Chocolate Soldier

By Murray Hickling

Chocolate Soldier is the true story of a young man’s coming of age in South Africa’s turbulent Apartheid years; an autobiographical account of his experience in the SADF, serving in a Mounted Infantry Unit. Set against the backdrop of Namibia’s beautiful landscape, this is a gritty story of the gruelling and hilarious experiences of an Equestrian Rifleman in the South West African Border.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Murray Hickling
• Release date: Aug 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476089621

Murray Hickling

Murray Hickling was born and raised in Bloemfontein, in the Republic of South Africa, during the Apartheid years. His passion for military history drove him to set down his own coming-of-age-experience in the South African Defense Forces. He lives in the United Kingdom with his wife, daughter, dog and assorted cats.

Book preview

Cover Design and Frontispiece: yourCoverSt©ry

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Murray Hickling 2012

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chocolate Soldier

An Equestrian Rifleman’s Story

By

Murray Hickling

Foreword

They took our youth and they took our innocence

The reason that this story is called Chocolate Soldier is because of the colour uniform we used to wear in the SADF (South African Defence Force) in the days of Apartheid. I have tried to remember the sequence of events in those far off days. If there are any inaccuracies in my story I apologise, I however have best tried to recollect events and characters that go together to make up this story, in the most realistic fashion, hence all the profanity-that’s how it was. I hope you take as much pleasure in reading this as what I have had in writing it.

Thank You

Murray Hickling,

London, March 2003

Unit History 2nd South African Infantry

The 2 SAI was established in January 1, 1962. In its early days it was based in Walvis Bay – its temporary accommodation that stood nearly three decades before a permanent base was built at Rooikop - and it was the terror of national servicemen (NSM).

Basic training in the desert was no laughing matter – not with the infamous Dune 7 - the highest in southern Africa - nearby. The first staff arrived in February 1962, with the first balloted following in April. The initial base was constructed from October 1961 and consisted of 200 tents for sleeping quarters and 44-gallon drums filled with sand for ablutions and a mess hall, quickly dubbed the Drommedaris (a pun on the Afrikaans for drum and the name of one of the ships of the Dutch colonists of 1652.) Prefabricated buildings on poles (as the site was below sea level) followed.

The founding officer commanding was a Major GN McLoughlin and the first RSM was WO1 JAJ Steenkamp.

The unit was organised as a battalion group and an armoured car subunit, D Squadron, and an artillery battery, 43 Field Battery, was added.

This accounts for the unit insignia including at the top the number 2 in infantry colours, with the St Barbara's lighting flash representing the artillery in the middle and the armour's old heraldic colours at the bottom.

These elements and the Transport Park and quartermaster were based at Rooikop, a distance inland because of the rust at the coast. The town was awarded its colours by the local municipality in 1969, and adopted the town’s motto and flamingo emblem as a consequence.

2SAI was deployed to the South West Africa/Namibia-Angolan border for the first time in 1968. It was the first NSM unit involved in Operation Savannah in 1975.

The end of the Namibian war saw the unit demobilised.

The current 2SAI is, in fact, the remnant of 32 Battalion, sometimes described as apartheid South Africa’s foreign legion.

Politics aside, these Angolan émigrés ranked among the best of the world’s light infantry during the 1980s. The Buffalo soldiers with their distinctive camouflage berets spent the late 1970s and most of the 1980s in continuous action, mostly deep in Angola. 2SAI was reactivated at Pomfret in the Northern Cape on July 1, 1993. The unit moved to Zeerust in 1998 after the town was condemned as unhealthy as a result of asbestos contamination.

Current role: Motorised infantry.

Current base: Zeerust, North West Province

Battle honours:

Angola 1975

Motto: In Utrumque Paratus (Prepared for all situations)

Source: Defenceweb.co.za

Chapter 1

Basics

2nd South African Infantry

It all started early one morning in January 1984. I was standing at Bloemfontein station with my family waiting to board the troop train to 2nd South African Infantry (Walvis Bay).

When I had received my call-up instructions there seemed a romantic element attached to the fact that I would be posted to a foreign country.

There was a large man in browns wearing the rank of a Sergeant Major on his arm, who was chatting to concerned parents and their soon to be conscripted sons. He seemed very attentive and genuinely concerned at their questions and worries. We were called onto the train and we said our goodbyes amid tears and good luck hugs.

I found myself in a compartment with 4- 6 other guys and pretty soon we had acquainted ourselves and were chatting among each other