Rhodesian FireForces: U.S. Military Has Nothing Comparable Today

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neutral border nations.[3] The police, formally known as the British South AfricanPolice, were a paramilitary organization with a large reserve which combined bothpolicing and internal security functions. It is important to note that all but a few of?these units included both white and native-African members.[4] In fact, the term?

native African

? is deceptive since many of Rhodesia?s white inhabitants were fromfamilies that had lived in Africa for generations.As a former part of the British Commonwealth, the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) of?1965 was robust by African standards, second only to South Africa in sub-SaharanAfrica. The RhAF consisted of 71 aircraft, including 12

Hawker?

Hunter fighter-bombers, 17

Canberra

light bombers, 14 Vampire bombers, eight C-47

Dakota

transports, 12

Provost?

T-52 trainers, and 8

?Alouette

III helicopters. They also had areserve of civilian aircraft (Cessna 337s) which were used for reconnaissance.Despite international sanctions which severely limited the availability of spare partsand new aircraft, by 1980 the RhAF had 132 aircraft, most of the additional aircraftbeing helicopters.[5] The RhAF was composed of approximately 1,300 personneltrained in the British manner, which had all members of the crew, operational aswell as support, performing very sophisticated maintenance. The personnel werehighly motivated and by 1978, the aircraft still had an 85% serviceability rate,despite shortages.[6]Despite having a common goal and enemy, insurgent forces were divided into twofactions which roughly corresponded with the tribal groupings within the country.?The factions were the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and theZimbabwe People?s Liberation Army (ZIRPA). ZANLA was a Shona-basedorganization ultimately led by Robert Mugabe. It initially operated out of Zambia butshifted its focus to Mozambique after that country won its independence fromPortugal in 1975. ZANLA had Chinese support and conducted its operations as aclassic Maoist people?s struggle. Its forces consisted of small bands which infiltratedinto safe areas in Rhodesia from which it conducted terrorist and insurgent attacks.ZIRPA, which operated from Zambia, was a Ndebele-based organization led by?Joshua Nkomo. With advisors from the Soviet Union, ZIRPA built up a largemotorized conventional force which it coupled with marginally effective guerillasoperating within Rhodesia. ZIRPA?s war-time strategy was to allow the Rhodesiansand ZANLA to fight each other to a standstill before committing its motorized forcesto achieve its victory.[7]

Overview of the War

?The Bush War can be divided into two distinct phases. The first phase, which tookplace between 1964 and 1972, consisted of amateurish incursions by insurgentforces infiltrating from Zambia. The insurgent forces, although operating from thesame host country, were divided into the two factions as described above. They alsolacked adequate and even standardized training. For example, in one ZANLAplatoon three men had been trained in Cuba, two in Algeria, another in Zambia, and

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/125030600/Rhodesian-FireForces-U-S-Military-Has-Nothing-Comparable-Today

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