1 Special Service Battalion (1 SSB), in Afrikaans 1 Spesiale Diens Bataljon (1 SDB), is an armoured regiment of the South African Army and one of only two such regiments in its regular force. It is based at Tempe, near Bloemfontein, and is still serving.

Its lineage runs back to the Special Service Battalion, formed on 1 May 1933 as a youth-employment and training scheme under the Minister of Defence, Oswald Pirow, rather than as a combat regiment. The SSB became an infantry battalion in 1941, an armoured car commando in 1942, and part of 11 South African Armoured Brigade in 1943, serving with 6 South African Armoured Division in the Middle East and Italy in 1943-45. The battle honours Italy 1944-45, Florence, Gothic Line, Celleno, The Greve and Po Valley were earned in that campaign, before any separately numbered 1 SSB existed.

After the Second World War the Special Service Battalion was reorganised into two battalions, one of which is 1 SSB. When the South African Armoured Corps was officially proclaimed in 1946 the Special Service Battalion was included in the corps as its only full-time unit, and its symbols and colours were incorporated into the corps.

1 SSB served in the South African Border War in South West Africa and Angola, holding the battle honours Kunene, South West Africa/Angola 1975-1976, South West Africa/Angola 1976-1989 and Cuito Cuanavale. It did not usually deploy as a whole: it detached squadrons to various battlegroups, among them 63 Mechanised Battalion Group, with which it took part in Operations Merlyn and Agree in 1989. In this period it was equipped with the Eland 60 and Eland 90 armoured cars. More recently it took part in Operation Boleas, the South African intervention in Lesotho in 1998.

For many years it had a sister unit, 2 Special Service Battalion, based at Zeerust, which was disbanded in 1997.

The regiment is now equipped with the Rooikat 76 armoured car and the Ratel 90 and Ratel ZT3, and under Project Hoefyster is to receive the Denel Badger in missile and fire-support variants. Its deployment strength is about 1,000 soldiers. In the draft Vision 2020 force design it is charted as the armoured car regiment of the Armoured Brigade (Free State) within the Mechanised Division.

Its cap badge is a spray of three protea flowers bound by a ribbon bearing the initials and motto; the beret is black; the regimental colours are orange over blue divided by silver, or by white where silver cannot be used. The motto is Eendrag Maakt Mag (Unity is Strength). It is allied to the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards of the British Army, and holds an annual regimental gathering called the Pantseraksie (Armour Action).

Its Wikipedia article cites this Roll of Honour as the regimental honour roll.

Wikipedia