Identity
Person No.
33840
Old ROH no.
1645
Service No.
75339440PE
Last Name
First Name
Louis Theodorus Hermanus
Initials
L T H
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
21
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,778
Killed in action
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Unit History
Role at time of death
Airborne light infantry (paratroops)
Status
Regular Force
Part of
Raised 1 April 1961 at Tempe. First battalion of 44 Parachute Brigade from 1978.
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. and Mrs. J. H. Wessels, of Universitas, Bloemfontein.
Research notes
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word, and it CONTRADICTED this record's own Branch, "Army". Across the roll 787 records carried such a contradiction; judged against Corps and Regiment -- independent of both columns -- the evidence backed Branch 744 times and Unit2 not once. Branch is therefore kept and the contradicting word removed. Nothing is guessed: this man's branch of service is already recorded, and his sub-unit, if any, is simply not known.
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 42-45 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
Theo or Tank was my friend since std 6 at Grey in Bloem. We were friends all the way to matric. I went off to 4SAI and he went to Bats. He was in Bats with another good friend Andre Sonnekus. Tank had 2 and a half fingers missing on his right hand...I believe they nicknamed him 7's at one point. He was a platoon sargeant and I saw him only a short while before his death We were somewhere watching a Grey game and chatted...planing on doing some pistol shooting in the new year after I had completed a camp. I ended up in Oshakati with the UOVS university unit and we had heard there was a big op going on. Late one afternoon a Puma flew over and some of us were asked to donate blood to wounded troops. When the guys got back from the sickbay/hospital, they talked about one guy who had been killed... his body bag was open and they had seen him lying there, his face covered in stalks of dry grass, almost as if he was asleep. They only mentioned that it looked like he had taken a round through the neck. A day or so later someone in the university unit who knew me from school told me that it had been Tank who had been killed. I tried to find out what had happened... and all I managed to find out was that he may have led an attack on a bunker to silence a machine gun. He stormed forward with some other guys and seemed to stumble and fall. Ive never been able to find any other info on what happened.
Dedications 1
Paratrooper's Prayer Heavenly Father, King of the world I know that all things are in your hands, whatever happens to me. As a paratrooper I am prepared to suffer hardship. I am ready to endure danger and unrest, pain and hurt. I am willing to be hungry end thirsty. I am prepared to face the enemy fearlessly. Lord I am weak. I cannot depend on my own strength. I do not want to trust in my own abilities. Lord my God; Let me trust in you alone. Give me courage and strength, and, above all, faith to do my work