CAPE TOWN HIGHLANDERS CELEBRATE THEIR 125TH ANNIVERSARY
On the weekend of 7-9 May 2010, the Cape Town Highlanders celebrated their 125th Anniversary.
REGIMENTAL HISTORY
The Regiment’s History states:
“We have served since before South Africa (as a union of disparate provinces) even existed. The Regiment – fondly known as ‘CTH’ – was founded in 1885 by a group of volunteer soldiers who felt Cape Town should rightly have a Scottish regiment. Now, 125 years later, it is still what it always was: an active, fighting infantry regiment manned by volunteer officers and other ranks from the Mother City and across the Western Cape.
Our regiment has fought the battles of both war and peace arguably more than any other in the Defence Force – having been awarded 24 battle honours in places as far afield as the Western Desert and northern Italy. Two of these – Paliano 1944 and Alam el Halfa – are not held by any other South African unit.
Our first campaign was in Bechuanaland in 1896-7, followed by the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902, when we provided infantry in the Northern Cape and Karoo and also mounted infantry for Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts and the Commander-in-Chief’s bodyguard.
In World War I, CTH helped to capture what was then South West Africa from the Germans, then formed the major part of a composite regiment – the 4th SA Infantry (SA Scottish) – which fought in most of the big battles in Europe during the rest of the ‘war to end all wars’. At the Battle of Delville Wood (1916) and despite being heavily outnumbered and suffering heavy losses, the battalion held off the German advance for five dreadful days. Two years later, at the Butte de Warlencourt during the final German push in France, 4th SA Infantry was pivotal in halting the vastly larger enemy advance, once again in spite of taking heavy casualties.
In World War II, we were the first South African troops in Egypt, serving in the victorious Western Desert campaign against Rommel right up to his crushing defeat some two years later.
At the Battle of Alamein Box in the late 1942, CTH was one of three South African regiments tasked to stop Rommel’s advance in its tracks, thereby helping the retreating Eighth Army to gain vital breathing space to prepare its counterattack. At Alam el Halfa, just before the momentous Second Battle of El Alamein, one CTH company attacked so fiercely that it fatally delayed the German assault aimed at pre-empting the Allied attack plan.
The Regiment played a leading role in the subsequent Second Battle of Alamein, when it attacked and captured strongly held German positions, losing over a quarter of our officers and men in the process. The Battalion then rushed across the Mediterranean to join the equally triumphant but bruising Allied campaign against the Germans in Italy in 1944 and 1945. During a particularly bloody battle that raged through 14 and 15 April 1945, the First City/Cape Town Highlanders – along with a contingent from the Cape Corps – fought South Africa’s last battle of World War II. In true CTH style, we led the charge and stormed the heights of Monte Sole at bayonet point. This spectacular capture opened the hitherto impassable way to Bologna not only hastening the end of the war but also avenging a massacre of Italian civilians of a few months earlier, which is remembered there to this day.
Our Regiment takes pride in its readiness to commit our men and women to meet the military needs of the modern SANDF and believe that our rightful place is as an active, battle-ready Priority One unit. We were called on to mobilise for active service on several occasions during and since the 1975 incursion into Angola, as well as during the counter-insurgency campaign in what is now Namibia.
During the 1994 election period, our officers and men volunteered in full strength to perform election security duties when it was discovered only ten days before the event that there were not enough policemen to guarantee a peaceful election.
In more recent times, the Cape Town Highlanders has played an active deployment role in peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The only regiment actually to be stationed at the Castle of Good Hope, we are one of just a handful of mechanised infantry units in the South African Army, and were in fact, one of the first part-time infantry units in the current South African National Defence Force to be mechanised.
As a mechanised infantry unit, the battalion operates in the famed armoured fighting vehicle, equipped with heavy weapons ranging from 20mm to 90mm turret guns to ZT-3 anti-tank rockets and 81mm mortars. Today, we are called on to train and be deployed as part of South Africa’s capable peacekeeping and borderline control operations both at home and in the rest of Africa.”
REGIMENTAL MOTTOS
CTH has two mottos, the first, in Latin, is borne by various Scottish regiments: “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” (No man challenges me with impunity). The second, in ‘Scottished’ ancient French, was unique to the Gordon Highlanders and the CTH: “Bydand” (’Steadfast’).
COMMAND STRUCTURE
Commanding Officer / Lt Col A.J. van der Bijl, JCDHonorary Colonel / Col G.P.M. MacLaughlin, PVD, SM, MMM
RSM / SWO J. Koen, JCD
125TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
The 125th Anniversary celebrations commenced with a dinner on Friday 7 May 2010 for 130 troops, all formally dressed in tunics and kilts. The junior officers and NCOs, in a reversal of roles, acted as the waiters.
Saturday 8 May 2010 started with a medal parade in the Castle of Good Hope at which the chief functionary Maj Gen Roy Andersen, Chief Defence Reserves, presented twelve medals to members of the Regiment.
Later in the morning CTH exercised its freedom of entry into the City of Cape Town. The Acting Mayor, Alderman Ian Neilson, took the salute. In the afternoon, a retreat ceremony was followed by a concert by the Pipes and Drums at which a new march “125th Anniversary” was performed for the first time. Later that evening a formal dinner was held in the Castle with the speakers being Maj Gen Andersen and Alderman Neilson. The CO, Lt Col Andre van der Bijl, replied on behalf of the Regiment.
The weekend was rounded off by a church parade, lead by the Regimental Padre, Chaplain Smith.
Lt Col van der Bijl and RSM SWO Koen can be proud of the standards achieved.
Defence Reserves wishes Cape Town Highlanders every success for the future.
Regimental Colour / Podium Group