1 Parachute Battalion (motto Ex alto vincimus — “We conquer from above”) is the only full-time paratroop unit of the South African Army, nicknamed the Parabats. It was raised at Tempe, Bloemfontein on 1 April 1961. In 1960 fifteen SADF volunteers were sent to England, to RAF Abingdon — a Royal Air Force station in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, not a South African Air Force base — mostly to train as parachute instructors and packers; one SAAF pilot trained there in dropping paratroopers. Together with 2 Mobile Watch they formed the nucleus of the battalion. Members were the first South African Army soldiers in action after the Second World War, with the South African Police against insurgents in South West Africa in 1966, and the battalion served throughout the Border War (1966–1989); its best-known action is the Battle of Cassinga in 1978. It was the first battalion of 44 Parachute Brigade from 1978 until the brigade was downsized to 44 Parachute Regiment in 1999. Garrison remains Tempe. Still active under the SANDF.

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