ONGULUMBASHE: WHERE THE BUSHWAR BEGAN/PAUL J. ELS

• Main Author: Deon Visser
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: Stellenbosch University 2011-08-01
• Series: Scientia Militaria
• Online Access: http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/56

Retired Warrant Officer First Class, Paul J. Els, South African Corps of<br />Signals, is a veteran of the so-called ‘Bush War’. He did his first ‘stint on the<br />Border’ (p. v) in 1968, participated in Operation Savannah during South Africa’s<br />intervention in the Angolan civil war in 1975/76 and subsequently served in the<br />South African Special Forces as long-distance radio operator for 5 Reconnaissance<br />Commando. His first book, We Fear Naught But God: The Story of the South<br />African Special Forces (Covosday: Johannesburg) appeared in 2000, followed by<br />Ongulumbashe: Die Begin van die Bosoorlog in 2004, which he has now translated<br />into English under the title above. The English edition adds nothing of significance<br />to the original Afrikaans text, but makes his work available to a wider audience.<br />The epilogue by Gen. J.J. Geldenhuys, which was added to the English edition, is an<br />almost verbatim translation of parts of Geldenhuys’s foreword to the new edition of<br />his own book Die Wat Gewen Het: Feite en Fabels van die Bosoorlog. (Litera<br />Publikasies: Pretoria 2007).