This is a fast-moving, action-packed account of Granger Korff's two years'
service during 1980-1981 with 1 Parachute Battalion at the height of the South
African ‘bush war' in South West Africa (Namibia) and Angola. Apart from the
‘standard' counter-insurgency activities of Fireforce operations, ambushing and
patrols, to contact and destroy SWAPO guerrillas, he was involved in several
massive South African Defence Force (SADF) conventional cross-border operations,
such as Protea, Daisy and Carnation, into Angola to take on FAPLA (Angolan MPLA
troops) and their Cuban and Soviet allies. Having grown up as an East Rand rebel
street-fighter, Korff's military ‘career' is marred with controversy. He is
always in trouble -- going AWOL on the eve of battle in order to get to the
front; facing a court martial for beating up, and reducing to tears, a
sergeant-major in front of the troops; fist-fighting with Drug Squad agents;
arrested at gunpoint after the gruelling seven-week, 700km Recce selection
endurance march -- are but some of the colourful anecdotes that lace this
account of service in the SADF.
