1 South African Infantry Battalion

InsigniaCompany level InsigniaSA Mechanised Infantry beret bar c. 1992

1 South African Infantry Battalion is a mechanized infantry unit of the South African Army.

History

Oudtshoorn origin

Established as 1 SA Infantry Training Battalion at Oudtshoorn, (hence the ostrich feathers on the unit insignia) on 26 January 1951, the unit became part of the infantry corps with its establishment in January 1951.

In 1953, the unit consisted of:

• a headquarters with companies at:
  • 1 SAI itself in Oudsthoorn as A Company,
  • 1 SSB in Bloemfontein as B Company;
  • 4 Field Regiment in Potchefstroom as C Company;

and

• • a supply & transport company, an attempt at all arms training.

The unit was reconstituted as 1 SA Infantry Battalion in November 1967 and moved to its current base at Tempe near Bloemfontein, in November 1973.^[1]

1 SAI in the development of modern mechanised infantry

By 1976 infantry operations transformed drastically when the Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) was introduced for the first time and in November the first Ratel course was presented at 1 SAI by then Major Roland de Vries.

In 1977, 1 SAI received its first consignment of 42 Ratel IFVs. The shoulder flash of 1 SAI was redesigned depicting a rampant honey badger, while the first mechanised infantry junior leadership training courses started.

From 1977 to 1981, mechanised infantry leadership students shared the same lines as 1 SAIs conventional companies, but were required to wear a nutria brassard on the right arm with a green and yellow embroidered honey badger insignia in order to stand out and ensure Espirit de Corps. The training wing became identified as the T&D Wing and all students attended the same course until the Section Leaders Phase had been completed. Section Leaders were then awarded their Lance Corporal stripes and then placed with regular rifle companies. The rest of the future NCOs also received their stripes and future Officers received their white Candidate Officer's tabs. These students were then evaluated and split into the Mechanised Platoon Commanders Course and Specialist Instructors Course. These platoon commanders were destined to either become future leaders of 1 SAIs rifle companies or instructors at the Training Wing, while the Specialist Instructors would become Officers and NCO's responsible for training of Ratel gunners and drivers.

• All students qualifying as Section Leaders were authorised to wear one parallel green bar above their two Corporal stripes.
• Students that qualified as Platoon NCOs were authorised to wear two parallel green bars. The Platoon NCOs were responsible for the support of the vehicles, platoon weapons and signal equipment of a specific platoon.
• Students that completed either the Platoon Commanders or Specialist Instructors Course were permitted to wear three parallel green bars above their stripes, signifying their platoon sergeant status. Platoon sergeants were responsible for the training and discipline of an allocated platoon.

By January 1981, the training wing was renamed the Mechanised Leadership Wing and moved to the Akkedisdorp premises outside the lines of 1 SAI and next to 1 SSB. The wearing of the distinctive honey badger student brassard was discontinued during this period.

The mechanised techniques developed at 1 SAI was transferred to two additional mechanised infantry battalions under development at that time, namely 4 SAI and 8 SAI.

Battalion Pioneer Platoon

1 SAI also had an assault pioneer capability in the 1980s, usually designated Oscar Company. Assault pioneers were the integral combat engineering component of the battalion. Assault pioneers were trained in tasks such as:

• Field defences and obstacles
• Mine detection and removal
• Primary demolitions
• Non standard bridging
• Anchorages and suspension traverses

The Pioneer Platoon provided small tasks and close support capabilities to the battalion ensuring immediacy of response and decreasing the workload of the engineer squadrons. By the 1990s this function was retired to the Engineering Corps however.

Bushwar

Operations

By 1978, 1 SAI took part in Operation Reindeer. 1 SAI was also later involved in:

• Sceptic,
• Protea,
• Daisy,
• Askari
• Moduler and
• Operation Hooper.

Honouris Crux recipients

The following 1 SAI members were awarded the Honoris Crux decoration

Operation Sceptic;

• Lt. J.J. du Toit
• LCpl A.T. Rutherford

Operation Protea;

• Cpl A.D. Burgers

Relationship with 61 Mech

1 SAI was also the main feeder unit for mechanised infantry companies for 61 Mechanised Battalion Group during this period.^[2]

Post 1994

Assimilation of 151 Battalion

Peled writes that after January 1993, 151 Battalion, formed from the Southern Sothos in the Orange Free area, was assimilated into 1 SAI.^[3]

Murder at 1 SAI

In Sept 1999, a disgruntled junior officer from 1 SAI went on a shooting spree through the unit. Lt. S. Madubela killed seven personnel and injured five. He was stopped and killed by his colleagues.^[4]

Freedom of Entry

1 SAI received the freedom of entry to Bloemfontein in 1981.

Insignia

Previous Dress Insignia

Current Dress Insignia

Ordnance

Current

Vehicle mounted weapons

1 SAI is equipped with Ratel 20 Infantry Fighting Vehicles,^[5] Ratel 60 mm (2.4 in) Mortar Platform Vehicles, Ratel Command Vehicles with mounted 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine guns, Kwevoel 100 Armoured Trucks for IFV Recovery, field maintenance, fuel bunkers and water provision,^[6] Samil 50 and 100 logistics trucks, Samil 20 trucks for its organic field workshops, Casspir APCs for its forward artillery observation party,^{[citation needed]} and Rinkhals Field Ambulance.^[7] 1 SAI has also used Buffel IFVs and Mambas at certain stages in its history. Ratel mounted weapons include the Denel Land Systems GI-2 20 mm (0.79 in) Quick Firing Cannon (QFC) (Ratel mounted), 60 mm (2.4 in) breech-loading mortar (Ratel mounted), Browning M1919 ^[8] Machine gun and the Browning M2 12.75 mm (0.502 in) Machine gun.^[8]

Lighter and personal weapons

1 SAI is equipped with the Vektor SS77 Squad Automatic Machine gun, Fabrique Nationale 7.62 mm (0.300 in) Light Machine gun, Vektor R4 5.56 mm (0.219 in) assault rifle, 40 mm (1.6 in) Multiple Grenade Launcher (MGL), Rocket Propelled grenade launcher (RPG-7),^{[citation needed]} M26 Fragmentation grenade,^[9] M4 60 mm (2.4 in) patrol mortar (PATMOR), and the Denel 99 mm (3.9 in) FT5 rocket launcher.^[10]

Future

Under Project Hoefyster, the SANDF will eventually replace the Ratel family of vehicles with the Badger system.^[11][12][13] Nine versions are contemplated of which three are earmarked for mechanized Infantry Battalions such as 1 SAI:^[14][15][16]

• Command (mech infantry)
• Mortar (turreted 60mm breech loading long-range mortar) ( mech infantry)
• Missile (turreted Denel ZT3 Ingwe)
• Section (turreted 30mm cannon) (mech infantry)
• Fire Support (turreted 30mm cannon, but with more ammunition than the section vehicle)
• Signal variant
• Ambulance variant
• Artillery variant

1 SAI Mechanised Fleet early 1990s

Fighting Echelon Vehicles

1 Ratel 20 per section, 3 sections per platoon, 1 Ratel 60 per platoon, 3 platoons per company. 2 Ratel 12,7 per company.

A Echelon Vehicles

Unit Song

Leadership

Training Battalion

Leadership

From	Honorary Colonel	To
From	Officer Commanding	To
1967	Cmdt H.N.H. Norton	c. 1968
1969	Cmdt B.P.U. Strydom	c. 1971
1975	Cmdt Len Meyer	c. 1977
1977	Cmdt A.J.M. Joebert	c. 1977
1977	Cmdt Frank Bestbier	c. 1978
1981	Col A. Savides[17]	c. 1983
1983	Col G.A. van Zyl	c. 1987
1990	Col Cassie Schoeman	c. 1993
1993	Col A. Bornman	c. 1995
1995	Col C.J. van der Merwe	c. 1996
1996	Lt Col Jan Wessels	c. 1999
2004	Lt Col T.C. Mokhosi	c. 2008
2013	Col T. Mashalaba	c. 2016
2016	Lt Col T.S.A. Tseki	c. 2018
2020	Lt Col M. Malatji	Nd
From	Regimental Sergeants Major	To
1969	WO1 R.H. Uekermann	1972
1973	WO1 A.A. Calmeyer	1976
1976	WO1 L.B. Calitz	1980
1980	WO1 J.R. Stone	1986
1987	WO1 E.H. Heimann	1988
1988	WO1 W.P. Wiese	1993
1993	WO1 T.J. Visagie	1996
1996	WO1 H.C.A Smit	1997
1998	WO1 J.M Nel	2004
2015	WO1 J. A. Koekemoer	Nd

Mechanised Leadership Wing

Leadership

From	Officer Commanding	To
1978	Maj E. van Lill	c. nd
1982	Cmdt Cassie Schoeman	c. 1985
1995	Lt Col. K. Schmidt	c. nd

Notes

References