Coetzee, Ignatius Philippus

Identity

Person No.

29792

Old ROH no.

233

Service No.

74542929BG

Last Name

Coetzee 157

First Name

Ignatius Philippus

Initials

I P

Date of Birth

Unknown

Est. Birth Year

1958 (±1 yr) 437

Age at Death

18

Death Record

Date of Death

24 October 1976 299

Cause code

KIA 14,779

Killed in action

Cause of Death

Killed in action 14,653

Killed in action, landmine, during Ops Ovambo near Eenhana. Acting as patrol medic; the sniffer dog stopped and lay down, alerting the handler, but Coetzee continued walking and stepped on a booby-trapped Yugoslavian TMA-3 cheese mine, killed instantly

Military Service

Branch

Army

Rank

Rifleman

Regiment

SAMS Training Unit 4

Unit

1 Maintenance Unit 47

Defence Force

SADF 3,830

South African Defence Force

Location

Country

South Africa 23,873

Locality

Free State 737

Cemetery

BLOEMFONTEIN (SOUTHPARK) CEMETERY 50

Grave Reference

Block 15, Grave 647 or 847 1

Awards

Pro Patria Medal

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. J. J. Coetzee, of Bloemfontein.

Research notes

Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 24 Oct 2024: 74542929BG Rifleman Ignatius Phillippus Coetzee, acting as patrol medic for an infantry patrol, Killed in Action near Eenhana when he stepped on a booby-trapped Yugoslavian TMA-3 cheese mine after the sniffer dog stopped and lay down, age 18. ROH second name is Philippus; unit is 1 Maintenance Unit (regiment SAMS Training Unit).
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

Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 24 Oct 2024: 74542929BG Rifleman Ignatius Phillippus Coetzee, acting as patrol medic for an infantry patrol, Killed in Action near Eenhana when he stepped on a booby-trapped Yugoslavian TMA-3 cheese mine after the sniffer dog stopped and lay down, age 18. ROH second name is Philippus; unit is 1 Maintenance Unit (regiment SAMS Training Unit).
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 29-32 of 143: confirmed, no changes.

Stories 1

by Colin van Rensburg on 05 April 2013 · via source

I am pretty sure this is Iggie Coetzee from Platoon 3, Ops Company SAMS. He was killed by a landmine while on patrol in Owamboland. The company had a minute of silence for him at the time of his funeral.

Dedications

No dedications have been added yet.

Coetzee , Ignatius Philippus (I P)