Koevoet
10-06-06, 11:31
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At Thy Call We Did Not Falter (Brilliant..well worth a read)
This book is a brutally frank and refreshingly honest account, seventeen years after the fact, of a teenage national serviceman’s exposure to and experiences in the war in Angola. It does not glorify or demonise war, but tells the real story of so many young white South Africans like Holt who were sent into battle against overwhelming forces less than a year after finishing school. This book will resonate with the vast majority of those men, now entering or in middle age.
The timing of the book is extraordinarily fortunate, coming just as interest in Cuito Cuanavale is being revived, with moves afoot to arrange battlefield tours, and debates raging anew in military and veteran circles about who the victors and vanquished were. At Thy Call has the hallmark of a classic battlefield biography, as well as providing a window into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a riveting account of how a government took schoolboys and turned them into killing machines.
About the Author(s)
Clive Holt
Clive Holt was born in East London, South Africa, and commenced his national service in January 1987. During his time in the army, he was involved in several operations inside Angola. After leaving the defence force, Holt suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, and changed jobs frequently. He eventually emigrated to Australia, where he started a marketing consultancy, which eventually grew to encompass the functions of an advertising agency. He lives in Kalgoorlie with his wife and children.
http://www.struik.co.za/book/images/books/thumbs//2194.jpg (http://www.struik.co.za/struik/book.book.detail.action?id=2194)
An Unpopular War (I haven't read this one but I'll be adding it to my list)
Preface
History is not another name for the past, as many people imply.
It is the name for stories about the past.
AJP Taylor (1906–1990)
Until 1994, all white male South Africans were called up for National Service in the year they turned 18. This could be deferred for a few years if the person was studying, but to avoid it meant a jail term. In the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of young men served in the military, most going through intense physical training and many of them being sent to fight the war in northern Namibia and Angola.
I interviewed over 40 men who were required to do National Service, in order to record their personal memories of this military era. This book is a collection of mental snapshots from their time as SADF conscripts: an inspection, the routine of camp life, the monotony and dread of patrols, the terror of a battle. Whatever the experience, it came with an intensity absent in civilian life. The men I interviewed spoke honestly of fear, boredom, loss, crying, drinking, fighting, of deep friendships and a yearning for the camaraderie they had then. Their stories also give an anecdotal record of the idiosyncrasies and slang from that period, and the way that these varied in different regions and units.
The interviews covered a wide range of experiences. The men spoke of life in the army, the navy and the air force. Some were chefs and medics, others were Recces and Parabats. One was a conscientious objector serving time in a military prison. A few of them stayed on for longer than their two years’ National Service, such as the helicopter pilots. Most are identified by their first name and their age at the time, although some preferred to remain anonymous. There are a few duplicate names but no false ones.
Even though most National Servicemen called up for military service did not experience combat, their time with the military had a profound and lasting impact on them. The war, fought primarily in South Africa’s protectorate South West Africa (Namibia) and in Angola, was an unpopular one on many fronts. Many young men, straight out of school or university, were not staunchly patriotic and did not want to give two years of their lives to the military, mothers didn’t want to lose sons, and South Africa’s apartheid government was condemned internationally for fighting an unjust war.
It was a radically different political climate – one that now, from the perspective of a non-racial and democratic South Africa, is almost impossible to comprehend. Today, it is not socially acceptable for these men to talk about their experiences. But even if the politics were abhorrent, this doesn’t make the soldiers so.
These stories are their experiences as remembered by them. I wrote them as they were told, with no embellishment or editing to make them seem better men, or worse.
JH Thompson
At Thy Call We Did Not Falter (Brilliant..well worth a read)
This book is a brutally frank and refreshingly honest account, seventeen years after the fact, of a teenage national serviceman’s exposure to and experiences in the war in Angola. It does not glorify or demonise war, but tells the real story of so many young white South Africans like Holt who were sent into battle against overwhelming forces less than a year after finishing school. This book will resonate with the vast majority of those men, now entering or in middle age.
The timing of the book is extraordinarily fortunate, coming just as interest in Cuito Cuanavale is being revived, with moves afoot to arrange battlefield tours, and debates raging anew in military and veteran circles about who the victors and vanquished were. At Thy Call has the hallmark of a classic battlefield biography, as well as providing a window into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a riveting account of how a government took schoolboys and turned them into killing machines.
About the Author(s)
Clive Holt
Clive Holt was born in East London, South Africa, and commenced his national service in January 1987. During his time in the army, he was involved in several operations inside Angola. After leaving the defence force, Holt suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, and changed jobs frequently. He eventually emigrated to Australia, where he started a marketing consultancy, which eventually grew to encompass the functions of an advertising agency. He lives in Kalgoorlie with his wife and children.
http://www.struik.co.za/book/images/books/thumbs//2194.jpg (http://www.struik.co.za/struik/book.book.detail.action?id=2194)
An Unpopular War (I haven't read this one but I'll be adding it to my list)
Preface
History is not another name for the past, as many people imply.
It is the name for stories about the past.
AJP Taylor (1906–1990)
Until 1994, all white male South Africans were called up for National Service in the year they turned 18. This could be deferred for a few years if the person was studying, but to avoid it meant a jail term. In the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of young men served in the military, most going through intense physical training and many of them being sent to fight the war in northern Namibia and Angola.
I interviewed over 40 men who were required to do National Service, in order to record their personal memories of this military era. This book is a collection of mental snapshots from their time as SADF conscripts: an inspection, the routine of camp life, the monotony and dread of patrols, the terror of a battle. Whatever the experience, it came with an intensity absent in civilian life. The men I interviewed spoke honestly of fear, boredom, loss, crying, drinking, fighting, of deep friendships and a yearning for the camaraderie they had then. Their stories also give an anecdotal record of the idiosyncrasies and slang from that period, and the way that these varied in different regions and units.
The interviews covered a wide range of experiences. The men spoke of life in the army, the navy and the air force. Some were chefs and medics, others were Recces and Parabats. One was a conscientious objector serving time in a military prison. A few of them stayed on for longer than their two years’ National Service, such as the helicopter pilots. Most are identified by their first name and their age at the time, although some preferred to remain anonymous. There are a few duplicate names but no false ones.
Even though most National Servicemen called up for military service did not experience combat, their time with the military had a profound and lasting impact on them. The war, fought primarily in South Africa’s protectorate South West Africa (Namibia) and in Angola, was an unpopular one on many fronts. Many young men, straight out of school or university, were not staunchly patriotic and did not want to give two years of their lives to the military, mothers didn’t want to lose sons, and South Africa’s apartheid government was condemned internationally for fighting an unjust war.
It was a radically different political climate – one that now, from the perspective of a non-racial and democratic South Africa, is almost impossible to comprehend. Today, it is not socially acceptable for these men to talk about their experiences. But even if the politics were abhorrent, this doesn’t make the soldiers so.
These stories are their experiences as remembered by them. I wrote them as they were told, with no embellishment or editing to make them seem better men, or worse.
JH Thompson