I heard a story very soon after Sapper van de Mescht vanished that he took a walk to a waterhole where they were based, If I remember it was near Eenhana. He was pinched at the waterhole by SWAPO. How true this is I have no idea.
Doing camps after '80 '81 national service a lot of us carried our own pistols. Anything from 38 specials to Browning HPs. Those ugly green canvas holsters were in huge demand, what was lurking inside was anyone's guess at the time.

Edit: Was near Elundu. 2 of his mates were murdered, shot by SWAPO because they were wounded and could not walk. Apparently their section was overun by a large amount of SWAPO. Anyone have any more details on this?