Родезийские африканские стрелки: История полка

Regiment of the Rhodesian Army

The Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) was a regiment of the Rhodesian Army. The ranks of the RAR were recruited from the black African population, although officers were generally from the white population. The regiment was formed in May 1940 in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. The RAR were officially declared the successor to the Rhodesia Native Regiment (RNR) which had existed in World War I from 1916 to 1918, and was granted the RNR's battle honours earned fighting in the East African Campaign. The RAR were the second oldest regiment of the Rhodesian Army, after the Rhodesia Regiment which was raised in 1899. The RAR used the "greens" uniform and wore slouch hats as headgear.

In May 1940, the first commanding Officer of the RAR, Major FJ Wane ISO, a former RNR officer, received the following orders in his call up papers: "There will be an African regiment; you will command it and the regiment will build its own camp on the Borrowdale road." African NCOs from the British South Africa Police (BSAP), together with African NCOs from the Askari Platoon, were selected to transfer to the new regiment and begin the task of training the recruits. An advertisement was placed for recruits and, soon, two companies were formed and engaged in basic drill and weapons training in the mornings and building their camp in the afternoons. On 19 July 1940, by government notice GN 374/1940, the regiment was charged 'with the defence of the colony, the maintenance of order, and such duties as the minister may define' and, significantly, 'the regiment may be employed outside the colony'. Submissions were invited for the design of a badge and the final selection, issued in August 1940, depicted a Matabele war shield, crossed by a Matabele assegai (stabbing spear) and a Shona museve (digging spear), upon which was laid a vertical knobkierie. A scroll bearing the title 'Rhodesian African Rifles' was placed below the design. On 20 September 1940, the battalion's first Regimental Sergeant Major was appointed. RSM Lechenda had first seen service as a bugler, aged ten, in the KAR in Somaliland. During World War I, as a CSM, he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for leading a platoon against a German force that had been harassing a British position and driving them off. He earned the Military Medal when, with a hastily gathered group of 12 men, he attacked a German force (including three machine guns) that was about to seize a rations dump. He captured one machine gun and, in a follow up, killed nine Germans. Through 1940 to 1943, the battalion continued to recruit, train, and expand to full strength. During 1942, troops were sent to the South African city of Durban to escort Italian prisoners of war. It was there that the Regimental song 'Sweet Banana' first began and, although it would evolve significantly, it would retain its chorus of 'I will buy you a sweet banana', influenced by the abundance of the fruit in Natal.

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the Malayan communists under the banner of the Malayan Peoples' Anti Japanese Army (MPAJA) allied themselves with the British, who armed and trained them. After the war, the Malayan Communist Party, and their armed wing the Malayan National Liberation Army, began an insurgency against British colonial rule, in an event known as the Malayan Emergency. Rhodesian involvement in the Malayan Emergency began in 1951 with a two year deployment of a 100 man South East Asia Volunteer Unit. On 13 February 1956, an RAR advance party flew to Malaya to begin training and orientation with 1st Northern Rhodesia Regiment, who the RAR were to relieve, and 1 Fiji Infantry Regiment. While this took place, the battalion embarked on HMT Empire Clyde at Beira, arriving at Singapore on 26 April. From there they moved to the Far East Land Forces Training Centre in Johore where they came under command 99 Gurkha Infantry Brigade and were orientated by the advance party including, for the first time, training with helicopters. Deployed in June and operating from platoon 'bases', sections sought to engage the MNLA guerrillas in the jungle, employing fighting patrols, long and short term ambush operations, following tracks when located, and gaining limited kills in fleeting contacts. It was the type of warfare that did not yield many kills for any of the units operating in Malaya but the intensive patrolling maintained constant pressure on the enemy and, together with the granting of Malayan Independence in August 1957, led many MNLA guerrillas to surrender, and the eventual end of the 'Emergency'. Early in February 1958, the battalion completed its two year tour of duty and moved to Nee Soon transit camp in Singapore. They returned via Beira and Umtali to Bulawayo, to find their barracks much improved in their absence and renamed Methuen Camp after their honorary colonel.

Returning to Southern Rhodesia meant a return to training and to 'duties in aid of the civil power': control of civil unrest, often in the form of riot control in support of the BSAP. At the end of 1963, the Central African Federation broke up to be replaced by the separate nations of Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi. The RAR came under sole command of the Rhodesian Army and its deployments were
mostly made along its Zambezi Valley border in response to the first nationalist rumblings emanating from countries to the north. By the time of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Rhodesia from Britain, on 11 November 1965, the African nationalist movement as it affected Rhodesia had split into two factions. The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was mainly Shona, led initially by Ndabaningi Sithole but ultimately by Robert Mugabe, supported by China and with a military wing known later as the Zimbabwe African Liberation Army (ZANLA). The Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) was mainly Ndebele, led by Joshua Nkomo, supported by the Soviet Union and its military wing was the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). Beginning in 1966, members of these guerrilla armies, known (as in Malaya) as CTs, began an escalating series of incursions into Rhodesia with the aim of subverting the local population and overthrowing the government. This was known as Chimurenga (Liberation War). The Rhodesian Security Forces' response was to establish a Joint Operational Command (JOC) system incorporating elements of the Army, BSAP, Air Force, Internal Affairs and other relevant services and to define each separate incursion as a named 'Operation' that concluded when the insurgents in the group were all accounted for. Later, the country was divided into geographical, named Operational Areas each with its own JOC and sub JOCs. The RAR was deployed under this system throughout what came to be known as the 'Bush War' until the Ceasefire of February 1980. During this time, the regiment expanded from one to three battalions, with 1RAR remaining near Bulawayo, 2RAR established near Fort Victoria in 1975 and 3RAR near Umtali in 1979. Shaw
Barracks, a regimental training depot, was established at Balla Balla and the Independent Companies of the Rhodesia Regiment were incorporated into the RAR. This was a Counter Insurgency (COIN) war, to be fought with the people, not against them. As members of the African community, the African Soldiers (AS) (the term Askari was dropped during
the 1960s) were very adept at interacting with the local people, both in direct contact with them on patrol and by observing the signs of village life from an Observation Post (OP). The RAR, as an infantry regiment, employed infantry COIN tactics against its enemy: patrols, ambushing, OPs, cordon and searches of habitation, attacks on located guerrilla camps or hides, tracking and follow up. These tactics were used both internally in Rhodesia and externally in Zambia and Mozambique. As with all professional units, and in collaboration with other Rhodesian Security Force services, these were refined and evolved. The evolution of the Fireforce concept was the most significant example of that. Covert OPs of tribal areas were an effective tactic for sighting CT groups but the challenge lay in concentrating force onto the sighting sufficiently rapidly to destroy them. In conjunction with the Air Force, the Army had, by 1974, developed Fireforce as a response to this. Fireforce involved the vertical envelopment of an enemy group by troops deployed from helicopters and (from 1976
onwards) by parachute, supported by air to ground fire from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Combined with OPs, who located and talked the Fire Force onto targets, they would prove the most
effective tactic of the Bush War. The Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) and the RAR provided most of the Fireforce troops. Within an RAR battalion, of the five companies, the pattern was very frequently for one company to be on Fireforce, three on OPs/ambushes looking for targets and one on R&R at any one time. Many hundreds of soldiers were killed or captured by the RAR during the Bush War in Rhodesia but not without loss. Between 1967 and 1980 the regiment lost over 200 soldiers killed in action, killed on active service or assassinated in their homes by guerrillas and supporters of the nationalist cause. The seeming paradox that thousands of black soldiers volunteered for and served in the Rhodesian Army during the UDI period has been noted by scholars. Some have argued that these troops, who fought steadfastly and effectively, were motivated by loyalty to their comrades and regiments, alongside a strong sense of military professionalism.

The establishment for each of the three regular battalions of the RAR was four rifle companies and a support company comprising an 81 mm mortar platoon, a 60 mm mortar platoon, an anti tank platoon equipped with 106 mm recoil less rifles, a reconnaissance (tracker) platoon and an assault pioneer platoon.

By the time of the Rhodesian Bush War, the standard weapon of the RAR soldier was the FN (Fabrique Nationale) FAL, a Belgian made 7.62mm assault rifle and the FN MAG, a 7.62 mm general purpose machine gun also manufactured by FN in Belgium.