P. Groenewald was killed along with his brother and two others when their Ratel 20 APC was hit by ZSU-23mm fire during the battle with the 59th Brigade on the 12th February 1988, Operation Hooper.

Great guys who I served with in 1SAI, Bloemfontein 1987.

Pietie was one of the nicest guys one could ever hope to meet, especially in Angola where he always made you feel better about everything. He came and gave me my post on the morning of 13th of Feb. The next day, 23A, my Ratel was called to assist the stricken Ratel. Henk de Koker and myself carried the wounded to our Ratel, then Henk ran back again into enemy fire to retrieve the burning from 22C.

Pieter Groenewald was killed with his nephew AS Groenewald, Lance Corporal Kleinhans and Rfn van Nieuwenhuizen at about 17h00 on 14 February 1988.

Their Ratel got stuck on a treestump that was left in the tanktrack in front of us. When their ratel got stuck, Corporal Kleinhans got on our Ratel 22A and rode with me until we got to the shona before the attack. 22C then caught up and the Corporal left for his Ratel. About half an hour later we heard that 22C was shot out. It was shot on the left-hand by a ZSU23-4, but on the right-hand where the Groenewalds sat, a big hole was ripped ou of the Ratel. There were two more Groenewalds in the Ratel, the driver and another rifleman. The other rifleman was also seriously wounded in his neck from the shots. The two that were killed were the MAG gunner team. They were very dear friends, we started army together in Alpha Company 1SAI and in 2nd phase went to Bravo Company and then to Bravo at 61 Mech.

That day made that Valentine's day will never be the same. One always thinks back to the friends who died that day, the sunset as we drove back, with smoke dwindling upwards and bombs still exploding.