Johan Raath served for seven years in the South African Defence Force, including three years as an instructor with the Special Forces training wing, and this experience gives him excellent insight into the training process, allowing him to detail this extensively in A Breed Apart.
Raath’s latest book, which came out around the time of the Special Force’s 50 year anniversary, examines the gruelling selection and training required to be a recce operator.
A Breed Apart begins with Raath and his fellow newly minted Recces taking part in their first combat engagement, Operation Nigel, in Angola, following Raath being called up for national service in 1986 and concluding his year-long special forces training cycle. Much of the rest of the book covers Raath’s own selection and training cycle in the context of the broader training programme and what it was designed to achieve.
Raath lists the many mental and physical challenges encountered along the way as well as some lighter moments. Raath writes well and his descriptions of training are interesting and never tedious. He explains that South African Special Forces are somewhat unusual in that they are required to be comfortable in the air, on land, and at sea, and so some of the courses recruits have to undergo include air orientation, demolition and mine warfare, seaborne/water orientation, parachute course, buschcraft, tracking and survival, guerrilla/unconventional warfare, urban warfare etc.
He dispels the notion that recces are huge, menacing men suffering from PTSD – rather they are of ordinary physical size and ability but have extraordinarily strong minds able to react quickly, solve problems, and succeed at whatever mission they are assigned – sometimes their bodies took too much abuse because their minds were stronger (Raath urges soldiers and security professionals to look after their bodies and not let their ‘young minds’ abuse their ‘only human’ bodies – his body took an enormous amount of punishment over the years, and he is paying the price for it now).
“These were soldiers who could push their minds and bodies beyond normal human limits, with a high tolerance for pain and fatigue, who could override the calls of hunger, discomfort and mental tiredness, and who could purge the urge to give up. Men who think on their feet, who could quickly adapt, who weren’t set in their ways and who did not hesitate to conduct actions in very unconventional ways,” Raath writes of the typical recce.
“The most important lessons from our training as Recces, and that later defined our characters, were how to withstand hardships, how to work as a team, how to show leadership and initiative in challenging situations, how to be flexible and adaptable, and how to work in the most challenging and austere conditions under pressure,” he writes.
An interesting point Raath mentions is the fact that very few recces suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), unlike many conscripted soldiers. This, he believes, is because recces volunteered to become operators, and had to undergo strict psychological evaluation as part of selection. They were all dedicated career soldiers who did not shy away from a fight and chose to do what they did, unlike the average conscript who had little say in his situation.
Of the roughly 100 000 young men who attempted to become recces between 1972 when 1 Recce was established and the end of the Bush War in Angola in 1989, just under 400 qualified. Raath points out this amounts to a success rate of just .4%, showing how few had the physical – and more importantly, the mental – capacity to become a Special Forces operator.
“All I ever wanted to be was a soldier, and I am very proud to have qualified and worked as a South African Special Forces operator. The absolute quality, strength and experience of our founders, and of the Recces who came after them, forged an organisation that has become one of the most revered special operations forces in the world,” Raath writes.
A Breed Apart explains just why South Africa’s Special Forces are so highly revered, and it’s an interesting and insightful read.
After leaving the South African Defence Force, Raath founded a tactical training school outside urban before becoming a private security contractor and VIP protector. He spent a decade in Iraq, after which he wrote the book Blood Money about his experiences. Like A Breed Apart, it’s also most definitely worth a read.
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: August 2022
Language: English
Paperback: 306 pages
ISBN-10: 1928248241
ISBN-13: 978-1928248248
