The Search for Puma 164: Operation Uric and the Assault on Mapai

The successful search for the crash site of a SAAF Puma helicopter during Operation Uric and the assault on Mapai in Mozambik on 06.09.1979.
07-0353
978-1-920143-57-2
Available in April 2024. Pre-order here.
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€49.95 *

Title: The Search for Puma 164
Subtitle: Operation Uric and the Assault on Mapai
Author: Rick van Malsen; Neill Jackson
Genre: Military History
Publisher: 30° South Publishers (Pty) Ltd.
Johannesburg, South Africa 2011
ISBN 9781920143572 / ISBN 978-1-920143-57-2
Hardcover, dustjacket, 15 x 23 cm, 400 pages, 200 colour & b/w photos, sketches, map

About: The Search for Puma 164: Operation Uric and the Assault on Mapai

The dramatic loss of the South African military helicopter Puma 164 in 1979 was due to two factors. The first was the action by a lone Frelimo operator who didn't run away when all his mates had done so; the second was that he fired his missile at the very last helicopter out of formations totalling 18 helicopters that flew over him. Good luck and very bad luck featured largely in so much of what happened on Operation Uric, as this book, The Search for Puma 164: Operation Uric and the Assault on Mapai, tells. In November 2008 Rick van Malsen was invited to join an expedition in searching for another crash site, where a South African Canberra bomber had been lost over the Malvernia area in January 1977. It was then that he realized that it would indeed be possible to return to the Mapai area in an attempt to find the last resting place of the soldiers and airmen of Puma 164 who had so tragically lost their lives on 6 September 1979. And so the stage was set, and he began to plan for the search that would ultimately lead to the discovery of the crash site of Puma 164 and the marking of the war graves of those brave men lost during Operation Uric.

Content: The Search for Puma 164: Operation Uric and the Assault on Mapai

Author's note
Dedication by Chas Lotter
Foreword by the late Lieutenant-General G.P. Walls
Introduction
Background to Operation Uric
Reconstruction of events leading to the downing of Puma 164
The fateful day
The assault on Mapai
The aftermath
Personal recollections of Operation Uric
The hand of fate
Search preparation and planning
The search and the memorial service
Searching for the next of kin
Feedback reports
Final resting place by Neill Storey
Return to Mapai
In memoriam
Epilogue by Dr J. R. T. Richard Wood
'Ashes and Dust' by Chas Lotter
Roll of honour: Operation Uric
Command and control
Rhodesian army and air force rank structures
GPS coordinates
Rhodesian military operations relevant to Operation Uric
Acknowledgements
Message: Captain Ola Grinaker HC, former SAAF Puma pilot
The origin of the crash-site searches: a tribute to Bob Manser and 'Kutanga
Mac, by Prop Geldenhuys
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
Selected bibliography
Index

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