Identity
Person No.
30408
Old ROH no.
1714
Service No.
74346776PF
Last Name
First Name
Barend Zacharias
Initials
B Z
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
21
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,779
Killed in action
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Sergeant
Regiment
32 (Buffalo) Battalion 275
Later renamed
32 Battalion
Unit
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,832
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
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. S. H. F. Gericke. On Mossel Bay War Memorial
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 36-41 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
The first and second platoons of Foxtrot Company, 32 Battalion, were under the command of 2Lt S. O'Reilly, during Operation Loodvoet which was being conducted in southern Angola during March and April 1980. On the morning of 30 March Foxtrot were just leaving their TB at Chana Umbi when a group of 30 SWAPO insurgents were spotted approaching in extended line. A short fire fight broke out in which three 32 Battalion men were wounded, after which the enemy fled. 2Lt O'Reilly called for gunship support and ordered his men to set off in hot pursuit. They then came across ten SWAPO sitting under a tree, and engaged these. The SWAPO insurgents again fled, and it was whilst pursuing these ten that Foxtrot Company came under 82 mm mortar fire unexpectedly. One Corporal, one Lance Corporal and four more Riflemen were lightly wounded in this barrage, whilst Sergeant Ben Gericke was more critically wounded by a mortar that exploded just a metre in front of him, and later died of his wounds. Information extracted from 32 Battalion: The Inside Story of South Africa's Elite Fighting Unit, by Piet Nortje.
Dedications 1
Ben was a friend of mine, he served with 32Bat at the time of his death Gavin