Mobility conquers: The story of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978–2005. Willem Steenkamp and Helmoed-Römer Heitman

The authors have produced a handsome book of encyclopaedic dimensions matched with an equally large price tag. Its sheer weight presents a physical challenge when reading and it may have been wiser rather to present the work in two or three more manageable volumes. The narrative takes the form of a chronicle. Steenkamp and Heitman deftly build the text around the personal accounts of the officers and men who served in the South African Defence Force’s (SADF) 61 Mechanised Battalion Group during the Border War and after that, with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for a decade into the new democratic South Africa. In constructing the narrative, they place more emphasis on personal accounts than on primary archival material, but the extent is difficult to gauge as the book lacks a comprehensive bibliography or referencing system.