Identity
Person No.
32706
Old ROH no.
1216
Service No.
71537724BC
Last Name
First Name
Christopher James
Initials
C J
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
20
Military Service
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Secondary Unit
Army
Defence Force
SADF 3,263
South African Defence Force
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DOW 2,685
Died of wounds
Cause of Death
Died of wounds, received at Caprivi, landmine. Deployed into South East Angola early November. They had just returned from a seven day patrol when the relieving platoon was on its way out to lay an ambush. Chris wanted to go with to see that the platoon was safely dropped off and was to return to our main base with the vehicles. He was sitting in the passenger seat of the Unimog. On the way to the drop off point they drove over a landmine, which went off right under Chris Robin's seat. He was blown off but badly burnt and his body took a terrible blow from the explosion. He subsequently died of his wounds, even although the medic and fellow officer tried their best to keep him alive until he could be casavaced out
Grave Reference
Location
Country
Locality
Notes
Son of Mr. G. F. Robin. Educated at Hilton College, Natal.
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project
Stories 6
Christopher Robin was my Platoon Leader. He went to Artillery School then was posted to 4th Field Regiment. We went to the Caprivi together and then in November our Regiment went into Angola. We had just completed a 10 day patrol when the next platoon had to move out and take up an ambush position on the Zambian/Angolan border. Christopher went with the vehicles that were going to drop off the platoon near the ambush site and return with them. A landmine exploded right underneath him and he subsequently died from his injuries sustained. Christopher was one of three good friends I lost in the next two days. He will always be remembered as a kind, understanding person.
What Duncan doesn't say is that he was involved in the tragedy that struck down Lt Robin. He was a Platoon Sargeant. He lost both his arms due to the searing explosion, and after a very long recuperation period, made an amazing recovery. He became a karate black belt, and is today a successful dairy farmer. Chris would be proud!
Lt C.J. Robin for the story.
Hi John, As you can see I have attached the newspaper articles for you. The story does vary a bit ... typical journalism, so I shall write it out for you. This is from my experience of what happened and also thanks to Lt. Andre Brand who was present at the whole incident. So I have taken from both of our encounters and have written what actually happened. It could not be more accurate and truthful than this. I also have included an article on my wedding day to my lovely wife. We have just celebrated 29 yrs. of marriage. I did notice in the Unit deaths, you only had one person killed from 4th Field Regt. I would like to add Gunner Christo Retief as well as Lt. Chris Robin. I do know there were more gunners killed from 4th Field Regiment, but do not know their names. Lt C. Robin no is <a class="tooltip" title="Lt C. Robin" href="main.php?page=
Gnr C. Retief no is <a class="tooltip" title="Gnr C. Retief" href="main.php?page=
My Story ? Angola War Overview: - I, Frikkie Bekker, commenced my military service in January 1975. From Durban we travelled to our base in Potchefstroom. I was enrolled in 42 Battery, 4 th Field Regiment. During my service there I played rugby and did athletics. Our commanding officer was Captain Theron. Towards the end of the year, we went to do our border duty. We were based at Mapacha. After a few weeks we were moved to Kwando. Arriving at Kwando, we had heard that 2 weeks prior a panzer car unit had hit a landmine and we were told there was only one survivor. We did our regular patrols in the Kwando area. One day, we walked through a camp that was hit by terrorists (when the SAPS still did border patrols), it was called Sherilongwe. We also stood at the beacon where the 3 countries came together. After a few weeks we were sent to a bush camp where the Luiana River and the Kwando river met. One morning on patrol , (after a couple of hours) we came upon a terrorist ambush site. It was an opening in-between a dense bush. We sent our scouts through to investigate, fortunately , there was no activity at that time. We searched the site and dug up mortars and AK47 ammunition that was buried under fire places and saw all the dug in sites that were prepared for ambush. Further on we found a dam, being hot, we thought that we would give each troop a chance to jump in and cool down in the water, we found boots and ammunition wrapped in plastic bags beneath the water. Shortly after that we had a radio message from the camp that they were sending a truck to collect us as we were not going to proceed with this patrol. They picked us up and on arrival at the camp, we were told that we were going to set up an ambush position further in Angola due to terrorist activity in that area. About 2pm, we had all our equipment ready to lay this ambush, we had mortars, strims, claymore mines, etc. We had a Unimorg that was not landmine prepared as it was brand new. We had to use that to transport the troops. I asked Theron why he would send us on a road , marked ?RED? on the map, with a vehicle
Dedications 3
Christopher Robin was a tall, intelligent young officer. I remember him as if it were yesterday. He died in the Caprivi in an attack by SWAPO. Forever remembered.
Christopher Robin was a fantastic leader. He loved life and will always be remembered for the photographs he took... "We will remember them" Duncan Mattushek
2Lt. Christopher Robin - Officer and a gentleman. An energetic and charismatic leader who was admired and an inspiration to those who followed. I will never forget you.