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South African Border War 1966-1989

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Profiles

  • Leon Potgieter (1943 - 1994)
  • Izak Frederik Van Zyl (1963 - 1986)
    11 May 1986: Four members from the South West Africa Police Counter-Insurgency Wing: Ops-K Division (Koevoet) were Killed in Action when their Zulu Lima Casspir was hit by a Soviet RPG-7 Anti-Tank Rock...

Much can be said about this war and many people feel it was a war fought in vain.

This is a place where we can add information and assemble profiles of the men and women who died during this period, as a result of the “Forgotten War of South Africa” or while doing military service on RSAs other borders or in training camps. This is a platform to share and add interesting tales and anecdotes about those who have profiles on Geni.

The South African Border War, commonly referred to as the Angolan Bush War or The Forgotten War in South Africa, took place from 1966 to 1989 in South-West Africa (now Namibia) and Angola between South Africa and its allied forces (mainly UNITA) on the one side and the Angolan Armed Forces (FAPLA), South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), and their allies (mainly Cuba). It was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War and the Namibian War of Independence.

According to Wikipedia the statistics for those who died in this war stands at: South Africa 1,791 Cuba 3,000-10,000 (whole Angolan civil war figure) SWAPO 11,335

List of operations of the South African Border War

http://samvousa.org/special-interest/border-war/

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gec-military-moderat...

Books

Willem Steenkamp’s account of the protracted struggle for South West Africa (now Namibia) has become one of the most enduring accounts of a conflict that went on for a generation. In / South Africa’s Border War 1966-1989, the reader finds a comprehensive — and comprehensible — retelling of a war which went on between a sometimes confusing array of forces. As Steenkamp observes in his Foreword: Southern Africa’s longest war effectively ended on November 1 of 1988, when South Africa and the South West African People’s Organization finally called it quits, 23 long years after the first shot had been fired. It had gone on for so long that for several generations of people of all races it was hard to believe that peace had come; that (on the South African side at least) a father and son could be wearing the same campaign medal for fighting on the same front but 15 years apart. In the latter stages, in fact, the brunt of the war was borne on both sides by young men who had not even been conceived when it had started.

What happened to the boys on the border? This is the story of two South Africans who left home as boys and returned as battle-scarred men.

Blame, Shame or Reaffirmation: White Conscripts Reassess the Meaning of the Border War in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Documentary

The Last Domino

Other links SA Bush war site South African Defence Force End Conscription Campaign

Profiles

A

B

Christo Badenhorst 26 Jun 1966 - 15 Nov 1986 Graf / Grave

Gert Johannes Alwyn Barnard 22 Oct 1959 - 8 Oct 1980

Johannes Petrus Barnard 22 Dec 1969 - 19 Jan 1988 Graf / Grave

Eddie James Barnard 29 Dec 1962 - 30 Apr 1982

Hercules Petrus Bester 2 Dec 1961 - 7 May 1982

Deon Botes 21 Oct 1967 - 31 Oct 1987

C

Stephen Maritz Cronje ? - 10 Jun 1980

Johan Calitz 9 May 1960 - 13 Aug 1980 Graf / Grave

D

Jacques de Lange ? - 21 Feb 1988

Ignatius Petrus du Preez 29 May 1958 - 13 Feb 1980

Johann Christiaan du Randt ? - 3 Sept 1987

Pieter Gerhardus Viljoen du Toit 29 Dec 1968 - 18 Apr 1988

G

Pieter H Groenewald ? - 14 Feb 1988

Casper Willem Johannes Geustyn ? - 11 Oct 1982

J

Alan Roger Jones ? - 11 Oct 1982

K

Paul Kruger ? - 10 Jun 1980

L

Niel Lombard 1955-1975

Johan Adam Lotriet 1968-1988 ( Boedel / Estate No. 66/88) - Photo

M

Jacobus Theodorus Meyer ? - 11 Oct 1982

N

Dudley Nel ? - 19 Jan 1982

O

Andre Leon Opperman 20 May 1959 - 7 Sep 1978

P

Johannes Lodewicus (Wicus) Pretorius ? - 4 Jan 1984 -- Photo

S

Erasmus Albertus Steyn 1 Apr 1968 - 31 Oct 1987 -- Photo \ Graf / Grave

Joshua Daniel Joubert Steyn ? - 30 Sept 1983 (Accidentally shot himself )

T

Daniël Jacob Taljaard 1945-1975

Eric Bryam Thompson 1955-1975

V

Daniel Rudolf van der Westhuizen ? - 15 Apr 1982

Izak Frederik van Zyl

Paul S Venter ? - 11 Oct 1982

W

Edgar Sydney Wessels ? - 11 Oct 1982

Keith Arthur Williamson 1954-1975