The South African Defence Force fought a long and hard battle along its border with Angola against Soviet backed rebels from 1966 until 1990. Over the course of this war the nation became perhaps the world leaders in anti-insurgent warfare and despite international arms embargos the nation was the technologically most advanced armed force in sub-Saharan Africa. Much equipment, uniform, small arms and military hardware was produced in the country and was of superb quality to allow it to stand up to the rigours of combat in the harsh bushlands of the region. The infantryman depicted today is representative of those serving in the early to mid 1980s (I will admit now that there are some compromises here due to the limitations of my collection at this point). He wears the nutria-brown uniform worn by all SADF land based forces, and is armed with the older SLR rifle:

The uniform consists of a pair of nutria-brown trousers, held up with a 1970 Pattern belt and a nutria-brown vest, with a pair of black hi-leg boots:

Over this is worn a nutria-brown shirt and a matching bush hat:

The webbing is then worn over this, consisting of the 1970 pattern set with multiple ammunition pouches and a water bottle over the right hip. The grootsacke is worn on the back. A poncho roll hangs beneath the rear kidney pouches:

This is still very much a work in progress as the uniform is more typical of the late 1980s, whilst the webbing is more typical of the 1970s and the boots are British Army examples rather than the correct SADF ones so there is still much work to do, but I am pleased with the progress so far.

1. Nutria- brown trousers
2. 1970 pattern waist belt
3. Nutria-brown bus hat
4. SLR Rifle
5. 1970 Pattern webbing set
6. Nutria-brown vest
7. Nutria-brown shirt
8. Hi Leg Combat Boots