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Large hardcover coffee-table book, copy number 1114, 774 pages, profusely illustrated, as new   The Fourth Dimension – the untold story of military health in South Africa is a magisterial study of the subject just published by the South African Military Health Service. A weighty tome of just less than 800 pages, it is the most comprehensive study of military health ever attempted in South Africa. As such it records matters military medical reaching back to the turn of the 20th Century, with a look at the health support available to forces then engaged on both sides of the Anglo Boer War. Detailed and richly illustrated with what must be very rare photographs – the reviewer confesses to not having seen most – the story moves via the World Wars and Korea to the modern era. Captured also is the post-war growth of the health component of the SA Defence Force from a branch of the SA Army – the South African Medical Corps – to a fully fledged fourth service and its role in the Namibian-Angolan border war of 1966-1989. A full section – with reminiscences – are included regarding the medical services of the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei medical services before their integration into the South African National Defence Force in April 1994. Given extensive treatment is the health services of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania while in exile. Again, this is unique, readable material not published before. Also recorded for the first time is the struggle against apartheid in the health environment inside South Africa from the 1960s to 1994 – the medical side of the mass democratic movement. Also covered is white resistance to conscription (the End Conscription Campaign), the United Democratic Front and state reaction.  The last three chapters deal with the integration of various antagonistic factions into a new SANDF - and for health professionals, a new SA Medical Service, later renamed the SAMHS; the deployment of this new service onto the regional and international stage; and finally a bold look into the future.  Military health has here been given a comprehensive, fair and balanced treatment with substantial volumes of new information added to the narrative. “The Fourth Dimension – the untold story of military health in South Africa” sets a high standard and one hopes the other services and divisions of the SANDF, if not the organisation itself, will follow suit.  The Fourth Dimension – the untold story of military health in South Africa Col Ricky Naidoo (Editor-in-Chief) South African Military Health Service Department of Defence Pretoria

This book captures the experience of the South African Air Force helicopter pilot as never before; from 'rookie' to seasoned combat aviator in one of history's most intense counter-insurgency conflicts - the South African Border War. Nick Lithgow's work relates the gruelling endurance of SADF National Service and its grind, grind, grind... until one day, helicopter drills with an SAAF Puma, saw him optimistically apply for pilot training. Called to Pretoria, Nick completed the mandatory tests before returning to the Border to complete his duty. At the end of his National Service, Nick was surprised to receive instructions to report to the Air Force Gymnasium in Valhalla. Here he began training began in earnest with Harvard fixed wing trainers and the Impala jet, before long Nick had progressed to rotary aircraft - training on the Alouette and graduating to the Puma under the guidance of one of the SAAF's legendary instructors, 'Monster Wilkins'. An operational tour in Rhodesia followed with deployment to the South West African/Namibian Border. Here Search and Rescue, troop carrying and close air support operations became the order of the day -an intense cycle of briefings and operations with the ever present threat of small arms fire and surface to air missiles. LZ Hot!  is an unrivaled work - it relates the drama of recovering downed fighter pilots under fire, responding to the horror of mine-strikes with soldiers dreadfully injured and needing urgent evacuation, or deep penetration operations into Angola in support of South African Special Forces. It also relates the candour of mess life, the characters and incidents that amuse, delivering much needed relief from the demands of operational flying - Nick's accounts of mess dinner high-jinks are especially entertaining and will be recognisable to all who have served! Flying mountain rescue missions and responding to terrifying shipwrecks, a crazed Military Policeman during a casevac, Lithgow takes all in his stride. LZ Hot!  is a stunning, captivating read. Paperback, 176 pages 16 colour & b/w photos.  Published December 2012

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        

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, 284 pages First Published October 2014, Second Revised Edition May 2015