Radio signal received one afternoon in September 1986 while on vehicle patrol : "Rendezvous with our section, the Yellow Cuca !!"
There was nothing unusual about this request, we often used to rendezvous in the late afternoon when doing vehicle patrol in different zones. The main purpose was to meet up for the night - a sort of safety in numbers factor. The Yellow Cuca was a code name for the J.P.M. Wholesalers store which was located about half way between Okatope and Ondangwa, on the Tsumeb / Ondangwa tar road.
Well it was late afternoon and the time was right to prepare our final move into the nightly T.B. (Tydelike Basis) so we proceeded to the reference point mentioned by the other section. It took us a short while to reach the yellow Cuca and after passing it we proceeded to the turn-off point. We never used to camp the night out near a point where the locals were known to move, as many of them would have a few drinks into the evening at one of the cucas, and then amble home in a drunken state. There was obviously the risk that we might shoot some innocent person. Hence the idea that we would be at least 1 km away. At the turn-off point we picked up comms again to move in to the correct location, and duly identified that the other section was now quite close. Shortly thereafter one of their members appeared from behind a bush and we moved into their grouping which was where one of the Shonas were.
A shona is a watercourse, something like a combination of a shallow lake and a slow-moving river. They were everywhere as many places in Owamboland were flat expanses. The shonas only used to fill up or flow in the rainy season. One had to drive very cautiously in Owamboland as there were a number of risks to driving in the area. Over and above many non-military drivers having poor driving skills, there was the risk of hitting an animal, getting stuck in soft sand if you moved off the tracks in certain places in the dry season, and getting stuck in mud if you veered off the tracks in the rainy season.
Well we pull up and we see the section has the Buffel parked in the shona - in fact almost in the middle of in the shona. "Eh, whats going on ??" The response was along the line of "Well, we're stuck." We could jolly well see that, as the vehicle was up to its axle in water, and we actually wanted to know a bit more. After a bit more questioning we extracted an embarrassed response from the other section that they had tried to drive through the shona and had gotten stuck. Attempts to reverse out had not helped either. We could see that this was another "brilliant" idea from this section - they often had them - as there was no track going through the shona at this point. And in the watercourses of the shonas you NEVER EVER drove off the track as this was a guaranteed method for getting stuck in mud.
The soil up there was like sludge or "goo" when it got wet, so to tempt fate and drive through the middle of a shona was pure madness. A bit more coaxing and we discovered that one of them had taken a bet that they could drive through the shona. They then proceeded to get the smallest, and lightest, person in the section to walk in front of the Buffel and he was to "Tell us when the mud gets too soft so we don't get stuck". When you compare his weight of approximately 60 kgs to that of the vehicle which was well in excess of 1 ton, it was only obvious that the idea was sheer lunacy. Well we had a good laugh about this one while they were now starting to sweat. A crowd of onlookers had now arrived to see what the army was doing. Another of our sections had by this time arrived too, and an attempt was made to tow the vehicle out, first with one vehicle and then with a second.
No luck - the vehicle stayed firmly embedded in the mud. In fact with the weight of it we doubted whether we would ever be able to help them - the final result might have been calling the base and letting the OC know that one of the vehicles was stuck. Needless to say the section in question was not too keen on this as all hell would then break loose, and they would have been having "Oppies" until the day they "klaared-out".
At this stage it was starting to get dark and as there was little that could be achieved in the dark we settled down to a night next to the shona. The members of the other section had a rather restless night and by the next morning it was found that the Buffel had sunk even deeper into the mud.
A new day however brought new spirits, and we now felt a little more sympathetic to their plight. Despite the stupidity of the act, we were a platoon, and therefore a team; so if they got an "Oppie" we were also potential candidates for being dragged into this as well. By this time the vehicle had been in the shona for almost 24 hours - and the Parking Meter was still running.
It was decided that one final attempt would be made to tow the Buffel out with all vehicles linked in tandem. So with 3 vehicles linked up we attempted to get the vehicle out. A short while later with the power of three engines combined we succeeded in getting the vehicle loose. A very relieved section were extremely grateful to all concerned for saving their butts. After reloading all equipment onto their vehicle, and checking the engine had not been damaged, all sections parted ways for the days patrol around the Okatope zone.