1. History

2. Leadership

3. External links

4. References

The 1 Reconnaissance Commando was the first South African special forces unit, founded by General Fritz Loots - the founder of the South African Special Forces, and the first General Officer Commanding of the South African Special Forces. He appointed 12 qualified paratroopers (known as "The Dirty Dozen") as the founder members. Included in these 12 paratroopers was Jan Breytenbach, who was placed in command of the Founder Members by General Loots.

History

Major General Loots and the Chief of the Army, Lt. General Willem Louw realised the need for a South African Defence Force to have a special operations capability, but the Chief of the {{abbrlink|SADF|South African Defence Force}}, General Rudolph Hiemstra resisted. It was not until Admiral Hugo Biermann became Chief of the South African Defence Force in 1972 that the go-ahead was granted.^[1]

The unit was originally based at Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province, but was moved to Durban in 1974,^[2] where it was formally named 1 Reconnaissance Commando. In the early 1980s, the unit had less than 40 Recce's based at 1RR of which the majority were white. It was renamed 1 Reconnaissance Regiment in 1996, but was disbanded and integrated into 4 Reconnaissance Regiment and 5 Reconnaissance Regiment in 1997.

Leadership

The South African Special Forces Association website shed a light onto the leader of the Reconnaissance Commando and the 11 men who first served in the unit. Commander JD Breytenbach led these men and pioneered a standard of training and professionalism that the SASF has followed since. A Special Forces unit was created by two Generals who pushed for permission to create it. Once they were given the go-ahead, the Generals appointed 12 troopers to the unit and began training them.^[6]

External links

• {{cite web|title=S. African Reccee (description of selection)|url=http://www.specwarnet.net/world/sarecee.htm|website=SpecWarNet.net|publisher=SpecWarNet|accessdate=28 October 2014}}

References

The BuzzSouth Africa article, “South African Special Forces: Salary, World Rating, Weapons, Quick Facts” is full of specific information that is not generally well known. For example, it explains that, in order to become a soldier in the Special Forces, you need to have graduated from school, speak two languages and be between the ages of 18-28 when you begin training. ^[7]

This website is a tribute to the South African Military, and had extensive information about the Reconnaissance Commando. The website initially gave me simple information like the Wikipedia article, but after some reading, I was able to find more details as to who was involved in the Special Forces and why the unit was created at that time.

This website talks about the history of the entire South African Defence Force, of which the Reconnaissance Commando was a part of. I used this website to investigate the when and how pieces of the puzzle. This article explained the legislation that was passed to allow for a Special Forces unit and when it was passed. It also discussed the duties of a Special Forces soldier, and why they are so important to the South African Defence Force.^[9]

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