Don Shift Sends: SHTF Lessons from Rhodesia

 

I highly reccomend all my readers check out the two YouTube Channels Capturing Memories and Five Romeo Romeo.

Some excellent Historical lessons for White Americans living in FUSA.

 

Operation Dingo: Rhodesian raids on New Farm and Tembue

Know Your Guerilla Warfare/Small Unit Tactics History.

Badlands Fieldcraft

Operation Dingo is an excellent example of a small but determined force using ingenuity, aggression and surprise to overwhelm a far larger enemy force.

In November of 1976 the Rhodesian security forces were fighting an uphill battle trying to keep their country safe from Marxist terrorists infiltrating their country. The Rhodesians were vastly outnumbered but determined, with their backs against the wall as they protected their country and families from international Marxism.

The Rhodesians had learned the location of two large enemy training camps (New Town, also called Chimoio, and Tembue) across the border in Mozambique. These camps had to be eliminated to relieve pressure on the security forces trying to protect the country. With world political leaders working against them in any way they could, including the UK and United States (it’s shameful how the US government publicly turned their backs, and privately encouraged, what was happening there), and…

View original post 89 more words

Rhodesian War Stories: In The Name Of Freedom

Want to hear accounts of what modern day Communism is good for?

Look no further than the Rhodesian Bush War.

I highly recommend this guy’s channel, some AMAZING interviews.

RHODESIAN COIN TACTICS

Excellent piece on Counter-Insurgency Tactics.

As a follow-up I recommend reading up on the British vs. The Chinese Communist in Malaya in 1948 aka “The War of the Running Dogs.”

Weapons and Warfare

While the Rhodesian forces never really developed a successful antidote to the guerrillas’ mobilization of the masses, they displayed consummate skill in defeating the guerrillas in combat. Even low-calibre units such as the Police Field Reserve could easily repel guerrilla attacks, though the insurgents tended to be more aggressive against units such as Guard Force and Internal Affairs.

In the years 1966-72, guerrilla activity, no matter how small the group, would invite the full attention of regular units and the Rhodesian Air Force. Insurgents were rapidly followed up by helicopter-borne patrols, and if they failed to re-cross the frontier were almost invariably hunted down. But from 1972 both the size and geographical spread of guerrilla incursions rapidly expanded. From 1976 every area of the country became affected by guerrilla operations. There were simply not enough well-trained Rhodesian soldiers to cover all the ground, and as increasing reliance was put on…

View original post 2,336 more words

Cold War Files: After-Action-Report (AAR) of a Rhodesian Ambush

Imagine initiating an ambush with a 40 mike-mike training round. That would be a Bad Thing. This ambush, as remembered by our friend and former Rhodie troopie Nick Bliksem, is just about as bad (but not quite). This was during the “Second Chimurenga” period of the Rhodesian Bush War, back when Jimmy Carter was POTUS, and the same year the Rhodie SAS moved from Cranborne Barrakcs to Kabrit. At the time he was with the Rhodesian SAS, which had been reformed in April 1961 as C Squadron. In 1976 it became 1 Rhodesian SAS Regiment. Read it, let us know what you think, and feel free to sound off with any lessonsyou‘ve learned out on the Sharp End. The Mad Duo

[All images sourced via Google Fu and YouTube. The passage of years and assorted ex-wives has robbed Nick of all but a few of his pictures.] 

A Hot Day in Mozambique

Nick Bliksem

It was our third day laying in ambush alongside a lonely two-strip tar road, deep in central Mozambique. The year was 1979 and Rhodesia had been at war with communist-trained insurgents (both Russian and Chinese) for well over a decade. We were a 12-man SAS callsign tasked with ambushing (and hopefully destroying) a ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) commander and his accompanying escort.

[Note: a ‘callsign’ in the Rhodesian military at the time was essentially a unit or team that warranted its own radio designator – it could be Fireforce element, a single “stick” 4 men, a full SAS team or a 2-man sniper element. We’ll talk about how a handful of those guys, esp. Selous Scouts, worked all by themselves on singleton missions later. Mad Duo]

Our intelligence informed us that he would be traveling down this road in a 3-4 vehicle convoy consisting of Toyota Land Cruisers. These vehicles, by the way, had been kindly donated by the UN to aid in the peaceful development of the liberated masses of Mozambique. As usual, army callsigns on the ground and what they call “actionable intelligence” don’t necessarily go hand in hand (meaning one isn’t always married up to the other); the boys were getting slightly agitated sitting there for the third day in a row!

Read the Remainder at Breach Bang Clear