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Rhodesian Bush War

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Rhodesian Bush War/Second Chimurenga
Date1966–1979
Location
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Result Lancaster House Agreement, End of white rule
Belligerents
File:Rhodesia Flag.png
Rhodesia

ZANLA
File:Zapu.gif
ZIPRA

Government of Botswana

Government of Tanzania

Government of Zambia
Mozambican Liberation Front
[1]
Commanders and leaders
Ian Smith
P. K. van der Byl		 ZANU: Robert Mugabe
ZAPU: Joshua Nkomo
Casualties and losses
unknown unknown
Civilians killed = Around 30,000

The Rhodesian Bush War —­ as it was known at the time, but also known as the Second Chimurenga or the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe — was a guerrilla war of 1966–79 which led to the end of white-minority rule in Rhodesia and the independence of Zimbabwe. It was a conflict between the minority white government of Ian Smith and the black nationalists of ZANU (largely Shona) and ZAPU (largely Ndebele) movements, led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo respectively.

Summary

The conflict was seen by the nationalist groups and the British Government of the time as a war of national and racial liberation. The Rhodesian government saw the conflict as a fight between one part of the country's population (the whites) on behalf of the whole population (including the black majority) against several externally financed parties made up of predominantly black radicals and communists. The Nationalists saw their country as having been occupied and dominated by a foreign power, namely, Britain, since 1890. The British Government, in the person of the Governor General, had in fact only directly ruled between the 1920s – when it took over from the British South Africa Company – and 1965 when Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government unilaterally declared independence.

The minority Rhodesian Government saw the Nationalists as Communist agents and their conflict as part of the defence of "Western values" (Christianity, the rule of law and democracy); they refused to compromise on most political, economic and social grievances as raised by the Nationalists who claimed to represent the majority black population. The Smith administration claimed that the traditional chiefs were the legitimate voice of the black Shona and Ndebele population and that the Nationalists were dangerous usurpers.

In 1979 the Smith Administration attempted to blunt the power of the Nationalist cause by acceding to an "Internal Settlement" which ended formal white rule, changed the name of the country to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and installed the country's first black head of government, Abel Muzorewa. However, unsatisfied with this and spurred on by Britain's refusal to recognise the new order, the Nationalist forces persisted. The Second Chimurenga/Bush War ended when the white-dominated government of Rhodesia returned power to the British government with the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, at the behest of both South Africa (its major backer) and the US, multi-ethnic elections were subsequently held in early 1980. Britain recognised this new government and the newly independent and internationally recognised country was renamed Zimbabwe.

Causes

The war is viewed by the most Zimbabweans as a war of national liberation, and they considered their country as having been occupied and dominated by a foreign power, namely, Britain, since 1890. It was felt that black Zimbabweans had been subjected to racial discrimination and brutality in most spheres of human existence in the country. Major issues that the Nationalists deemed worthy of going to war for were: 1) the Land Question; and 2) institutionalised and legalised racism applied in all spheres of Rhodesian life. The Land Question resulted from the land dispossession, forced removal from land imposed upon the majority black population by the Rhodesian Government.

With the decolonization of Africa after The Second World War, African countries sought independence from colonial powers. The Soviet Union and China seized this opportunity during the 1960s and 1970s at the height of the Cold War to expand their global influence and access to natural resources, by training and funding such "armies of liberation". With the Sino-Soviet Split these two powers were often in competition with each other and hence there were two "armies of liberation"; ZANLA supported by China and ZIPRA supported by the Soviet Union.

After gaining independence these nationalist would normally form Marxist/Socialist states, aligned with the Communist Block providing not only valuable trade, but also strategic influence in the region. This pattern was established earlier in South East Asia with conflicts such as the Vietnam War and Cambodian Civil War and in neighbouring with conflicts such the Angolan War of Independence, Mozambican War of Independence, Gaddafi in Libya or the 1974 coup in Ethiopia leading to the rule of the Marxist Derg. This Cold war competition and patterns of violent communist supported conflicts worried western observers as well the various colonial governments who questioned the motives of such "armies of liberation".

Rhodesian forces

File:PST8720.JPG
Recruiting poster for the Rhodesian Army.

Rhodesian equipment and personnel

The war saw the extensive operation of Rhodesian regulars as well as elite units such as the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian SAS. The Rhodesian Army fought bitterly against the black nationalist guerrillas. The Rhodesian Army comprised regiments such as the Rhodesian African Rifles and conscription was eventually introduced to supplement the professional soldiers and the many volunteers from overseas. By 1978 all white males up to the age of 60 were subject to periodic call-up into the army; younger men up to 35 might expect to spend alternating blocks of six weeks in the army and at home. Many of the overseas volunteers came from Britain, South Africa, Portugal, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Rhodesian Army was, considering the arms embargo, well-equipped. The standard infantry weapon was the Belgian FN FAL Rifle as produced in South Africa under license as the R1 Rifle and supplemented by the H&K G3 rifle. However older weapons such as the British Lee-Enfield bolt action rifle were used by reservists and the British South Africa Police. Other weapons included the Bren LMG, Sten SMG, GPMG MMG, 81 mm mortar, and Claymore mines. After UDI Rhodesia was heavily reliant on South African and domestically-produced weapons and equipment.

Politics of Rhodesia
Political history
Government
Legislature
Elections
Political parties
Foreign relations
National symbols

The Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) operated a variety of equipment and carried out numerous roles. When the arms embargo was introduced, the RhAF was suddenly lacking spare parts from external suppliers and was forced to find alternate means of keeping their aircraft flying. The RhAF was relatively well equipped and used a large proportion of equipment which was obsolete, such as the Second World War vintage Douglas Dakota transport aircraft and the early British jet-fighter the De Havilland Vampire, as well as more modern types of aircraft like the Hawker Hunter, Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters, and Canberra bombers.

At the beginning of the war much of Rhodesia's military hardware was of British and Commonwealth origin but during the course of the conflict new equipment such as armoured cars was procured from the South Africans or was produced by the Rhodesians themselves. The means with which the Rhodesians procured weaponry meant that the arms embargoes had little effect on the Rhodesian war effort. During the course of the war most white citizens carried personal weapons and it was not unusual to see white housewives carrying submachine guns. A siege mentality set in and all civilian transport had to be escorted in convoys for safety against ambushes. Farms and villages in rural areas were attacked frequently.

Unit composition of Rhodesian forces

Rhodesian forces consisted of the Army and the Rhodesian Air Force.

The Rhodesian army consisted of:

  • Army Headquarters Army HQ
  • Four Brigade HQs (numbered 1 to 4), two District HQs (Salisbury and Midlands), and HQ Special Forces
  • The Rhodesian Light Infantry (unofficially the "Rhodesian Foreign Legion", this regiment especially included foreign volunteers)
  • C Squadron 22 (Rhodesian) SAS (in 1978 became 1 (Rhodesian) Special Air Service Regiment)
  • Selous Scouts
  • The Rhodesian Armoured Car Regiment (The Black Devils)
  • Grey's Scouts
  • The Rhodesian African Rifles (six independent companies)
  • The Rhodesia Regiment (eight battalions, numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)
  • 1 Psychological Operations Unit
  • The Rhodesian Defence Regiment (two battalions)
  • The Rhodesian Intelligence Corps
  • The Rhodesian Artillery (one depot, one field regiment)
  • Six Engineer Squadrons (numbered 2, 3, 4, 6, 7) 1 Engr Sqn
  • 5 Engineer Support Squadron
  • Three Brigade Signals Squadrons (numbered 1 to 3), 41 Troop 4 (Bde.) Signals Squadron, and three Signal Squadrons numbered 8, 10-12
  • Two Services Area HQs (Matabeleland and Mashonaland)
  • Two Ordnance and Supplies Depots (Bulowayo, Salisbury)
  • Two Base Workshops (Bulowayo, Salisbury)
  • 1 Air Supply Platoon
  • Three Maintenance Companies (numbered 1 to 3)
  • Three Medical Companies (1, 2, 5) and the Army Health Unit
  • Tsanga Lodge
  • Five Provost Platoons (numbered 1 to 5) and the Army Detention Barracks
  • Six Pay Companies (numbered 1 to 5, 7)
  • Rhodesian Army Education Corps
  • Rhodesian Corps of Chaplains
  • Army Records, and Army Data Processing Unit
  • Rail Transport Organisation Platoon
  • 1 Military Postal Platoon
  • Training establishments: School of Infantry, 19 Corps Training Depot, School of Military Engineering, School of Signals, Services Training School, Services Trade Training Centre, Medical Training School, School of Military Police, Pay Corps Training School, School of Military Administration.

Rhodesian Operational Areas

The Rhodesian government divided the nation into eight geographical operational areas:

Operation Ranger - North West Border

Operation Thrasher - Eastern Border

Operation Hurricane - North East Border

Operation Repulse - South East Border

Operation Grapple - Midlands

Operation Splinter - Kariba

Operation Tangent - Matabeleland

"SALOPS" - Salisbury & District

Nationalist equipment and personnel

File:Zimbabwe-medal.jpg
The Zimbabwean Liberation Medal, awarded to fighters of the war.

The two major armed groups campaigning against Ian Smith's government were:

The ZANLA fighters were mainly Shona and were supported by the Communist China and North Korea, whereas the ZAPU fighters were mainly Ndebele and were supported by the Soviet Union and East Germany. Each group fought separate guerrilla wars against the Rhodesian Security Forces.

Officers received training in the then-Marxist country of Ethiopia, whose armed forces had extensive combat experience. In typical guerrilla style, the rebels were armed with a wide range of weapons but the most common infantry weapon was the AK-47. The nationalist movements also used a variety of Soviet and Chinese-made equipment which eventually included surface-to-air missiles and land mines. The use of ambushes and surprise attacks on civilian convoys and rural farms and villages was a common tactic as these areas were often hard to defend. Nationalists derailed several Rhodesian Railways trains with explosives.

The fighting was largely rural, with both movements attempting to secure peasant support and to recruit fighters while harassing the administration and the white inhabitants. Unlike the town-dewellers, rural whites faced danger and many were killed but in 1979 there were still 6,000 white farmers on the land even though it was simple enough to drive them off it. They were vulnerable every time they left the homestead.

ZANLA

Main article: ZANLA

ZANLA was the armed wing of ZANU.

The organisation had strong links with Mozambique's independence movement, FRELIMO.

ZANLA had Chinese instructors but never actually progressed very far through the Maoist phases of revolution. Unlike ZIPRA, ZANLA was incapable of mounting a conventional threat. It had masses of ill-disciplined and barely trained guerrillas and was unable to seize and retain an objective. Training standards were so low that many cadres did not clean their rifles.

ZANLA, in the end, was present on a more or less permanent basis in over half the country and in addition was fighting a civil war against ZIPRA despite the union of their political parties after 1978. It was ZANLA's intention to occupy the ground, supplant the administration in rural areas and then mount the final conventional campaign. ZANLA concentrated on the politicisation of the rural areas using force, persuasion, ties of kinship and even the influence of the spirit mediums.

ZANLA tried to paralyse the Rhodesian effort and economy by planting Soviet anti-tank land mines in the roads. From 1972 to 1980 there were 2,504 vehicle detonations of land mines (mainly Soviet TM46s), killing 632 people and injuring 4,410. The mining of roads increased as the war intensified; indeed the increase from 1978 (894 mines or 2.44 mines were detonated or recovered a day) to 1979 (2,089 mines or 5.72 mines a day) was 233.7%. In response, the Rhodesians co-operated with the South Africans to develop a range of mine protected vehicles. They began by replacing air in tyres with water which absorbed some of the blast and reduced the heat of the explosion. Initially, they protected the bodies with steel deflector plates, sandbags and mine conveyor belting. Later, purpose built vehicles with V shaped blast hulls dispersed the blast. (The development led to the South African Hippo, Casspir, Mamba and Nyala wheeled light troop carriers). Deaths in such vehicles became unusual events. Responding to the mines, Rhodesian engineers also built the world's first effective mine detection vehicle [citation needed], the Pookie.

ZANLA, aided by its FRELIMO Allies, bore the brunt of the "Fire Force" and external camp attacks while establishing themselves amongst the rural people. Because Mugabe and his party later won the election it has been assumed that he had very strong support among the Shona. Nonetheless, the relief when ZANLA elements departed or were driven out was palpable. Some research[2] has concluded that ZANLA had to terrorise to achieve popular support. This was certainly true after the Muzorewa election in April 1979 when the rural people defied ZANLA's orders to the contrary and turned out in great numbers to vote. The result of the election stunned the cadres until Thatcher's refusal to recognise its outcome enheartened them. To regain control, ZANLA returned to terrorism. Muzozewa, however, given international recognition, had every prospect of engendering support and loyalty.

ZIPRA

Main article: ZIPRA

ZIPRA was the anti-government force based around the Ndebele ethnicity, led by Joshua Nkomo, and the ZAPU political movement.

In contrast to ZANLA's Mozambique links, Nkomo's ZIPRA was more orientated towards Zambia for local bases. However, this was not always with full Zambian government support, and by 1979 ZIPRA's forces, combined with ANC and SWAPO forces in Zambia, represented a major threat to Zambia's internal security. Because ZAPU's political strategy relied more heavily on negotiations than armed force, ZIPRA did not grow as quickly or elaborately as ZANLA, but by 1979 it had an estimated 20,000 combatants, almost all based in camps around Lusaka, Zambia.[3]

ZIPRA was responsible for an attack on a civilian Air Rhodesia Viscount airplane, using a SAM 7 surface-to-air missile. Ten out of the eighteen civilians on board who survived the crash were subsequently and systematically massacred by the ZIPRA terrorists. Nkomo later spoke to the BBC of the attack in a way some considered gloating. In his memoirs, Story of My Life (1985), Nkomo expressed regret for the shooting down of both planes which goes contrary to his earlier broadcast sentiment.

ZIPRA took advice from its Soviet instructors in formulating its version of popular revolution and its strategy for taking over the country. On the advice of the Soviets, ZIPRA built up its conventional forces, motorised with Soviet armoured vehicles, in neighbouring Zambia. ZIPRA's (i.e. ZAPU's) intention was to allow ZANLA to bring the Rhodesian forces to the point of defeat, and then to take the victory from the much lighter forces of ZANLA and the essentially defeated Rhodesians. ZIPRA kept a light presence within Rhodesia, reconnoitring, keeping contact with the peasants and sometimes skirmishing with the ZANLA. To an extent, ZIPRA's conventional threat actually distracted the Rhodesians from fighting ZANLA.

However this ZAPU/ZIPRA strategy for taking over Zimbabwe proved unsuccessful. In the event, the transfer of power to black nationalists took place not by the military take-over expected by ZAPU/ZIPRA, but by a peaceful and internationally supervised election. Rhodesia reverted briefly to real British rule, and a general election took place in early 1980, supervised both by the UK and international forces. Robert Mugabe (of ZANLA/ZANU) won this election, being the only major competitor for the vote of the majority ethnicity, the Shona. Once in power, Mugabe was internationally recognised as Zimbabwe's leader and was given control of the resources of the Rhodesian state, as well as having the backing of the overwhelming majority ethnic group. He was therefore able to quickly and irreversibly consolidate his power in Zimbabwe, forcing ZAPU, and therefore ZIPRA which was ZAPU's army, to give up hope of taking over the country in the place of ZANU/ZANLA.

Timeline of the war

The conflict intensified after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain on 11 November 1965. Sanctions were implemented by the British government after UDI, and member states of the United Nations endorsed the British embargo. The Rhodesian Forces were hampered by a lack of modern equipment but used other means to receive vital war supplies such as receiving oil via the supportive government of apartheid-era South Africa.

In the latter months of 1971, the black nationalist factions united and formed a coalition which became known as the joint guerrilla alliance to overthrow the government.

The black guerrillas operated from secluded bases in neighbouring Zambia and from FRELIMO-controlled areas in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique and made periodic raids into Rhodesia. With the decline of the Portuguese empire from 1974 to 1976, Ian Smith realised his country was now surrounded on three sides by hostile African nations and declared a formal state of emergency in order to combat the rebel guerrillas.

Soon Mozambique closed its 800-mile-long border with Rhodesia, but Rhodesian forces often crossed the border in "hot pursuit" raids, attacking guerrillas and their training camps. In 1976, Rhodesian Selous Scout soldiers destroyed a camp containing many hundreds of guerrilla trainees, called cadres. The Rhodesians also operated into Zambia after Nkomo's nationalists shot down two unarmed Vickers Viscount civilian airliners with Soviet supplied SAM-7 heat-seeking missiles. As the conflict intensified, the United States and Great Britain attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement. However this was rejected by the Rhodesian government as they were unwilling to relinquish political and economic control, and the black nationalists were bitterly divided by feudal, tribal and political differences.

During 1978, the guerrillas launched an attack on the town of Umtali with intensive mortar fire. In retaliation for these acts the Rhodesian Air Force bombed guerrilla camps 125 miles inside Mozambique, using 'fatigued' Canberra B2 aircraft and Hawker Hunters —­ actively, but clandestinely, supported by several of the more capable Canberra B(I)12 aircraft of the South African Air Force. A number of joint-force bomber raids on 'terr' encampments and assembly areas in Mozambique and Zambia were mounted in 1978, and extensive air reconnaissance and surveillance of guerrilla encampments and logistical build-up was carried out by the South African Air Force on behalf of the RhAF. The increased effectiveness of the bombing and follow-up 'air mobile' strikes using Dakota-dropped parachutists and helicopter 'air cav' techniques had a significant effect on the development of the conflict, until a successful 'special forces' raid on the Rhodesian strategic fuel reserves near Salisbury forced the decision to explore a negotiated settlement. The conflict continued until 1979 when an agreement was reached on a constitution to transfer power to a majority government — the Lancaster House Agreement.

Resolution

File:Rhodesia-GSmedal.jpg
The Rhodesian General Service Medal awarded to Rhodesian armed forces and featuring Cecil Rhodes.

Under the agreement of March 1978, the country was to be known as Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and in the general election of 24 April 1979, Bishop Abel Muzorewa became the country's first black prime minister.

The two major black nationalist (nominally communist) factions led by Nkomo and Mugabe denounced the new government as a puppet of the white Rhodesians and the fighting continued. Later in 1979, the new Conservative British government under Margaret Thatcher called a peace conference in London to which all nationalist leaders were included. The outcome of this conference would become known as the Lancaster House Agreement. The economic sanctions imposed on the country were lifted in late 1979, and British rule resumed under a transitional arrangement leading to full independence.

The elections of 1980 resulted in victory for Robert Mugabe, who assumed the post of prime minister after his ZANU-PF party received approximately 63 percent of the vote (though claims of harrasment and voter fraud have recently been made, it is unlikely Mugabe would have lost the 1980 election with or without such behaviour). On 18 April of that year, the country gained internationally recognised independence as Zimbabwe. Two years later the capital, Salisbury, was renamed Harare.

Mugabe has referred to the seizure of white-owned farms during the early 2000s as the "Third Chimurenga".

See also

References

  1. ^ Page 65 Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe
  2. ^ by Norma Kriger, for example
  3. ^ Rasmussen & Rubert
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