Jans , Johannes Wilhelmus Landerd (J W L)

The other person that was shot in the leg was a Rfn Momberg. I - Apie van Dyk currently still have Rfn Jans -Janse van Rensburg - dog tags in my possession after all these years. Wish I knew where or who his parents and/or siblings were. I would really like to hand these to one of them. Not sure who got shot in the neck but I recall him bleeding a lot. Our medic was Sgt Laurie Lawrence. Amazing thing with Laurie ... many years later I was in a car accident and hit my head against the windscreen and bleeding. The person that stopped to lend assistance no one other than Laurie.

"Willem" Jans was killed on an external Angolan operation in the early hours of the morning of June 9th, 1979 while serving with Johannesburg Regiment on what I believe was called Ops Twaksak at the time but was later recorded as ops Caterpillar. A composite Jhb Regt. Company had been formed along with composite companies of the SA Irish and two other regiments of the division, including the artillery outfit who had ben converted to pongos. The composite company utilised higer ranks in the leadership positions than normal. Major Dawkshas was the Company Ccommander and I recall that Capt. Larry Lombard acted as a platoon commander. Platoon Sgt. Aap van Dyk filled a position as section leader. The objective was to attack a large base in Southern Angola. At sunset our compant stopped for supper, then packed up and moved slightly away under cover of darkness from our position to take up the new position for the night. At approx. 01h00 we came under heavy co-ordinatied mortar fire from the NE. It was clear that the enemy had spotters because each salvo was closer to us than the last. The fire became very close - my "buddie" Willem van der Merwe and myself hopping over our meagre sandbags depending which side of us the bombs were falling. The bombs appeared to be 82mm items which we struggled to respond to with the 60mm patrol mortars that we carried. These were merely 60mm pipes with some car tyre rubber attached as a base-plate. Rob Perotti fired his with max "hulp-ladings" which resulted in the pipe pushing through the rubber and Rob breaking the bones in his wrists. The mortars must have gone on for half an hour or so and then stopped. We were all pretty shaken but went back to kip. At around 02h00 the world exploded again when a barrage of automatic fire opened up on our position. The initial attack from the SW was virtually all tracer rounds from what appeared to be about 3 companies which lit up the sky and created a curtain of tracer streaks a few feet above our position. Mercifully the initial attack was slightly off-target which helped considerably. Willem Jans was fatally wounded with a head-shot in the first attack. The attacked lasted for about an hour during which the enemy - which were were well directed by East German officers - advanced until they were within swaering distance, and I clearly recall some profanities being swapped by both sides! Sgt van Dyk was wounded in the backside