Identity
Person No.
29750
Old ROH no.
213
Service No.
85918027BG
Last Name
First Name
Pieter Gerrit
Initials
P G
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
19
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Cuito Cuanavale, Cuando Cubango province, Angola
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Operation Moduler
Operation
Operation
Dates
1987-08-01 to 1987-11-15
About
Operation launched to support UNITA against a major FAPLA offensive aimed at capturing UNITA's stronghold of Mavinga. Culminated in the Battle of the Lomba River (September-October 1987), where SADF mechanised and artillery forces, fighting alongside UNITA, halted and largely destroyed FAPLA's 47 Brigade attempting to cross the river — the action in which several ROH records on this site (Alves, De Klerk, Kuyler, McCallum, Mananza, Tchipango and others) were killed when their Ratel 90 was destroyed at point-blank range by a T-55 tank.
Unit History
Awards
South Africa
Pro Patria Medal warrant, Government Gazette No. 5171 (25 Jun 1976), Rule 5, as amended by GG No. 5575 (3 Jun 1977); discontinued by GG No. 25213 (25 Jul 2003, Schedule corrected by GG No. 26778, 17 Sep 2004) for service on/after 27 Apr 2003. Gazette extracts: https://rohsa.co.za/award.php?id=24
Notes
Son of Mr. and Mrs. N. A. J. Claasen, of Elspark.
Research notes
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Army".
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
open source ↗
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), pages 66-76 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
On 9 November 1987 during the SADFs attack on FAPLAs 16 Brigade, B Company of Combat Group Charlie was pinned down in front of the FAPLA positions and drawing heavy fire from assorted weapons A Ratel was surprised by a T-55 which appeared out of the bush less than 60 metres away. The Ratel gunner, Rifleman Adriaan Thom, placed some twenty armour-piercing rounds from his 20mm gun just below the tank commander cupola, some of which appeared to have penetrated, for an internal explosion destroyed the tank. The commander then ordered the infantry section to debus, soon after which the Ratel was itself knocked out by another T-55. The gunner, Rfn. Adriaan Thom from Ruyterwacht in Cape Town, and the driver Rfn. Muehlenbeck were both killed. One other member of this section, Rifleman P.G. Claasen, was killed by small-arms fire a few moments later G.
Dedications 1
Gert Claasen was killed on 9 November 1987 in Angola during Ops Moduler. He was with 4 SAI. He was a good friend and nice guy. May we never forget him and all those that we left behind.