickly realised that these people were exceptional trackers and utilised them as Flechas (Arrows) against their traditional enemies the Black Tribesmen of Angola who supported the MPLA, FNLA and Unita. The recruitment of these Bushmen "Flechas" were under the aegis of the DGS (Portuguese Secret Service). Instead of using a bow and arrow as their forefathers did, these Bushmen used a G3.

 In Angola there were mainly four tribes, the "Black Bushmen", (Kwengo or Zama) and the "Yellow Bushmen", (Kwankhala and Sekela). The Zama lived in the Okavango and Cuando area and were known as the Baraquena and were culturally tied to the Va-Sekela, which was known as the Vasequela.

The Bushmen are normally a very peaceful people because they could not afford to fight one another, as the only weapon that they used was the poison arrow, for which there was no antidote. An old Bushman folk tale tells that once upon a time all people were one, and their God, !Khu came down to earth and gave a rope which was made of ox hide and grass, and told the people to pull on the rope - the Bantu came away with that which was made of oxhide and the Bushman had the piece that was made out of grass. So therefore the Bushman had the things of the veld and the Bantu had the cattle.

To this peaceful people the Portuguese Coup d'etat of April 1974 was the start of their crucifixion, which continues to this day.

The existence of 31 Battalion was a direct result of the April 1974 revolution when it was decided by Portugal to withdraw from its African colonies. It became clear that anybody who supported the Portuguese during their colonial wars would be dealt with by whichever faction came to power in the void left by Portugal's departure from Africa.

Luckily for those who had co-operated with the Portuguese authorities there happened to be the right man at the right time, Commandant Delville Linford, like Jan Breytenbach he was an "enfant terrible" in the SADF, and without these two individuals' foresight, the history of South Africa, South West Africa and Angola would have been completely different.

Linford was a gunner, unlike Breytenbach who was an infantryman, and both of them were ridiculed in military circles when they advocated an unconventional approach to warfare. In April 1973 Linford was seconded to Serpa Pinto as Senior South African Liaison Officer. He learnt a great deal about the utilisation of the Flechas and became a close friend of Jose Rose D'Oliveria; this friendship stood him in good stead in the years that followed. 

In July 1974 he was recalled to Pretoria and in August of the same year Constand Viljoen asked him to serve in the West Caprivi as his experience in Angola with the Bushmen and DGS made him the ideal choice. Linford was fortunate to have a very good working relationship with Major-General Fritz Loots who was in charge of Special Forces in those days, who made the decision to deploy the Bushmen who had been employed as Flechas against SWAPO.

On 2^nd November 1974 the first arrivals arrived at Calai opposite Rundu and they crossed the Border fully armed where Major Coen Upton met them.

From this humble beginning grew one of the best fighting units in the whole of Southern Africa. Initially, in 1974, the unit consisted of Infantry Company of Bushmen refugees and later on another was formed from Caprivi Bushmen in 1975. During Operation Savannah they took part as a Combat Group Alpha along side Combat Group Bravo. These two groups bore the brunt of the fighting during this campaign. These two units were later known as 31 Battalion (Combat Group Alpha) and 32 Battalion (Combat Group Bravo). From 1976 to 1978 men of 31 Battalion served as trackers in Ovambo and Angola and worked in close liaison with 1 Reconnaissance Commando. In 1979 it was renamed 201 Battalion and grew into a Unit comprising of 5 Rifle Companies and a Reconnaissance Wing.

Linford quickly realised that the welfare of the Bushmen Troops families were as important as that of the fighting prowess of the troops themselves and during his tenure as Officer Commanding he made this a priority.

The Unit Badge consisted of a Black Crow with a white chest on a white circle, the Crow does not have any special significance in Bushman mythology, in actual fact the badge came about by accident. The SADF went to great pains to keep the existence of their Bushmen Unit secret General Loots kept on referring to the Bushmen as "Mossies" (sparrows). Linford requested him to refer to them as "Kraaie" (crows). The black and white of the Crow fitted the Unit to a "T"; a Crow has got sharp eyes and brings back these things to its home, ergo the Bushmen bringing back information. 

When Noah released the Crow from the Ark, it did not come back, just like these Bushmen who would never return to their country of birth or former life styles again. The Black represented the Black soldiers, who were the majority in the Unit and the White represented the White soldiers, who were the minority in the Unit, the circle represented the sun rising over Africa.

Operation Savannah

On 9 October 1975 Colonel Koos Van Heerden was placed in charge of Task Force Zulu, which consisted of Battle Group Alpha and Battle Group Bravo and some Vickers Medium Machine Guns and 81mm Mortars.

Alpha consisted of the two Bushman Companies under the command of Commandant Linford and Bravo of 3 Companies of ex FNLA troops under the command of Commandant Jan Breytenbach; fate had decided that the two best soldiers in South Africa would be in the vanguard of the South African intervention.

When Commandant Linford addressed the troops and his speech had been translated into Bushman and Portuguese everybody cheered when the interpreters got to the bit that said they were going to war. The audience was quite happy about the fact that their foes would be SWAPO and the MPLA but things got a little bit confused when it was explained to them that Alphas allies would be the FNLA and Unita. How could they be expected to fight alongside their sworn enemies of the past 14 years?

The Bushman Headman called Cuamama even went as far as to ask Rose D'Oliveria to explain to Linford that he got this bit wrong as their enemies were the FNLA as well as SWAPO and the MPLA. It took Linford the whole of the 12^th October to explain to his troops that the FNLA were now the good guys. When Bravo and Alpha married up at Katuita there was an air of mutual suspicion and the Bushmen locked and loaded as soon as they saw the black troops of Bravo.

Zulu was supposed to be a non South African Unit in order to give the South African Government plausible deniability, but both Units had the habit of attracting South Africans to their ranks. All South African equipment was withdrawn including the Unimogs and all the troops were issued with Portuguese Uniforms, G3 Rifles, Portuguese Canvas Boots and Leather Belts. Transport consisted of the ubiquitous Portuguese vegetable trucks that became such a feature in Operation Savannah.

On 14 October Alpha set off and the first item that was "liberated" by Alpha was a bulldozer, which was press-ganged as a recovery vehicle. The Task Force went as far North as Serpa Pinto then turned south and on 19 October they took Pereira de Eca. The MPLA consisting of approximately 150 men gapped it towards Rocades. The following day 2SAI captured this town and Zulu was quite a bit peeved when they found out that Commandant du Toit had beaten them to the punch. The next town to fall was Joao de Almeida where they captured a warehouse full of food and clothes. The next town was Humpata. Linford was almost killed during the night when a youngster suddenly emerged from the dark carrying an Uzi and fired a burst at Linford, which luckily went over his head. Linford recalled that it was a child, he disarmed him, and quote "…I took the weapon kicked him under the arse and told him to get the hell out of there".

Sa da Bandeira fell on 23 - 24 October, again a lot of booty was taken. The next town to fall was Mocamedes on 27 - 28 October. A Portuguese Corvette was in the harbour and "Proppies" told them to bugger off otherwise he would sink it. Of course this was pure bluff, as Zulu did not posses any artillery. The next morning the Corvette had disappeared. On 30 October Alpha went to Catula where they were revved by the MPLA, after a short-lived battle the MPLA decided to call it a day leaving 2 dead. In the town itself Alpha killed another 3. 

They then moved on to Quilengues, during the night an enemy convoy arrived blissfully unaware that Alpha had decided to stop the night in a pass. An Eland 90 took care of the Land Rover in the lead killing 5 FAPLA Troops and 1 Cuban Officer, the rest of the convoy decided to gap it and Quilengues fell without a shot being fired.

On 1 November Alpha reached Chongoroi, which they found abandoned. 20 kilometres further on the enemy was dug in at the Coporolo River Bridge, Alpha flanked these positions but they found that the enemy had retreated. On 2 November Alpha reached the Benguela/Catengue road and bumped into a retreating convoy, which they quickly shot up.

This was quite a profitable place to be, as immediately afterwards they encountered reinforcements moving towards Catengue, which they dealt with in a similar manner. On 4 November Zulu was re-supplied by an airdrop and the 5 November found Alpha near Paito, 30 Kilometres South of Benguela, there they found a Cuban instruction barracks containing 30,000Kgs of petrol, coffee, rations and ammo. 

On 5 November Alpha attacked Benguela and by the afternoon of 6 November Benguela had been taken. For the first time a Dakota of the South African Air force landed at Benguela Airport whilst this was being revved.

Needles to say the plane was unloaded in record time and Linford recalled "this was the only time that I know of that a Dakota took off at right angles to the runway". By the afternoon of 6 November Benguela was in Zulus hands. Lobito fell to Alpha on 7 November and the scene as Alpha entered the town was reminiscent of the Allies in WWII liberating towns in France. 

On 10 November Zulu went northwards towards Novo Redondo. Alpha and Bravo leap-frogged and kept on until Alpha ran into an ambush at the Quicombo River on 11 November. At this point 20 men were wounded when a Mortar bomb exploded amongst the Mortar platoon as they were setting up their position in a gravel quarry. On 14 November the cat was out of the bag that South Africans were involved when a British Journalist broke the news of South African involvement in the Angolan Civil War.

On the morning of 15 November Alpha moved into Novo Redondo. The MPLA and their Cuban allies now started using the strategy of blowing bridges and this eventually proved to be the South Africans undoing, as they had no bridge building equipment. The next target was Porto Amboim but this remained out of their reach as blown bridges checked them over the Queve River.

 On 15 November Alpha took Villa Nova de Seles, Linford went to a church and bumped into some Nuns who accused him of leading an army who raped and pillaged. Later on that night he sent some Portuguese Officer to the Convent with rations and the following morning the Nuns apologised for their remarks of the previous evening. The following day Alpha took Conda, but again a destroyed bridge on the Queve River stopped them 

They were 500 kilometres away from Luanda but this would be the closest that the troops of  Zulu would get to their prize.

  Alpha returned to Nova Redondo and Bravo then moved to join Combat Group Foxbat on the central front. A grudging respect had grown up between Bravo and Alpha. On 9 December an enemy patrol boat came close enough to be fired upon by Machine guns and the sight of the President Steyn patrolling the coast boosted their morale. In Nova Redondo Linford adopted a Portuguese family. He was never content to sit on his backside and pressganged a fishing boat mounted an 82 mm recoilless rifle and a 20mm AA gun and decided that he was going to try his own amphibious landing. His plan was to by pass the Queve River mouth in fishing boats and land 12 kilometres up the coast but unfortunately Head Quarters would not agree to this. 

Some disgruntled Portuguese NCOs led a mutiny, and 22 former Flechas demanded to be allowed to resign and they were sent to Rundu where they were discharged. On 20 December Alpha returned to the Caprivi, on 26 December Linford was replaced by Commandant P C Myburgh and left. He returned to South West on 31 December 1975. Casualties of Alpha were 1 killed in an accident, 1 killed in action. Alpha regarded their enemies as poor soldiers as these would leave equipment and weapons behind as they ran away. A Bushman learnt from an early age never to leave anything behind.

Alpha

Whlist Linford and the Bushmen were fighting their war in Angola, things were happening back at Alpha Base under the command of Lieutenant Pinkie Coetzee. He started expanding the Base and slowly but surely Bushmen and their families were trickling in. At the beginning of November a group of Portuguese Soldiers were sent to Alpha Camp by General Loots to reinforce Linford's Battle Group. Linford would have nothing to do with them, and after a month they disappeared.

 On 23 November 1975 a large group of Bushmen arrived at the Camp under the command of Matoka Matheus, an ex-Flecha who was a community leader at Cuito Cuanavale. He had been approached at Mpupa by Lt. Slabbert and S/Sgt. da Costa and was asked to join Alpha Group. This group eventually became Charlie Company. In December Charlie Company commenced basic training and eventually Charlie became the best Company in the Unit.

 One of the Bushmen who had mutinied returned, and wanted to rejoin the Unit, Linford reluctantly agreed to this on the precondition that he first work as a Swine herd. A year later he was accepted as a soldier again.

Linford quickly realised that the Unit had to be self-sufficient and to attain this they started a farm at Bagani. In the next year over six tonnes of vegetables were produced per month, and they raised their own livestock. Lt. Coetzee's wife gave Afrikaans lessons to the women and taught them needlework. On 9 February a new Base was inaugurated and by now the Portuguese cadre had ceased to exist, these were replaced by South African Officers and NCOs.

 Linford discovered a lot of Portuguese families that he had known in Serpa Pinto in the refugee camp at Calai. In February the rest of the Bushmen who had been left behind at Mpupa arrived at the Camp under the leadership of Tango Naka. Unfortunately before they left FAPLA attacked them and between 50 and 70 people were clubbed and kicked to death, if this wasn't bad enough, SWAPO then took over where FAPLA left off.

The bush telegraph worked extremely well and more and more Bushmen heard about a place called Omega where they would find refuge. During operation Cobra the Bushmen worked in close collaboration with South African troops and for the first time a Bushman tracked  SWAPO from a helicopter. SWAPO became more and more active in Ovamboland and it was decided to send a group of trackers there, this was the forerunner of the Romeo Mikes.

A Scouting Team was also initiated under the command of Tango Naka, and Koos Moorecroft and Ewald de Beer from I Recce were put in charge of their training. This was the Genesis of the Bushmen being attached to I Recce.    

It soon became apparent that the Unit had be self sufficient in looking after the needs of the dependants of the fighting men, and before long the Portuguese families who had moved to Omega was instrumental in setting up a bakery, needlework centre and laundry, a number of sewing machines had been obtained from the Transvaal Education Department, and these were used to make Uniform items.

 One of the unusual trademarks of 31 was their headgear, known to all and sundry as a "Bonnie", the Bushmen would fold the SADF bush hat inwards, as a stopgap Linford then told his men whilst on Savannah that they could tear the brims and flaps of their Portuguese kepis off and wear this instead, but once they got back in SWA  something had to be done.  

Linford had one of the Portuguese women make a copy of this rimless kepi in Nutria.The first crow emblem to be worn as a cap badge had been drawn by a medic, called Arthur Miller, and the first Unit flag consisted of a black Crow drawn on a white piece of cloth, using a Koki pen .In 1981 the "Bonnie" was adopted as the Units official headgear, although it superficially resembles a Glengarry there is a world of difference between the two.

  As trackers the Bushmen had no equal, yet it took some time for the higher-ups to realise that they were re-inventing the wheel, a bloke from the Infantry School was seconded to the Natal Parks Board,  where they taught him tracking, and then he came along and tried to give the Bushmen a course on how to track and interpret information!  

It really turned into a farce, one person would lay a trail, but instead of following this, the Bushmen would simply point out where he was hiding. As one Bushman remarked: "The Whites look, but they cannot see". Nothing could illustrate their bush craft more than the fact that they would sleep like logs on ambush and would require shaking in the morning to wake them up, yet when the enemy approached at night they would be alert and ready for them. Linford recalled that on one occasion they told him a full 20 minutes before a Fapla convoy passed them that trucks were coming towards them, he discounted this at first but had to eat his words when convoy appeared

  Roll of Honour

VISIT SECTOR 20 AND HAVE A DRINK IN THE  "JAKKALSGAT"

BACK TO INDEX:

 Cobus Venter 2000