ONGULUMBASHE: WHERE THE BUSHWAR BEGAN/PAUL J. ELS

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