green background. Weaponry As an Airborne Brigade with various Sub-Units its support Weaponry also consisted of 81mm Mortar (Infantry) and various other standard and non-standard firearms. Leadership Units Up until December 1989, 44 Parachute Brigade consisted of many different units. Herewith a breakdown of these, their composition, exercises, operations as well as command structure. Infantry 1 Parachute Battalion is the only full-time paratroop unit of the South African Army. It was established on 1 April 1961 by the redesignation of 2 Mobile Watch South African Engineer Corps. The unit's nickname "Parabat" is a portmanteau derived from the words "Parachute Battalion". In 1960 fifteen volunteers from the SADF were sent to England, the majority to train as parachute instructors, some as parachute-packers and one SAAF pilot in the dropping of paratroopers. These formed the nucleus of 1 Parachute Battalion at Tempe in Bloemfontein. The first paratroopers were Permanent Force men, but soon the training of Citizen Force (similar to the National Guard of the United States) paratroopers commenced. Members of 1 Parachute Battalion were the first S.A. Army men to see action after World War II when, in 1966, they participated, with the South African Police, against insurgents in S.W.A. (now Namibia). In 1966, members of 1 Parachute Battalion participated in the first action in the war in South West Africa during a heliborne assault on an insurgent base. Thereafter, Parabats were involved in operations in SWA/Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and elsewhere on an almost constant basis for over 20 years. 1 Parachute Bn. was organised as follows: Permanent Force – Batt. H.Q., H.Q. Coy and A and B Coy's; Citizen Force: C Coy Cape Town, D Coy Durban, E Coy Pretoria and F Coy Johannesburg. Two further battalions were formed in the 1970s: 2 Parachute Battalion in 1972 and 3 Parachute Battalion in 1977. In 1974 and 1975 1 Parachute Bn. operated along the Angolan border with South West Africa (SWA); along the Caprivi Strip; a platoon jumped near Luiana, Angola to relieve a group of "Bushmen" trapped by a SWAPO force; and in Operation Savannah during the Angolan Civil War of 1974–1975 when two companies of 1 Parachute Battalion were dropped on the northern border of SWA at Ruacana and Santa Clara in Angola to relieve two Portuguese communities trapped by the MPLA. McGill Alexander writes that companies from 1,2, and 3 Parachute Battalions operated