ZULU ZULU FOXTROT...To Hell and Back with Koevoet

"GREENBOOTS "
a 1:25 or one to 25 kill ratio.

Zulu Zulu Foxtrot: To hell and back with Koevoet
Random House Struik
August 2012


In his new book Arn Durand tells of more of his experiences in the deadly fighting force


ZULU ZULU FOXTROT

To Hell and Back with Koevoet

ARN DURAND

This is the explosive follow-up to Zulu Zulu Golf, covering Arn Durand's next few years in Koevoet, the most deadly fighting force involved in the Border War.

After moving to the unit Zulu Foxtrot, Durand went deeper into Angola than before and was involved in more contacts with the enemy, which he describes in nerve-shattering detail.

Balancing the action is a dramatic human story, as Durand faces the tragic death of his commander, Frans Conradie, one of the pioneers of Koevoet, who had become a mentor to him.

Written in the same gripping, novelistic style as its predecessor, Zulu Zulu Foxtrot recreates the experience of being in the heat of battle and delves more deeply into the psyche of the modern warrior.

Arn Durand was born in Chloorkop near Kempton Park in 1961 and grew up in Durban. In 1982 he became a member of the notorious Special Ops K (‘Koevoet') at Oshakati in northern Namibia. During the six years that he served, he engaged in 127 contacts with the enemy, SWAPO. He was ambushed many times and survived three anti-tank mine explosions. Today he works as a tour guide, and he is the author of Zulu Zulu Golf.


Comments : On YouTube Salute .....Long Live GREENBOOTS !

Short video made from various Koevoet (South West African Police Counter Insurgency Unit) photos and video clips.Koevoet (Afrikaans for crowbar) was a police counter insurgency unit in South-West Africa (now Namibia) during the 1970s and 1980s.

They were the most effective unit (in terms of personnel lost versus enemies killed) deployed against SWAPO fighters (seeking Namibian independence from Apartheid South Africa). South-West Africa (now Namibia) was a South African protectorate since the end of World War II, but since the 1960s there was a growing struggle for independence from former colonial powers across the entire African continent.

In the Southern African region this usually took the form of armed guerrillas (or insurgents as they are called today) support with weapons and training from communist states such as the Soviet Union and China, both seeking to expand their influence in strategically important and mineral rich region.

The apartheid government had watched with great concern as these low intensity wars ousted former colonial powers in neighbouring states replacing them with communist backed regimes, first it was Mozambique and Angola in 1975 followed by Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1980.

Fearing a similar fate for South-West Africa (Namibia) and eventually South Africa, the South African government did not relinquish control over South-West Africa (Namibia) in contravention of a UN Security Council resolution 435 of 1978.Koevoet was a 3000-man force consisting of Ovambo tribesmen and about 300 white officers and white SADF non-commissioned officers (NCOs).

It was organized into 40-man platoons equipped with mine resistant Casspir wheeled armored personnel carriers (including one informally armed with a 20mm cannon) and a supply truck. They rotated one week in the bush for one week at camp.

It was the 1978 brainchild of then Colonel Hans Dreyer (later a Major-General in the SADF) to develop and exploit intelligence and was based on the Portuguese Flechas and the Rhodesian Selous Scouts.

Koevoet was based in Oshakati and suffered 153 killed in action and several hundred more wounded. They killed more than 3,681 alleged SWAPO insurgents which resulted in a 1:25 or one to 25 kill ratio.