SAMVOZA Veteran Mark Holder recounted his experiences from 1979
The Red Dunes, Lohatla and nearly taking out Israeli High Command
The Red Dunes of the Kalahari are magnificent, and even when you are doing a 25k route march, they are something to behold.
Until the soft sand gets to your legs and feet.
Your feet seem to slide more in your boots in the soft sand so the first few clicks aren't so bad, then the chaffing and wobbly legs set in and it's not so much fun anymore. Especially the first route march you do.
To make a very long walking story short, at the end of it all you are completely exhausted and battle even to get your full kit off your back, never mind getting back onto the Bedford.
The fun really starts when you get back to base and have a foot inspection (yes, really...). The medics are there with their syringes and the dreaded Merthiolate (which no one tells you about).
Every blister on your foot is syringed out and Merthiolate injected into the raw flesh under the blister. You have never seen a whole platoon of so called "grown men" cry - or the tears were caused by the dust or something in our eyes etc. - but the screaming was real.
This also only happens once. After the next route march you cannot believe how many guys just vanished for foot inspection. We would rather live with the pain of blistered feet than the Merthiolate treatment.
Here's the secret we learned too late. When you get your brand new boots, you fill them with boiling water and leave them for about 20 minutes. Pour the water out and put them on your feet without socks and walk around for the rest of the day. Never wear socks on a route march.
Then the fun on the Red dunes - Driving instruction
Learning to drive a four-wheel drive vehicle is one thing, but when it is armour plated, top-heavy and weighs more than 6 tons, that is something completely different. But the soft red dunes were no match for this formidable vehicle.
We managed to bounce an alternator out of a Jeep, (not on purpose) and got a Bedford stuck, but the Buffel was unstoppable; and my all time favorite: the Unimog. (I still want one of those)
So the driving rules were simple: your instructor sat outside on the spare wheel next to the drivers cabin and told you what to do. And your objective was to bounce the unsuspecting instructor off the wheel. There was one particular part of the track that, if you hit it at a high enough speed, you lifted the front wheels of the Buffel off the ground and the whole vehicle was at an angle that was lurking on the "not so bright" side, but the landing and end result was a sure fire 10 point dislodgement.
Lohatla and the Battalion Manoeuvers - where the rations are three unmarked tins per day per person. It's fine if you get three tins of some strange looking meat thing or peaches, but three tins of peas or green beans doesn't really do much for anyone, and no one wants to swap with you.
We are the Vickers stopper group that must provide covering fire, i.e. shooting ahead of the ground infantry attacking the hill, and fire on any "enemy" escaping down the road to our right.
So everything is set up and the attack starts; we are firing away up the hill and the other Vickers pointing down the road (not firing yet). One of our op's started gesturing wildly and came running back. "Were attacking the wrong hill!" And there we are, the infantry is moving up the hill behind us and a convoy is driving up the road to our right in the distance.
You have never seen so much happen so quickly. Our training was really very good. And in minutes we were re-positioned and offering covering fire up the hill actually being attacked, and the Stopper Gun facing the right, "Right way".
A little while later the convoy came past our position and we were called to attention and, standing up in the Buffels, observing our prowess, were these strange men with what looked like a flower on their berets and lots of stuff on their shoulders. (We come from 8 SAI and the highest rank we had ever seen was a Commandant). We later found out they were a special envoy from the Israel High Command, sent to observe our defense force.
Can you imagine the headlines if we never saw them coming - "8 SAI Platoon takes out the Israeli High Command".
Later that day when the show was over and we were back at our camp site, this Bedford came around with a sign on it SAMI, once again we are from 8 SAI and had never seen this before. It was a "retail shop on wheels". That was a good evening; lots of "lekker" stuff to eat and Israel was safe.
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