Zambezi Valley InsurgencyEarly Rhodesian Bush War Operations

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Weight 0.500 kg
Dimensions 29.7 × 21.0 × 0.4 cm
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ISBN9781920143640 Barcode9781920143640
Overview
Across Africa in the post-1956 era, the aspirations of African nationalists to secure power were boosted and quickly realized by the British, French and Belgian hasty retreat from empire. The Portuguese, Southern Rhodesian and South African governments, however, stood firm.

Across Africa in the post-1956 era, the aspirations of African nationalists to secure power were boosted and quickly realized by the British, French and Belgian hasty retreat from empire. The Portuguese, Southern Rhodesian and South African governments, however, stood firm. Influenced by the Communist bloc, these nationalists adopted the ‘Armed Struggle’. In the case of Rhodesia, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, took this step in 1962 after their effort to foment rebellion in Rhodesia’s urban areas in 1961–62 had been frustrated by police action and stiffened security legislation.

Rhodesia’s small, undermanned security forces, however, remained wary as Zambia and Tanganyika had given sanctuary to communist-supplied ZAPU and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) guerrillas. The Rhodesians had foreseen that the northeastern frontier with Mozambique would be the most vulnerable to incursions because the African population living along it offered an immediate target for succour and subversion. The Rhodesians were fortunate, however, that ZAPU and ZANU chose to probe across the Zambezi River from Zambia into the harsh, sparsely populated bush of the Zambezi Valley.

The consequence was that the Rhodesians conducted a number of successful operations in the period 1966–72. This book describes and examines the first phase of the ‘bush war’ during which the Rhodesian forces honed their individual and joint skills, emerging as a formidable albeit lean fighting force.

Dr J.R.T Wood

Richard Wood BA (Hons) (Rhodes), PhD (Edinburgh), FRHistS was born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He was educated at St George’s College in Salisbury (Harare), Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and Edinburgh University, Scotland. He was a Commonwealth scholar and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Research Fellow at the University of Rhodesia and a Professor of History at the University of Durban-Westville. He has written three definitive publications on post-Second World War Rhodesian politics: The Welensky Papers; So Far and No Further! and A Matter of Weeks Rather than Months.

He is a renowned military historian, having served as a territorial soldier in the Rhodesia Regiment, and the Mapping & Research Unit of the Rhodesian Intelligence Corps. He is also author of The War Diaries of André Dennison (1989), Counter-Strike from the Sky: The Rhodesian All-Arms Fireforce in the War in the Bush, 1974–1980 (2009) and Operation Dingo: Rhodesian Raid on Chimoio and Tembué, 1977 (2010).

Additional information

Weight 0.500 kg
Dimensions 29.7 × 21.0 × 0.4 cm
Format

Pages

Size

Publisher30 Degrees South Publishers Publication Date02/04/2012

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