With the �winds of change" rapidly blowing down Africa and independence assured for her northern neighbours, Rhodesia's destiny now seemed very uncertain. Rhodesia had been "occupied" in 1890 by the Pioneer Column in the name of Queen Victoria, and the capitaL Salisbury, named after the British Prime Minister of the day. The man behind it all had been Cape Colony politician, financier and mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes, who had sought to extend British influence- not to mention his own - in Africa
In 1888, the territory's Matabele king, Lobengula had signed a concession giving Rhodes the sole right to the mineral exploitation ofMashonaland Legend had it that the territory north of the Limpopo River was the location of King Solomon's famous mines, and that promise of glittering wealth was ultimately to be fulfilled
Rhodes then got Queen Victoria's blessing together with a Royal Charter to administer Mashonaland in her name, and the British South Africa Company was formed to administer the territory.
As Rhodesian author John Lovatt says in his book, Contact both African and Briton were less than honest with each other. The wording of the concession docu ment seemed to camouflage Rhodes's intention of colonising Lobengula's Mashona land fiefdom ... while Lobengula no doubt hoped that by signing the concession, he would keep other hunters at bay.
Two years later, 500 mounted infantry- the British South Africa Company's police - and 180 Pioneers trekked northwards and arrived in what was to be called Cecil Square. The British flag was run up, there were three cheers for Her Imperial Majesty - and yet another new territory was added to Queen Victoria's long list of far
flung colonies.
The lean years that followed were difficult, precarious. fraught with disease and danger, the latter coming from the warrior tribe, the Matabeles. offshoots ofShaka's dreaded Zulu race, who had realised too late what was happening and had then for bidden the settlers' entry.
But those tough adventurers survived, civilisation gradually spread and the coun try began to prosper. Farms were cut out of the virgin bush and businesses grew and flourished
From the very beginning, there was a constant influx of new settlers. The early ones trekked northwards across the rugged bush terrain in creaking ox-drawn wagons. seeking adventure, gold and a new life in the young, uncharted country. It was the stuff of which great adventure tales were made.
Rhodes fulfilled promises made to the Matabele chiefs and set land aside for them 24
The African chiefs were given greater powers and the authority of the British South Africa Company was reduced The settlers were given four representatives in a Legislative Assembly and Rhodes promised them eventual self-government
When the early settlers made the long trek to Cecil Square in those difficult pioneering days, they had done so with a spirit of adventure, a search for a new life
and the hope of finding mineral wealth, not with any burning desire to colonise new territory for Queen Victoria.
Britain had taken no part in founding the country and had not rallied when times were hard As Rhodesians saw it, the fact that the charter giving them the right to administer the country bore the word �Royal" did not give the British the right to meddle in their affairs.
In 1923, Rhodesia voted for Home Rule and became a self-governing colony. The British paid three and three-quarter million pounds to the British South Africa Company as compensation for 33 years' administration (two million would have to be repaid to Britain by the Rhodesian Government) and the company was allowed to keep its commercial and mineral rights.
Britain gave Rhodesians the
right
to legislate, maintain an Army and run the Civil Service ... all of which they had been doing anyway. And the British Government retained supervisory powers.. Forty-one years later, in 1964, Ian Smith, farmer, World War-II Royal Air Force hero, became Prime Minister. He was the first Rhodesian-bom premier and he was determined to get independence from Britain and remove her reserve powers. The country was self-governing after all which was more than could be said for her more backward ex-Federal partners.
But Britain argued that it was not going to grant independence to Rhodesia as its franchise was more restrictive than any other British territory to which independence had been granted Later, British Premier Sir Alec Douglas-Home told Smith that if he wanted independence under the 1961 Constitution- which widened the franchise to allow Africans in Parliament for the first time- he must show it was acceptable to the people as a whole.
A referendum duly tested the white electorate, who voted ten to one in favour of independence and an indaba -a meeting - of 622 African chiefs and headmen supported the move.
But by then, Britain had a new Prime Minister. Harold Wilson and his Labour Party were determined to complete the decolonisation process of Central Africa through majority rule in Rhodesia and refused to accept the meeting with the chiefs as a valid 'indication of African opinion.
Britain was not going to grant independence until majority rule was guaranteed and that meant African majority rule.
Ian Smith, however, had stated that there would be no African nationalist govern ment in his lifetime. Such a government would mean the end of the European and the civilisation that he had brought to the country. People were getting tired of hearing that Africa was going to be preserved for people of every race and colour with the exception of the European. He seemed to be the only one who did not come into the picture.
If far-away socialist Britain would not grant Rhodesia independence, then Rhodesia would just have to take it unilaterally.
Around the world speculation was rife. Would Rhodesia dare to declare UDL and would Britain send troops to Rhodesia to crush the rebellion? While the Tories had
been opposed to an armed intervention against their Rhodesian "kith and kin", no one knew for certain what the Socialists would do.
Only the use of force would have delayed the rebels taking their independence. But then Harold Wilson declared there would be no invasion to settle Rhodesia's consti tutional problems. and that option was ruled out
The way was now clear ... and on Armistice Day, November II. 1965, the II th hour of the lith day of the lith month- a reminder to Rhodesia's own kith and kin across the other side of the world of Rhodesia's past and proud war record- Rhodesia defied Britain. convention and the world by declaring UDL the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. It was the first rebellion against the Crown since the American Revolution of 1776.
Addressing Rhodesians and the world, Ian Smith explained: "There can be no happiness in this country while the absurd situation continues to exist where people such as ourselves, who have ruled themselves with an impeccable record for over forty years, are denied what is freely granted to other countries who have ruled them selves, in some cases. for no longer than a year.
"The decision which we have taken today is a refusal by Rhodesians to sell their birth-right. and even if we were to surrender, does anyone believe that Rhodesia would be the last target of the communists and the Afro-Asian bloc?"
Harold Wilson. acting on intelligence from his MI6 men in Rhodesia- responsible for intelligence, espionage and counter-espionage operations overseas - said famously that the rebellion would be over in weeks not months.
Britain's solution to bringing the rebels to heel was to use economic measures, not military means. But Wilson had grossly overestimated the effect of trade sanctions against Rhodesia and underestimated the country's ability to get help from neighbouring South Africa, Portugal and elsewhere, in overcoming them. Smith too, had talked of the three-day wonder. He thought that by declaring UDI on a Friday, after the stock exchange had closed, all the excitement would have died down by Monday. Both men were wrong.
Britain first imposed sanctions, then an oil embargo. Eighteen months later the UN ordered a total ban on trade with Rhodesia. Such measures were designed to bring Rhodesia to her knees, yet from 1969-1974- before the world recession and the fall of white rule in Mozambique- Rhodesia's economic growth was more impressive than Britain's. While many luxuries were in short supply, Rhodesians soon learned to do without them.
If they couldn't get British �oods, they could get Japanese, French and West Ger man substitutes, which were better anyway.
Nor had Harold Wilson and successive British Prime Ministers reckoned on Rhodesian ingenuity. What essentials they could not acquire by devious means, they made and grew themselves, becoming amazingly self-sufficient. an attribute that came in useful when the war got into top gear and Rhodesians were able to manufac ture their own weapons to overcome procurement difficulties.
Rhodesian businessmen became masters at overcoming UN sanctions and trade with her northern neighbours- as well as the West- flourished Many African States ignored sanctions completely and most members of the OAU traded with Rhodesia. As President Bongo of Gabon once said: "If I do not give a list. it is out of courtesy."
The black States might well have condemned the white racists in the south, but behind the scenes it was all very different It was Rhodesian beef and South African wine which graced the tables of African presidential palaces. The maize train spoke louder than a hundred speeches at the UN and it was R.'lodesian maize which fed
countless thousands of Africans in black Africa, including those determined to bring down the fall of white Rhodesia.
Immediately after UDI, Wilson ('1 Hate Wilson" stickers sold like hot cakes) dis patched RAF Javelin jet fighters to Zambia (air traffic controllers in Salisbury kindly guided them in) but they were not to be used against white Rhodesians.
Officially, they had been sent to defend Zambia's airspace. but according to authoritative
j
ournalist Chapman Pincher, their purpose was simply to occupy the airfields to prevent the Russians from doing so. Such was the value of the "kith and kin" factor. that the RAF officers toasted Smith's health during their New Year's Eve celebrations in their Lusaka mess.As for the SAS, the unit became a "lost legion", cut off by politics from its parent unit in Hereford. Personal friendships did. however, continue.
UDI was a factor that would affect Rhodesia for the rest of her days. It set in motion a sequence of events that would gather momentum and change the map of Africa once more. British and American politicians would come and go in search for the all elusive settlement. and it would be 14 long years before the rebellion was ove
r
and majority rule attained. And when it was, the incoming government would be far worse than anything the white Rhodesians or the British could have imaginedTragically. 30 000 Rhodesians would die and thousands in
j
ured or maimed before an uneasy peace and recognition came.Back in the defiant mid-60s, however, the drums of African nationalism had largely been silenced and the prospects of war seemed very remote. Joshua Nkomo.
Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe and hundreds of others had been cast in prison
where they would remain for ten years.
Nkomo's party, ZAPU, and Sithole's ZANU, had been banned and their young lieutenants had fled into exile.
In the post-UDI era. the black nationalists, now totally committed to the forceful overthrow of white political domination, looked to Britain to act for them. But that was a mistake in their strategy. Britain would not take up arms for them: they would have to do the job themselves ...
The SAS Go External
Within a few months of UDI. twenty-one ZANU had infiltrated Rhodesia from Zambia. then split into three sections. One group headed for Umtali in an abortive bid to blow up the Beira-Umtali oil pipeline and kill white farmers. and a second group headed for Fort Victoria. Both were rounded up.
The third group was chased by 120 police and reservists in the biggest counter terrorist operation the country had seen. They infiltrated 250 kilometres (155 miles)
into Rhodesia and reached Sinoia some 120
k
il
ometres (74 miles) from Salisbury.
An informer working for the Rhodesian Special Branch had infiltrated the gang and managed to slip away from his comrades to tip off the police . .. and on April29. the net tightened, a fierce battle ensued - and seven insurgents, some trained at the Nanking Military College near Peking. were killed.
The battle had been nothing more than a fiasco for the terrorists, but it had been the deepest penetration into Rhodesia to date and ZANU would mark it as the first day of their war of liberation, their Chimurenga Day.
GRAPPLE
... ,..
SOUTH AfRICA
MAIN INFILTRATION ROUTES ZIPRA ( Sov1ct supporl) ZANLA ( C'hm�tsc support,
The operational areas of Rhodesia and the terrorist infiltration routes 28
But for many people
,
however, the real war began three weeks later when a whitefarmer and his wife, Johannes and Barbara Viljoen
,
answered a knock at the door of their remote farmhouse 25 kilometres(
15 miles)
from Hartley and armed men beganshouting at them
.
"Then Mummy and Daddy lay down and went to sleep on the floor.� their young son told police
.
The Viljoens were the first Rhodesians to die at the hands of Communist-trained and armed terrorists.As for the SAS, they planned to put things right and their first external operations into Zambia began.
Top secrecy was clamped on the missions and so sensitive were they that only the Army Commander, General RRJ. Putterill
,
the Director of the Central Intelligence Organisation- an umbrella agency handling internal and external intelligence-
Ken Flower and the SAS Commander, were briefed about them.As the unit was run by the senior NCOs, it was obvious they chose to carry out the operations themselves.
Yet this policy of using the same people each time for clandestine operations, while excellent for security, was very bad for morale. It wasn't long before the operators were being dubbed The Secret Seven or the
Sinful
Seven, by members who were naturally upset at not having the opportunity of having their crack at special operations.Not only did it cause a great deal of unhappiness throughout the unit. but as it in
volved the most experienced operators, it was also putting all their eggs in one basket Then in October 1966, the SAS commander, together with W.O. II Bob Bouch, Colour Sergeant Mick Cahill and Colour Sergeant Geordie Wright and a policeman
seconded to the unit for the operation
,
Chief Superintendant John Wickenden.formed the team chosen to travel to Lusaka, the Zambian capitaL where they were to
destroy the ZANU headquarters
.
Sergeant Jannie Bohman was to have been included in the party. He had been in on all the rehearsals, but the op had been cancelled a number of times and eventually Jannie decided he had to take his annual holiday
.
His place was taken by Geordie WrightThe plan was to cross the Zambezi just below the Chirundu Bridge by canoe. The explosive device, which had been made up in Salisbury, was transported to Chirundu by vehicle. Then the collapsible canoes and the explosive device were portered to the crossing point
The five men began assembling the canoes and making the final preparations
.
The SAS commander, moved away from the others for a moment and began to tie his bootlace.Just as the commander bent down. a terrific explosion tore through the air. The explosive device had accidentally detonated, and the SAS commander was knocked unconscious.
He came to with his hair alight and both ear drums perforated
.
. . and the scene that greeted him was not a pretty one. Bob Bouch, Mick Cahill and John Wickenden were dead Geordie Wright was still alive but it was obvious there was no hope for him and he died in his commander's arms.The cream of the unit had been brutally wiped out. and, but for the protection of a fold in the ground, the SAS commander would have also died that day.
Nearly two kilometres away at Chirundu police camp, Sergeant Major AI Tourle of the RLI, with his commando on border patrol duty. heard the explosion. He had no forewarning about the operation and was more than a little surprised when the explo sion rumbled across the countryside
.
As he rushed down to the river's edge to find out what had happened he bumped into the survivor on his way up from the Zambezi in search of help.
"Hullo, Sergeant Major, how are you?" the SAS commander asked in his normal cain\ cultured tone, not sounding at all like a man who had just escaped death by a miracle. Nothing, it seemed, could rattle the SAS man.
The remains of the bodies were collected next day and soon after first light, a Rhodesian Air Force chopper arrived to transport the OC and the bodies back to Salisbury.
The chopper reached the height of 100 feet and then just to round off the whole thing, the engine cut out The pilot executed a very professional auto rotation crash landing which saved the SAS commander and a precious helicopter.
The commander stepped out of the aircraft, brushed his handle-bar moustache
and contemplated what was to happen to him next! ·
The cause of the explosion was never discovered. The device was prepared with a built-in time mechanism and it can only be assumed that the vehicle trip must have damaged or unseated this mechanism. It was a very expensive way of finding out that initiating devices should only be placed in a charge when at the target. But in those early days of the war all Rhodesians were inexperienced in this type of operation and they did not know any better.
The day after the tragedy, the SAS were lined up and told of the deaths. The men were stunned Jannie Bohman, who by rights should have been on the mission. was especially shocked
The four men were awarded posthumous Meritorious Conduct Medals. It was Geordie Wright's second tribute to his bravery.
Six months earlier, he had been on duty at Kariba Power Station when the peace of the afternoon was shattered by an explosion. An African civilian had climbed over the bilingual warning notice and the double fence surrounding a minefield near the power station and had stood on a mine. Now the man lay bleeding and groaning in