BLOOD BROTHERS, to battleground Smokeshell and back

243pp., illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2024

Also available in Afrikaans.

On 10 June 1980, during the Border War, the SADF's 61 Mechanised Battalion Group attacked a complex of Swapo military bases in southern Angola. When Second Lieutenant Paul Louw led Platoon 1 to an objective called Smokeshell, the 44 young men came under heavy fire. Twelve recruits were killed.

Deon Lamprecht records the events and aftermath of the battle in the words of the survivors, and follows veterans when they return to the battleground in 2022.

Lamprecht, a veteran of 61 Mechanised Battalion, is the author two other books on the Border War, Tannie Pompie se Oorlog and Die Brug.