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
and would be challenged by their African nationalists. 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 succor and subversion. The Portuguese
were not seen as a bulwark as they were clearly making little progress
in their counter-insurgency effort against their FRELIMO nationalist
opponents. 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 Rhodesian security forces conducted a number of successful
operations in the period 1966-1972 which dented insurgent ambitions.
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.
