Fast Facts: War in Rhodesia: Special Forces in Rhodesia

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The Rhodesian Bush War often referred to as the Second Chimurenga (liberation struggle) or lasted from 1964 to December 1979. The war took place in the unrecognized country of Rhodesia against the government of Rhodesia led by Ian Smith, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army of Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union and Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union.

The Rhodesian campaign is a superb case study in counterinsurgency. Some of the two principal Black separatist nationalist movements in Rhodesia, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) had a strong Marxist orientation, and its insurgents were armed primarily by Soviet and Soviet-bloc countries. The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was once trained in terrorist tactics primarily by the Communist Chinese and armed by other communist bloc nations. The insurgents used the surrounding countries as sanctuaries, establishing training camps and logistics bases from which they launched cross-border attacks.
The origins of the Bush War started in the 1950’s. The fever of nationalism struck Africa when several former colonial powers began giving independence to their former colonies. Civil demonstrations led by the militant arm of the African nationalist parties started in the African townships in the early 1960’s. All the way through this same time, ZAPU and ZANU began receiving military training in Tanzania from Soviet-bloc and Chinese advisors.

The insurgents conducted incursions into small groups of eight to ten men from across the border of Mozambique and Zambia. The insurgents attacked farmhouses, kidnapped black workers and ambushed convoys of trucks disturbing the lives of all Rhodesians both white and black.

All the way through this same time, Britain began passing sanctions against Rhodesia to speed up the process of black majority rule. Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith on November 11, 1965, declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Britain immediately hit back with a trade embargo. In 1968, Britain persuaded the UN to pass economic sanctions to stop the “insurrection.”

Seen as a criminal nation and restricted by the United Nations trade sanctions the Rhodesians had to answer a Marxist inspired terrorist threat for its very survival. With a force of only 15,000, the Rhodesian Army had to effectively apply the principles of counterinsurgency (COIN). Several of Rhodesia’s innovations included using long-range counterterrorist tracking teams, the strategic placement of Special Forces by both helicopter insertions and parachute jumps to get at the back of attacking enemy forces and the usage of infantry units on horseback to cover the vast distances of the porous border that Rhodesia had with four other countries.

Opponents of the Rhodesian Bush War saw the struggle as a racial conflict. Three-quarters of the Rhodesian Army were black Rhodesians fighting alongside white Rhodesians in a battle against the communist ideology.

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