32 Battalion

Blurb

32 Battalion: The Inside Story of South Africa's Elite Fighting Unit is a book written by Piet Nortje. For his entire adult life he had been a soldier. Half of his military career he spent with 32 Battalion. During early 1993 he volunteered to compile the story of 32 Battalion. He was inspired to do this during informal discussions with two former 32 Battalion officers, Commandant Werner Sott, outgoing OC 7 SA Infantry Battalion, and his successor, Commandant Daan van der Merwe. They informed Nortje that someone else already approached to do so, but even though Nortje was advised to drop the idea, he started to collect as much information as possible on 32 Battalion.
At the end of 1993 a staff paper written by Major Walley Vrey, entitled The History of 32 Battalion, was supplied to Nortje. Upon the retrieval of this document, he was again advised that there was another book in the pipeline, but he ignored this warning once again. By January 1998 no other book had been published about 32 Battalion's history, even though various people promised Nortje that there were other books being written.