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Awi , Filimon (F)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
41453
Service No.
Unknown
Last Name
Awi 1
First Name
Filimon
Initials
F
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
1948 (±1 yr) 195
Age at Death
35
Death Record
Date of Death
21 October 1983 204
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action 14,654
Killed in action, during a 5 Recce Regt pseudo mission as part of Operation Slyk.As per General Francisco Pereira Furtado, ex Chief of Staff, Angolan Armed Forces: "From consultations with former members of the 19 FAPLA Infantry Brigade in Mulondo, on the evening of 20/21 October 1983 with a reconnaissance group about 5 kilometres south of the defence position of Brigade, They confirm that when the presence of the reconnaissance group was discovered on the ground, the 19 Brigade artillery fired in the same area, followed by the advance of 3 T-55 tanks that probably caused the death or dispersal of the SADF military and the abandonment of their bodies on the ground. It is noteworthy that Mulondo is located in the Bicuar reserve with ferocious animals among lions, leopards, hyenas and other felines." From this it appears that the four soldiers may have died an honourable soldier's death in facing a superior force of the enemy, which included artillery and tanks. All four seems to have been killed in action
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Rifleman
Regiment
5 Reconnaissance Regiment 72
Later renamed 5 Special Forces Regiment (1995)
Corps
South African Infantry Corps 10,343
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
"B" Squadron
Defence Force
SADF 3,821
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
South Africa 23,859
Locality
Gauteng 9,374
Cemetery
SADF WALL OF REMEMBRANCE, VOORTREKKER MONUMENT, PRETORIA 1,926
Grave Reference
Body not recovered 79
Memorial
Memorial
SADF Wall of Remembrance
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Voortrekker Monument, Eeufees Road, Groenkloof, Pretoria, 0181, South Africa
Coordinates
-25.77639, 28.17583 · OpenStreetMap
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
Position on the panel will be added with photographs
Unit History
Role at time of death
Special Forces (reconnaissance)
Status
Regular Force
Each numbered Reconnaissance unit was renamed over time: "X Reconnaissance Commando" -> "X Reconnaissance Regiment" (1981) -> briefly a Parachute Battalion designation (1992/93, under "45 Parachute Brigade", a Special-Forces-only designation distinct from the real 44 Parachute Brigade) -> "X Special Forces Regiment" (1995). The parent formation itself changed name several times before 1995 (Special Forces Headquarters, then Directorate Reconnaissance(Forces)) with disputed exact dates between sources -- 1995 is the one date sources agree on. Corps classified as SAIC (South African Infantry Corps) per this site's own records; no independent source found confirms that for Special Forces units specifically -- treat as owner-asserted pending a better citation.
Awards
Pro Patria Medal
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

No additional information known at this time

Research notes

SASFA In Memoriam (operators): confirmed Special Forces operator. SASFA: Awi Filimon KIA/MIA 1983. https://www.recce.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/4.1.-Memoriam.pdf 26 Aug 2026: Unit was leftover "1st Regt.". SAWGP Regiment 5 Reconnaissance Regiment with no separate unit.
16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo '167/3408' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 41450 to 41454 -- 5 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (41450, Hulseberg, Ernest Alexander (E A)). 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.

Citations

***Submitted for War Grave Status to CWGC, awaiting acceptance

External References
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