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Hymutenal , Elifas (E)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
30781
Service No.
Unknown
Last Name
First Name
Elifas
Initials
E
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
22
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,779
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in Operation Sceptic, in contact with the enemy at Smokeshell
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Rifleman
Regiment
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,832
South African Defence Force
Memorial
Memorial
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
Position on the panel will be added with photographs
Operation
Operation
Dates
1980-06-01 to 1980-06-30
About
Large mechanised operation into southern Angola against SWAPO bases around Chifufia and Mongua, notable as an early large-scale combat use of the Ratel infantry fighting vehicle and Olifant tank.
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

Of Owambo

Research notes


4 Sep 2026: Regiment leftover "SA Army" cleared -- that's the service branch (Army, as distinct from Navy/Air Force), not a specific regiment; the actual unit (""B" Troop") is already captured in Unit. Per John's decision, the 52 records with no better Unit info were left as-is.
16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo '368' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 30780 to 30781 -- 2 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (30780, Hutchinson, Robert Lewis (W J C)). A value repeated down an unbroken block of PersonNumbers is a forward-fill import artefact, not men who shared a service number; the pattern holds across 850 such runs on this roll and is independently confirmed by Mike Sandham's research log, which attaches such numbers to the head of the run 167 times against 6 contradictions (all examined). No replacement is guessed: this man's real service number is simply not known, and a blank field says so honestly where another man's number did not.
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
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