This is a very good book on a subject that most people do but fully understand.
I enjoyed the book and look forward to any sequel.
I have never met John Gartner, but I feel as if I now know almost every day of his life. The book is a detailed and enthralling capture of his multiple and nearcontinuous, gutsy-combat, high-risk training and jet-setting business experiences. He must have maintained a meticulous diary in order to have been able to so accurately recount his many life stories over such a long period of time. They stem from his initial peace time exposure in the Australian SAS, then war service in the Rhodesian SAS and Selous Scouts, through to being an Operator in the South African Special Forces, an Operative for the South African Government, followed by employment in private military companies in war zones and finally in the security business in all manner of dodgy countries.
Many of his former enemies, opposing forces and competitors are mentioned, and to some extent the book is an unburdening of his soul. The support shown by his wife and children during his long and sometimes high-risk absences is an enduring feature of his story. Occasionally they were with him. What I particularly liked was that he does not gloss over the stuff-ups. He candidly describes several situations that went wrong or which had gone off the rails and how he dealt with them. Some of his former enemies, opposing forces and competitors may be uncomfortable with what he has written, as it is an expose of the reality and morality of close quarter combat, shadowy government service and the bastardry of business.
Almost all individuals that he works closely with, or encounters, are described with their real names and they will almost be certainly be reading the book as it has just been published! He had several brushes with death and his ability to work alone and in small teams for protracted periods in often very tense situations is another distinctive feature of his story. Accordingly, it is a highly motivating read, especially for anyone once considering a similar career in conflict zones in special operations, in and out of uniform, or as a contractor. For the rest of us mere mortals, it provides gripping armchair adventure.
This is the story of Schalk W Fourie’s ten years in the elite South African Army Special Forces, commonly known as the “Recces.”SW started his military career as a national serviceman at 1 Special Service Battalion, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He volunteered for Special Forces and a year later, after completing the hardest Special Forces Selection in the world, and...
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This is the concise (738 pages split into two volumes) story of the final phase of the Buccaneer aircraft operated by 24 Squadron of the South African Air Force during the period 1985 to 1991 when the squadron closed down. Included are the H2 TV Guided bomb project as well as the participation in the last major operations of the...
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The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale has been a source of fierce contestation and emotion for decades, but up to now little was known about the Recces’ presence and impact during this controversial battle. In the last book of the nail-biting trilogy about 1 Recce, the award-winning author Alexander Strachan, himself an ex-Recce, reveals more on the Recces’ involvement there. Packed...
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Die Slag van Cuito Cuanavale is al dekades lank 'n bron van hewige konflik en emosie, maar tot nou toe was min bekend oor die Recces se teenwoordigheid en impak tydens dié omstrede gevegte. In hierdie laaste boek van die spanningsvolle trilogie oor 1 Recce onthul Alexander Strachan, bekroonde skrywer en self 'n oud-Recce, meer oor die Recces se betrokkenheid...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 54 WAR OF INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA VOLUME 4: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1985-1987 - Tom Cooper, Adrien Fontanellaz, Jose Augusto Matos War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4, continues the coverage of the operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defence Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban sources, in the period 1985-1987. Many accounts...
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It is May 1983. The UMR is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Headquarters, the UMR Hall, in Greytown. A medal parade, civic dinner and a number of other events are on the programme. The members of the Unit are upbeat and enthusiastic and look forward to all the activities. There is an officers meeting in the old UMR Hall. On...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 53 THE CIA AND BRITISH MERCENARIES IN ANGOLA, 1975-1976 - Stephen Rookes The 1974 Carnation Revolution came as a blessing for independence movements in Portugal's African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. As had been the case in a number of sub-Saharan countries suddenly finding themselves free of the colonial yoke, the political vacuum left behind by a...
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This book tells the story of the author’s three contracts as a mercenary in the ‘64-‘65 Congo conflict. It is a vivid account of his personal experiences, from his first contract as a raw recruit to his last contract, when he was involved in the formation of the navy on Lake Tanganyika and was the first C.O. Hugh started writing...
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General Georg Meiring is the last of the BIG FIVE GENERALS of the Border War era – consisting of names that were commonly heard in South African households and often on the lips of many a young national serviceman of that time, Magnus Malan, Constand Viljoen, Jannie Geldenhuys, Kat Liebenberg, Georg Meiring. These were the leaders of the most powerful...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 52 FOR GOD AND THE CIA: Cuban Exile Forces in the Congo and Beyond c.1961-1967 - Stephen Rookes As the United Nations armed forces found themselves struggling to quell a series of armed rebellions, towards the end of 1962 the United States increased its military role in the Congo Crisis by providing the Congolese government with a small air...
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Until now little has been known about the Rhodesian contribution to the history of the SAS. Now at last the men themselves tell their own stories of the exploits of that Special Forces unit during the Bush War and the years before. SAS Rhodesia provides a comprehensive account of the origins and history of this famous Special Forces unit, as told...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 50 War of Intervention in Angola - Volume 3: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces 1975-1985 - Tom Cooper, Adrian Fontanellaz, Jose Augusto Matos Most accounts of the conflict known in the West as the ‘Border War’ barely mention the operations by the FAPA/DAA. A handful of published histories mention two MiG-21s claimed as shot down by Dassault Mirage F.1...
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Designed in response to a 1951 requirement, the C-130 Hercules is the most successful military airlifter ever built. Since it first flew in prototype form on 23 August 1954, more than 2,100 have been produced in over eighty different versions. Across its variants, the Hercules serves more than sixty air forces, as well as many civilian cargo operators, in a...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 51 RIPE FOR REBELLION: Political and Military Insurgency in the Congo, 1946-1964 - Stephen Rookes After many years of political struggle, the Belgian Congo was finally granted its independence in June 1960. Becoming the Republic of the Congo (and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo), what was supposed to be a momentous occasion in the country's history...
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By August 1974 the Portuguese had all but abandoned Angola, its erstwhile colony, and there was a fear in both the Intelligence services of South Africa and America that the country was likely to fall the hands of the MPLA, generally regarded as a Soviet surrogate. It was that fear that triggered the training by South Africa of guerrilla groups...
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This work is a serious, non-fictional autobiography, which inter alia is an expose of the times and personalities involved during the thirty years the author spent in covert operations with the Nationalist Party government of South Africa from 1966. The author’s targets during this period included Soviet and Cuban political and military activity in Southern Africa and those of the...
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Al Venter's latest book on South Africa's 23-year Border War along the Angolan frontier offers a host of new perspectives. These include details about units like the South African Air Force 44 Squadron which converted Dakota aircraft into flying gun platforms similar to those used in America's war in South-East Asia. He also has American nuclear specialist David Albright -...
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Executive Outcomes was already well known to several governments and private corporations before it exploded into controversy in 1993 after entering into a contract with Angola’s FAA to train a brigade-level force to decisively end their decades-old conflict with UNITA. It was also well known to those involved in fermenting conflicts in order to topple African governments with a view...
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Paratroopers or Fallschirmjäger as they are known in German, were the elite parachute troops (Fallschirmtruppe) of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Although the Americans and Italians, and to a greater extent, the Russians had experimented with airborne troops, it was the Germans who pioneered vertical envelopment using parachute, glider-borne and air-landed troops to conduct successful airborne operations in...
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Operation Savannah – the Troops’ Diaries Vol 1 & 2 Bookset Much has been written about Operation Savannah by politicians, historians, academics, generals, and senior officers. Those perspectives were not always shared by the very young men who were involved at the front. Many of Operation Savannah’s veterans have struggled to share their experience, even with family and friends. Most...
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