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Buy A name among seafaring men. A history of the training ship General Botha. Wilhelm Grutter. for R200.00

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Free Postage Within SA for Orders Over R900! Hardcover. . First edition. Publisher: TBF Davis Memorial Sailing Trust. 173 pages. Some wear to dustjacket, otherwise good condition. Naval education / Training-ships / History / Military Additional photos on request. Please ask any questions before placing your order.  Many more titles available by clicking here!

Hard cover 1st edition. Book in good condition but damage on the dust cover. A history of the training ship General Botha written by Wilhelm Grutter. Can be collected in Centurion or I can post - buyer pays postage and packaging.

Hardcover like new with damaged dustjacket  Postage R60. We gladly combine postage up to 5kg at R5 per extra item.  T's& C's apply 

 A-Z OF THE SAS - BATTLES, WEAPONS, TRAINING, MEN - Peter Darman - 1993 - Paperback in good, clean and tight condition. This is an alphabetically-arranged reference to the unit's 50-year history with over 600 entries. All the regiment's battles and campaigns are listed. The weapons, equipment and techniques used by the SAS are examined. There are also biographies of leading personalities who have belonged to the regiment - including the man who commanded the British forces in the gulf, Lieutenant General Sir Peter de la Billiere.  

    WWII SPECIAL SERVICE BATTALION TITLE BADGE The Special Service Battalion (SSB) is a South African military unit formed on 1 May 1933 under the patronage of Oswald Pirow, Minister of Defence. The object was to give training to youths, between the ages of 17 and 23, who, in the wake of the 1929 depression, could find no suitable employment on leaving school.   History Lt Col George E Brink was given the responsibility for establishing the battalion at Roberts Heights and was the first commanding officer. The SSB was established to save the youth from physical and moral degeneration caused by massive unemployment due to the Great Depression. The SSB was to teach the young men military discipline, fitness and various trades to enable them to be employed by the Department of Labour and Welfare. The SSB men received a salary of a shilling a day causing the SSB soon to be known as the "Bob a Day Battalion".  In 1934 detachments were also established for 100 trainees at Durban and 150 at Cape Town. Training included elementary military subjects and physical training. After a year of the young men usually found employment in government departments or with civilian employers. By 1936 the output of the SSB totalled about 2000 youths a year. In 1937 the South African Railways established at Roberts Heights a special school to prepare boys for the railways. In 1937 3788 youths passed through the ranks of the SSB. A total of 882 of them joined the Permanent Force.  With the expansion of the South African Air Force in 1937 the SSB provided 248 air apprentices for special training but, with the improvement in the economic situation, the waiting list to join the battalion had dwindled to almost nil.  With the outbreak of war in September 1939, members of the SSB were posted to units requiring immediate reinforcement to get on to a wartime basis. An example of this being the Coastal Artillery. In February 1940 a number of troops were transferred to the 1st and 2nd Field Force Battalions. These served with distinction in East Africa, Abyssinia and the Middle East as part of 1st South African Division.  SADF era 1 SSB Commemorative Letter In August 1941 all members of the SSB below the age of 18 were transferred to the Youth Training Brigade. The remainder formed an infantry battalion, which was converted to an armoured car commando in 1942.  In February 1943 the SSB, under Lt Col EG ('Papa') Brits, became part of the 11th SA Armoured Brigade. In March 1943 the Field Force Battalion was disbanded and other ranks and some of the officers were transferred to the SSB, thus providing a nucleus of battle-tested veterans.  The unit sailed for the Middle East with the 6th SA Armoured Division in April 1943. In 1944 the division crossed the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the Italian campaign. The regiment played a prominent part in numerous actions during the campaign.  In 1946, SSB was resuscitated as a Permanent Force unit and reorganised on a two-battalion basis with the 1st Battalion as an armoured unit and the 2nd Battalion infantry. The former became a training regiment in 1953 and the latter was renamed the 1 South African Infantry Battalion (1SAI) in 1951.   CONDITION:  Very Good. Lugs in tact. UNCLEANED. Sold as seen in the images. Images form part of the description.

The first ever Special Forces for the SADF started with a small group of eleven men under the command of Commandant Jan Breytenbach all handpicked by him in 1970. They commenced their training in Oudtshoorn and all 11 men did specialised courses in something they were not qualified for in as yet. e.g. divers, demolition, parachute jumping. etc. The group was divided into two and also did courses in France in that year. Their first deployment took place into Angola. With the influx of more members, the group was changed to a Special Forces Unit in 1972 known as 1 Reconnaissance Commando. It was decided that the unit was to be moved and in December 1974 the unit relocated to the Bluff in Durban. The unit grew in numbers as more and more men qualified as Special Forces Operators. The decision was made to form three subunits: Airborne (Commandant Swart), Seaborne (Commandant Kinghorn) and Pseudo operators (Commandant Verster). The Seaborne group moved to Langebaan (4 Reconnaissance Commando) the Pseudo group to Dukuduku in Zululand (5 Reconnaissance Commando). A headquarter element was stationed in Pretoria, under command of General Loots. In 1982 they moved into their own Headquarter buildings just outside of Thaba Tshwane. In 1975 a Citizen Force unit 2 Reconnaissance Commando, under the command of Commandant Sybie van der Spuy, was formed to accommodate all members that had left the Permanent Forces units as citizen forces members. With the independence of Zimbabwe, members of the Selous Scouts and Rhodesian SAS were given a choice to join the SADF. The members that took this opportunity were transferred into two units: The Scouts as 3 Reconnaissance Commando in Phalaborwa and Rhodesian SAS as 6 Reconnaissance Commando in Durban. A year later these units amalgamated into the Permanent Force Units: 3 Reconnaissance Commando became part of 5 Reconnaissance Regiment and 6 Reconnaissance Commando became part of 1 Reconnaissance Regiment when the Commandos became Regiments in 1981. The volume of operations increased and more and more support personnel were transferred into Special Forces to support the operators in their task. The author served in Special Forces as a signaller for 5 Reconnaissance Regiment and then Special Forces Headquarter for a number of years. He did his parachute course with other support personnel at the age of 35. His responsibilities included the training of operators in communications radio and Morse code, the control of operational communications networks, plus all cryptography work. This book on South African Special Forces depicts the Pictorial History from the beginning up to 1994. It is the 4th edition, and the 1st pictorial version of the history of the South African Special Forces, Operators and Operations. There are more than 2000 pictures of 420 full color A4 pages bound in a hardcover showing pictures of events never before captured in one print.  FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINT - NOVEMBER 2014

2005 first edition paperback with 272 pages in very neat condition. R65 postage in SA. This landmark book is the first memoir written by men who actually fought as guerrillas with any of the liberation forces of countries in Southern Africa. The authors joined the liberation struggle as young men in the early 1960s when they left South Africa to join the ranks of MK ('Umkhonto we Sizwe') in Tanzania. After receiving military training in the Soviet Union they fought alongside Joshua Nkomo's ZIPRA in Rhodesia. The book follows the fortunes of the two young freedom fighters through years of bush warfare/capture/imprisonment/political opposition through to the 1994 election in South Africa that was won by the ANC. "This is our story. We will tell it the way it was, and not as we wish it had happened. It's not only our history, it is also the history of a people - the black people of Africa.

A wide-eyed South African conscript relates his small share of the war in Angola and Namibia in the 1980s. This is not the usual military history, written by a commander armed with facts, nor a researched story of a war or campaign.  It is a personal experience. Being brutally honest it will resonate not only with readers of all things military but also with a wider literary audience, for its poetic prose and subtle sentiments, and for its entertaining narrative. It may thus be of interest not only to the South African men who were there, but to their women who were left behind, and to all men and women anywhere. It is a book by a non-warrior dumped into a war, which nevertheless provides vivid alternative first-hand accounts whose validity cannot simply be brushed aside by professional historians. Descriptive writing takes readers right into the colourful past, into action and into personal interactions. Notes made at the time preserve intimate details of what it was like to be a White South African during Apartheid, and the surprisingly humane culture within its small but effective White-led Army. Dialogue is remembered verbatim as is the unique jargon and profanity of the time, with English translations where Afrikaans is spoken. After a brief life background the narrative moves chronologically through two years of military training, deployment, combat and demobilisation, with comments on the human effect of these experiences. The result is a compelling time capsule: the South African Defence Force ceased to exist in 1994 when South Africa began its non-racial democracy. Surprisingly, because it was a humane army it was a good one. This is not just a liberal attitude. It meant that when a thing needed doing, it was done conscientiously and thoroughly, with thought for secondary effects. It was a dangerous opponent to have, inflicting maximum casualties where this was necessary, but when the need passed, it switched easily to a humanitarian purpose. There was much lost that being unique (and laudable) in the Old South African culture and in its Army's approach and attitude, is fascinating today. Paperback, 208 pages. Published 2017.

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 11 working days For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moment From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden's compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group -- commonly known as SEAL Team Six -- has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines. "No Easy Day" puts readers alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden's death, is an essential piece of modern history. In N"o Easy Day," Owen also takes readers onto the field of battle in America's ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military. Owen's story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs' quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe. And look for NO HERO, the follow-up to NO EASY DAY, coming May . Features Summary For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moment From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean... Author Mark Owen (Author), Kevin Maurer (As told to) Publisher E.P. Dutton Release date Pages 316 ISBN ISBN

A-Z of the SAS - Peter Darman - Sidgwick & Jackson - 1993 - 192pp, color and black & white photographs, illustrations, maps - papetback in good condition - Internally clean and tightly bound.   The battles The weapons The training The men This is an alphabetically-arranged reference to the unit's 50-year history with over 600 entries. All the regiment's battles and campaigns are listed. The weapons, equipment and techniques used by the SAS are examined. There are also biographies of leading personalities who have belonged to the regiment - including the man who commanded the British forces in the Gulf, Lieutenant General Sir Peter de la Billiere.    

The climactic death-throes of Soviet Communism during the 1980's included a last-gasp attempt at strategic franchise expansion in Southern Africa. Channelled through Castro's Cuba, oil-rich Angolan armed forces (FAPLA) received billions of dollars of advanced weaponry including MiG 23 and Sukhoi fighter jets, SAM 8 missile systems and thousands of armoured vehicles. Their   intent - to eradicate the US-backed Angolan opposition (UNITA), then push southwards into South Africa's protectorate SWA/Namibia, ostensibly as liberators. 1985 saw the first large-scale mechanized offensive in Southern African history. Russian Generals planned and oversaw the offensive but without properly accounting for the tenacity of UNITA (supported by the South African Defence Forces - SADF) or the treacherous terrain typical in the rainy season. The '85 offensive floundered in the mud and FAPLA returned to their capital Luanda. The South Africans stood down, confident their 'covert' support for UNITA had demonstrated the folly of prosecuting war so far from home against Africa's military Superpower. The South Africans were mistaken. Fidel and FAPLA immediately redoubled their efforts, strengthening fifteen battalions with even more Soviet hardware while Russian and Cuban specialists oversaw troop training. As Cuban and Angola fighter pilots honed their skills over the skies of Northern Angola, David Mannall, a normal 17-year old kid completing High School, was preparing for two years of compulsory military service before beginning Tertiary education. Through a series of fateful twists he found himself leading soldiers in a number of full-scale armoured clashes including the largest and most decisive battle on African soil since World War II. This is the David and Goliath story that, due to seismic political changes in the region, has never been truthfully told. The author lifts the hatch on his story of how Charlie Squadron, comprising just twelve 90mm AFVs crewed by 36 national servicemen, as part of the elite 61 Mechanised Battalion, engaged and effectively annihilated the giant FAPLA 47th Armoured Brigade in one day - 3 October 1987. Their 90mm cannons were never designed as tank-killers but any assurances that it would never be used against heavy armour were left in the classroom during the three-month operation and never more starkly than the decisive 'Battle on The Lomba River'. The Communist-backed offensive died that day along with hundreds of opposition fighters. 47th Brigade survivors abandoned their remaining equipment, fleeing north across the Lomba, eventually joining the 59th Brigade in what became a full-scale retreat of over ten thousand soldiers to Cuito Cuanavale. The myth perpetuated by post-apartheid politicians goes something like this "The SADF force that destroyed 47th Brigade on 3 October numbered 6,000 men and that all the hard yards were run by the long suffering UNITA!" The inconvenient truth is that there were just 36 South African boys on the front-line that day, but it is also true to say they would never have achieved such a stunning victory without the support of many more. This is their story. Paperback, 192 pages First Published October 2014, Second Revised Edition May 2015