Schoeman, George Frederick (G F)

Captain George Schoeman was a member of the SADF advance force in Angola, in what came to be known as Operation Savannah. This was the SADF intervention during the early stages of the civil war being fought in that country, after the Portuguese had pulled out. During the battle for Novo Redondo in early November 1975, Capt Schoeman was severely wounded by a mine, and subsequently died of his wounds in No.1 Military Hospital in Voortrekkerhoogte.

Capt Schoeman who was injured by a landmine and took command of the squadron and was a crew member in an armoured car. The squadron was ambushed by Cubans north of a town called Ebo on 24 November 1975. During the course of the engagement he had to expose himself to physically help another armoured car out of the ambush area. A shell exploded near by and he suffered severe head injuries. (A plastic bag had to be placed over his head to keep everything together) His body was recovered and returned to South Africa.

Capt Schoeman was injured when he stepped on a landmine. The incident took place on the T junction on the east west road leading to Lobito. The north road went to Luanda. The enemy had placed landmines on the road but our armoured cars were able work around them easily. Capt Schoeman was walking on the road and as a vehicle approached him , he stepped off the road onto the soft shoulder and stood on the mine. The incident occurred in mid November 1975. He was buried in Zeerust.

I served my time at 2SSB from July 1975 to June 1976. After a number of gruelling drills, I was privelidged to march as guard of honour for Captain Schoeman. Shortly thereafter I was sent to 1SSB to train in Eland's and became a gunner, i was previously trained as a trooper. I met Cpl Taljaard but was never informed of his passing. I went into Angola shortly after Christmas 1975 and returned in March of 1976. I will never forget when given a 13 day pass, and went to Joburg to get my flight to Durban, what it was like to stand on a street corner and just watch the traffic and people in general. After 3 months in Angola and returning to "civvy" street was certainly a realization of the intensity of being in an unknown world. Especially at the age of 18 !!!

I did my National Service at 2 Special Service Battalion in Zeerust. I was called up in July 1974. 2SSB had only one intake a year which was July. During that time Taljaard, Vollgraaf, me and about six others opted to take the 18 or 24 month National Service option. This would have exempted us from camps and there was a bonus that was paid out upon completion of the service. On October 8, 1975, nine of us were called into the Officer Commanding?s office and told that we were going to Bloemfontein that night. Capt Schoeman, Cpl Taljaard, Tpr Vollgraaf were part of this group. We traveled to Bloemfontein and when we got there, we were merged with personnel from 1SSB to form a squadron. We were allocated Eland 90?s which were prepared for travel. About two days later the squadron left Bloemfontein for Grootfontein in the then South West Africa. At that time it was abnormal to have a squadron made up of entirely Eland 90?s. Normally one troop had 90?s and the rest were Eland 60?s (Mortars). When we arrived in Grootfontein we settled into our tents. Then we all went to see a movie at the base. When we returned to our quarters we found that all the cars had been painted in camouflage markings and that the registration numbers had been erased. The following morning the squadron was called to a presentation at the mess. A brigadier told us that we were going into Angola on a covert operation to assist UNITA to defeat the MPLA. We had to sign the Official Secrets Act at the time. It was made quite clear to us that we had to volunteer for the task and anybody who did not want to go could remain at the base. One person did remain behind. We were issued with green uniforms (similar to prison issue at the time) and tennis shoes. Anything that we took with us into Angola had to have any reference to South Africa erased. It meant that labels on food cans had to be removed, wording scratched off other items. The cars were ?bombed? up (loaded) with ammunition. Over a period of a few days we and the equipment were flown to Silva Porto in Angola. When we arrived there we drove to a prison out the town. The prison was used as a training camp for UNITA soldiers. They were to provide the ground troop support for us. They were trained by Recces. About two weeks later we started to head for Lobito taking one town at a time. During the time I was there until Decembe