The Shorland first came into service in 1977 as the first armoured vehicle of the newly created military outfit. I remember our first sight of the vehicles as they roared past Mogoditshane Primary School on the old Gabane road. We could not hold our excitement and curiosity. Most of us in the class exited through windows to go and see those amazing vehicles. The door was facing the wrong way and going through it was going to cause a stampede.
When they were gone past, we had to file one by one and receive punishment of the cane from our female teacher that we fondly called ‘mistress’. I later learned after becoming a soldier that the first field exercise for the Shorland was in Kumakwane along the Kolobeng River. I found the men that used these armoured vehicles full of good stories. This was a dependable armoured vehicle that was used against the marauding Rhodesian forces. It has seen action several times along the border areas and BDF did not lose a single one of them. One of the officers who has such good memories about the vehicle is retired Major Matengu who has spent his entire military career either at armour or light infantry. He says he has used the vehicle on several missions in and outside the country. He reminisces on this piece of history and says what he liked most about it was its manouvreability in the tight bush tracks among the mophane trees. Major Matengu was in charge of “Bravo” company in the SADC operation in Lesotho while “Alpha” company was under Major Moinga. Moinga had a fleet of American made V-150 armoured cars and he lost one during the Lesotho campaign. None of the Shorlands was lost during this operation.
