At Thy Call We Did Not Falter

by Clive Holt

At Thy Call We Did Not Falter is a gripping frontline account of the Angolan war, as seen through the eyes of a 19-year-old conscript soldier. It tells the story of so many young white South Africans who, like him, were sent into battle against overwhelming forces straight after finishing school. Clive Holt was at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, where the South African Defence Force supported the rebel movement Unita after a massive build-up of Cuban and Angolan troops. It was the bloodiest and most significant battle fought by South African troops since World War II. With diary extracts, previously unpublished photographs and a riveting narrative, this book transports the reader into the firing line and the dark realms of war. At Thy Call We Did Not Falter is a classic account of war, as well as a window into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a chilling account of how a government took schoolboys and turned them into killing machines. The timing of the book is extraordinarily fortunate, coming just as interest in Cuito Cuanavale is being revived, with moves afoot to arrange battlefield tours, and debates raging anew in military and veteran circles about who the victors and vanquished were.

Genres: Africa, History

194 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2006

Reviews

[Alwin Wiederhold · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account from a soldier’s perspective of a war which did not happen on TV or in the media. The author faced the same choice I did at the end of school, but went to the army unlike me. His account of the reality of war is harrowing and could have been the reality of so many young (white) South Africans.

[Babak Fakhamzadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's currently a rekindled interest, amongst mostly the white population, in South Africa, to relive the war in Angola which South Africa, supporting rebel forces in the south of Angola, fought against the Angolan government forces, supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union.
As wars go, the skirmishes were relatively minor, though the actual war raged, on and off, for some 20 years. South Africa lost very few men, while the Angolan side lost many more. However, at the time, the fighting in Angola was almost completely done covertly, almost nothing leaking into the South African press, let alone the international media.
South Africa was, at the time still an apartheid state and with Namibia, then South West Africa, still a protectorate, very afraid of the communists creeping up to their doorstep and perhaps even managing to hook up with the communist anti-apartheid forces in South Africa. With Namibia being so sparsely populated and hard to defend, the South African government effectively preemptively went into Angola to prevent that from happening. Successfully.

At thy call we did not falter are the memoirs of a, then, 19 year old soldier being posted to the border. Competently, but not engagingly, written, it is primarily a way of coming to terms, for the author, with his experiences and memories. What Holt experienced ain't no walk in the park, but, by now, you'd have to have lived in a cave for your whole life to not have read or seen a much more painful account of someone having suffered the horrors of war.
Besides Holt's personal reasons for writing the book, the breadth of information available on the war in Angola is very limited. Considering that, Holt's account adds some value, but also can't deliver in the area which I would have found much more interesting; that is, the bigger picture surrounding the conflict.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A grim look into the horrors experienced by a conscripted soldier in the Angolan War. One of those reads that helps put life into perspective. Many can only imagine the horrors of war. There are also many who get to experience it first hand, often not of their own choosing. It must have been brutal to be involved in this war while the government did its utmost to keep it out of the news. While the author was fearing for his life, his comrades dying in close proximity to him, other young people his age were back in South Africa living normal lives blissfully unaware that he was dodging bullets and bombs.

The layout of the book was a bit odd. It would include diary entries (that he claimed weren't altered in anyway) in the begin but they petered out. This could be a sign of his inability or lack of motivation to journal as the war dragged on for him. I feel like he should've just stuck to the format of describing his experience in the war. The diary entries didn't add much I feel.