Contributions to the project of Anton Le Roux. It was about April 1987 that 22B hit a landmine. I went past first and then crossed the Angola border. The rest followed. SWAPO must have planted the mine in the time since the first elements and I crossed the place. During later analysis it appeared that it was a double cheese mine. Luckily we did not have any losses apart from the Ratel. Warren Sheridan, recalls: “There were 6 Ratels which missed the mine. Ratel 22B was 7th in line. Ratel 22 was in front of 22B. I was standing out from the turret looking back because of the dust. There was a 90mm who was not following in our tracks when 22B hit the mine. The first thing that went through my mind was that the 90mm had shot 22B and in the moment I couldn’t understand why. I jumped out of the turret and ran on top of the Ratel towards the back. I was just about to jump off when I realised that it was a mine. I therefore jumped off onto our tracks, to avoid possible anti-personnel mines, and ran back to 22B to help where I could.” Dreyer van Niekerk, recalls: “The Tiffie vehicle was the closest to us that day when “Bravo Boom” hit the landmine. Those guys were out of their vehicle and deployed battle ready around 22B while Staff Klopper aided the rest of us to get out. I was the last to leave the Ratel. My hatch could not open due to the 20mm in position above it.”
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 06:14:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015