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De Lange , Pieter Hendrik (P H)

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Identity
Person No.
30003
Service No.
80350200
Last Name
De Lange 31
First Name
Pieter Hendrik
Initials
P H
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
1964 (±1 yr) 296
Age at Death
19
Death Record
Date of Death
15 July 1983 212
Cause code
MVA 2,660
Motor vehicle accident
Cause of Death
Died in Private Vehicle Accident at Pretoria 2
Died in Private Vehicle Accident at Pretoria. Collided with furniture truck at Hercules, while on weekend pass
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Trooper
Regiment
Unknown
Corps
South African Armoured Corps 438
Unit
2 Special Service Battalion 51
Defence Force
SADF 3,874
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
South Africa 23,879
Locality
Gauteng 9,374
Cemetery
PRETORIA (HEATHERDALE) CEMETERY 42
Grave Reference
Plot 10, Grave 378 1
Unit History
Role at time of death
Armour (Armoured Car)
Status
Permanent Force (Regular)
Part of
Other listed units (not nested under a brigade above) › Units
Re-established 1 October 1973 out of C Squadron 1 SSB, itself formed as C Squadron of 2 Armoured Car Regiment in February 1962 and renamed 22 December 1966. Regimental HQ and C Squadron at Zeerust; D Squadron detached to 2 SAI at Walvis Bay. Squadrons served in Namibia and Angola from 1974: B, C and D Squadrons on Operation Savannah, 8 October 1975 to 31 January 1976, and later Operations Protea, Daisy, Hooper and Modular. On 25 January 1988 it became the first unit in South Africa granted the Right of Free Admission to a coloured community, Henryville. Most of the men on this roll who point at 2 SSB belong to this period. Also took part in Operation Adding on 10 February 1988, the intervention restoring the Bophuthatswana government after the coup attempt against President Mangope. Equipped with the Ratel IFV and, from May 1990, the Rooikat; received national colours 30 June 1990.
Notes

Son of Mr. P. H. de Lange, of Pretoria North.

Research notes


25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Army".
8 Oct 2026: Confirmed by John's compiled list of verified 2 SSB vehicle-related deaths, 8 Oct 2026. Matches this record exactly.
8 Oct 2026: CONFLICT, NOT CHANGED, pending identification. A Facebook comment on the 2 SSB vehicle-deaths post says "Trooper De Lange was a shooting accident" -- contradicts this record's stored CauseDeath ("Collided with furniture truck at Hercules, while on weekend pass"). Single secondhand source against a detailed existing account; not applied. John himself has not yet confirmed which Muller a companion comment refers to (see 32098 and 32105) -- same caution applied here.

Citations
Unknown
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