RIEMVASMAAK
SAMVOZA Veteran Mark Holder recounted his experiences from 1979
Then Now
'"Second Phase" started and we needed to decide on where we would fit. 8 SAI was "Mechanized Infantry" and being in Upington, we never had the fancy vehicles our colleagues in other parts of South Africa had. Our vehicles were Bedfords, mainly the "Vasbyt " model and a few of the more modern flat front ones. A few Unimogs, Landrover, Garries, and the wonder of the Bush war, the Buffel.
Being a bit of a control freak I made my decision that I cannot let anyone else decide where I go in times of battle (if I think it's time to run, I want to be able to run ) and I became a driver, so I could decide where we will go or not. (It never really worked out like that.)
I was allocated to a section and one of our "Specialties" was the Vickers Machine Gun and training commenced at - The dreaded "RIEMVASMAAK."
This is how the tourism industry describes it today - "Riemvasmaak is 75 000ha of sheer mountain desert wilderness, located between the Orange and the dry Molopo Rivers, approximately 57km from Kakamas and 170km from the Nakop Border Post with Namibia. It is a wilderness born from violent volcanic activity millions of years ago, but it is a land of beauty that takes on spiritual proportions." Imagine how it looked 45 years ago!
When you arrive at the "Opstal" or the old farm house, it is something to be experienced. In front of you was the large Farmhouse where the Officers and NCO'S slept. Behind the Opstal, about a 25 minute run away, is the mountain with the "Kokerboom".
Behind you was "RIEMVASKOP", about an hour's run/climb to the top. On the right, the graveyard and to the left huge open spaces, "koppies" and mountains and SAND.
On our first night there we were made to camp next to the graveyard. Scorpions abounded, but you found a place and erected your "bivvy".
I decided to have some fun and got one of the guys to come into the graveyard with me (again I cannot remember his name), where we wrapped me in toilet paper. Once everyone was settled in for the night I came stumbling out of the graveyard moaning and screeching. The reaction was more that I had hoped for. Even our "Braai Sauce" corporal came tearing down from the "Opstal" in a Jeep. He screamed at me "Is jy F****n mal? Ek het jou amper geskiet!" Next day we did "Riemvaskop" for the first time. (What a view from up there).
Whenever the instructors were "Gatvol" or felt like a break they would send us, "om die kokerboom" or "Riemvaskop toe".
We were having one of our many "afk@k" sessions and it was really just getting too much and one of the "manne" stood up, grabbed his rifle and charged the corporal who turned and ran, and the chase was on; this oke was so frustrated he threw his R1 after the corporal and it pegged in the ground like a javelin. Needless to say we went "om die kokerboom".
The R1 was a formidable weapon and one day we were doing live ammunition training. The objective was to identify where we thought "terrs" would be hiding and take out those positions.
We all stood facing the hill and when the corporal blew his whistle we were to turn, identify what we thought was a hiding place and fire on it. Then the instruction was whispered down the line. "Second large blue gum tree from the left." Whistle blew and we all turned and fired at the blue gum tree. Needless to say when this large tree fell over the "Braai Sauce" corporal was not impressed, even though we tried to explain that it was an ideal hiding place. And we had a session of "Fluitjie, fluitjie." He blows the whistle and you run, he blows again and you hit the ground, blows again and you up and run, etc.
During one of our exercises where your buddy runs and you give covering fire, then he stops and covers you while you run, (fortunately we were using blanks), "Rambo Gouws" spots a rifle grenade on the ground, picks it up and loads it onto his rifle and shoots it off. I have never seen so many hit the ground so hard so quickly. Luckily the grenade never exploded. Lesson learned: a rifle grenade fired with a blank will only travel twelve meters, you can throw it further. Needless to say that training session turned into another "Fluitjie, fluitjie" Session.
A few of the "famous" guys we had in our platoon included Robin Hood, Bert Reynolds, Rambo Gouws, Adams (the family was not yet famous) Godfrey (The King of Jippo) and I was known as Noddy Holder (Slade's lead singer for those of you a bit younger), also Tiny, a huge guy who carried the Bren, Mark Banks, Pops, who was prematurely grey and Gary Romburgh. I do apologize to those others, whose names I cannot remember.
Our platoon was going out to shoot the Vickers and they had a driver for the Bedford so Gary and I decided we will help in the kitchen. If we went with them, we would be carrying and loading ammunition so the kitchen was a better option.
As they were leaving, the dreaded "Braai Sauce" corporal saw us, I don't think he was able to speak in a normal tone, and once again screamed at us "Wat die donner doen julle?" Doesn't help explaining and the end result was we had to fetch our webbing and geweer and we were each given a Vickers Tri-pod (37kgs) and told to "volg die Bedford en as julle nie daar is nie kry julle nie middagete nie."
So now we have our full webbing, rifles and two legs of the solid steel tri-pod over our shoulders and one leg down our backs, and we start walking. Following the Bedford, we walked the whole morning and every time we seemed to be getting close they moved on.
We eventually caught up and were given a couple of unmarked tins to eat. A very uninspiring lunch. We ate and were really "gatvol", hot and tired. Riemvasmaak is really hot in the day time and very cold at night. We were ready to go back in the vehicles and once again our "Braai Sauce" corporal shouting, "Is dit julle blikke?" We had eaten and left the tins on the ground. "Ons sien julle terug in die KAMP".
AND THERE THEY GO... Another LONG walk and we got back well after dark. When we got back to the "Opstal" I was really exhausted and lifted the Tri-pod off my shoulders and threw it on the cement floor and then had to explain how it "slipped off and broke the clamp". The walk was exhausting but we saw a lot of Riemvasmaak and that helped with the ambush we set up.'
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