Overview

This is a fast-moving, action-packed account of Granger Korff’s two years’ service during 1980/ 81 with the 1st Parachute Battalion at the height of the South African ‘bush war’ in South West Africa (Namibia) and Angola. Apart from the standard counter-insurgency activities of Fireforce operations, such as ambushing, patrols and contacting and destroying SWAPO guerrillas, he was involved in several conventional cross-border operations with the South African Defence Force (SADF). Having grown up as an East Rand rebel street-fighter, Korff’s military career is marred with controversy. He was always in trouble; going AWOL on the eve of battle in order to get to the front; facing a court martial for beating up and reducing to tears a sergeant-major in front of the troops; fist-fighting with Drug Squad agents; arrested at gunpoint after the gruelling seven-week, 700km Recce selection endurance march– these are but some of the colourful anecdotes that lace this account of service in the SADF. About the Author Granger Korff was born on the East Rand near Johannesburg in 1960.“The apartheid system was sewn tight as a Zulu drum and the country moved to a slow beat,” he says of the times. In 1985, plagued by his demons from the bush war, he travelled to the USA on a four-month boxing/ vacation walkabout where he haunted the mean streets of Los Angeles, scrapping and boxing to survive. Ike Turner and Mickey Rourke were his drinking buddies and he almost became Jake LaMotta’s (The Raging Bull) son-in-law. 24 years later, Granger still lives in LA, where he runs a small plumbing business.

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9781920143312

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Reviews

This is an inside account of one of the Cold War's biggest if somewhat clandestine military campaigns. There is a lot of useful information for leaders at all echelons. --Modern War Magazine

"""This is an inside account of one of the Cold War's biggest if somewhat clandestine military campaigns. There is a lot of useful information for leaders at all echelons.""--Modern War Magazine"

Author Information

Granger Korff. 1960—Cassius Clay won Olympic gold in Rome; the Beatles made their debut in Germany; apartheid was ‘booming’ in South Africa; and Granger Korff was born on the East Rand near Johannesburg to a realtor father and budding-actress mother. “The apartheid system was sewn tight as a Zulu drum and the country moved to a slow beat,” he says of the times. He grew up in the mining town of Benoni, a quiet child initially, before ‘enjoying’ a colourful school career as a musician and quickfisted rebel, attending a string of different schools for a string of different reasons. He graduated in 1979—alone from the public library. In 1985, plagued by his demons from the bush war, he travelled to the USA on a four-month boxing/vacation walkabout where he haunted the mean streets of Los Angeles, scrapping and boxing to survive. Ike Turner and Mickey Rourke were his drinking buddies and he almost became Jake LaMotta’s (‘The Raging Bull’) son-in-law. Twenty-four years later, Granger still lives in LA, where he runs a small plumbing business.

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