The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second Chimurenga as well as the Zimbabwean War of Liberation, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia.
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 1st Battalion, Rhodesian Light Infantry (1RLI), commonly The Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), was a regiment formed in 1961 at Brady Barracks as a light infantry unit within the army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Barely a year after its creation, it was relocated to Cranborne Barracks (Salisbury) where its headquarters remained for the rest of its existence. The Regiment became part of the Southern Rhodesian Army when the Federation dissolved at the start of 1964 and, later that year, reformed into a commando battalion.
The Rhodesian Security Forces were the military forces of the Rhodesian government. The Rhodesian Security Forces consisted of a ground force, the Rhodesian Air Force, the British South Africa Police, and various personnel affiliated to the Rhodesian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Despite the impact of economic and diplomatic sanctions, Rhodesia was able to develop and maintain a potent and professional military capability.
The 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, commonly the Rhodesian Light Infantry, was originally formed in 1961 as a regiment of the army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Raised as a light infantry unit at Brady Barracks, Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia, the Regiment served in the Rhodesian Bush War as part of the Rhodesian Security Forces between 1964 and 1979, from 1965 under the unrecognised governments of Rhodesia and latterly, during the second half of 1979, Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The RLI remained active during an interim period under British control and then, from April 1980, within the armed forces of Zimbabwe, before disbanding on 31 October 1980.
The 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, commonly the Rhodesian Light Infantry, served in the Rhodesian Bush War as part of the Rhodesian Security Forces between 1964 and 1979, under the unrecognised government of Rhodesia following its 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain. During the second half of 1979 it fought for Zimbabwe Rhodesia, a black majority-ruled version of the same state which also failed to win international recognition. After an interim period under British control from December 1979 to April 1980, the RLI briefly remained active within the armed forces of Zimbabwe, but did not see action under this government. It disbanded on 31 October 1980.
The Geneva Conference took place in Geneva, Switzerland during the Rhodesian Bush War. Held under British mediation, its participants were the unrecognised government of Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith, and a number of rival Rhodesian black nationalist parties: the African National Council, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa; the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe, led by James Chikerema; and a joint "Patriotic Front" made up of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union and the Zimbabwe African People's Union led by Joshua Nkomo. The purpose of the conference was to attempt to agree on a new constitution for Rhodesia and in doing so find a way to end the Bush War raging between the government and the guerrillas commanded by Mugabe and Nkomo respectively.
The Victoria Falls Conference took place on 26 August 1975 aboard a South African Railways train halfway across the Victoria Falls Bridge on the border between the unrecognised state of Rhodesia and Zambia. It was the culmination of the "détente" policy introduced and championed by B. J. Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa, which was then under apartheid and was attempting to improve its relations with the Frontline States to Rhodesia's north, west and east by helping to produce a settlement in Rhodesia. The participants in the conference were a delegation led by the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith on behalf of his government, and a nationalist delegation attending under the banner of Abel Muzorewa's African National Council (UANC), which for this conference also incorporated delegates from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI). Vorster and the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda acted as mediators in the conference, which was held on the border in an attempt to provide a venue both sides would accept as neutral.
7 Independent Company was a short-lived company of francophone volunteers in the Rhodesian Army during the Rhodesian Bush War. Numbering about 200 men at its peak, it was unique in the history of the Rhodesian Army as an exclusively expatriate unit. It existed between November 1977 and May 1978 as a company in the 1st Battalion, the Rhodesia Regiment, and served two counter-insurgency tours on Operation Hurricane in north-eastern Rhodesia.
Southern Rhodesia, then a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom, sent two military units to fight with the Commonwealth armed forces in the Malayan Emergency of 1948–60, which pitted the Commonwealth against the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party. For two years, starting in March 1951, white Southern Rhodesian volunteers made up "C" Squadron of the Special Air Service (SAS). The Rhodesian African Rifles, in which black rank-and-filers and warrant officers were led by white officers, then served in Malaya from 1956 to 1958.
When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany at the start of World War I in August 1914, settler society in Southern Rhodesia, then administered by the British South Africa Company, received the news with great patriotic enthusiasm. The Company administrator, Sir William Milton, wired the UK government, "All Rhodesia ... ready to do its duty". Although it supported Britain, the company was concerned about the possible financial implications for its chartered territory should it make direct commitments to the war effort, particularly at first, so most of the colony's contribution to the war was made by Southern Rhodesians individually—not only those who volunteered to fight abroad, but also those who remained at home and raised funds to donate food, equipment and other supplies.
The 1981 Entumbane uprising, also known as the Battle of Bulawayo or Entumbane II, occurred between 8 and 12 February 1981 in and around Bulawayo, Zimbabwe amid political tensions in the newly independent state. Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas, mainly in the city's western suburb of Entumbane, rebelled, creating a situation that threatened to develop into a fresh civil war, barely a year after the end of the Bush War. The Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) and other white-commanded elements of the former Rhodesian Security Forces, fighting for the Zimbabwean government as part of the new Zimbabwe National Army, put down the uprising. Groups of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) fighters attacked both ZIPRA and the government forces during the revolt, which followed a smaller outbreak of fighting between guerrillas in November 1980.
Southern Rhodesia, then a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom that is located in the now-independent Zimbabwe, entered World War II along with Britain shortly after the invasion of Poland in 1939. By the war's end, 26,121 Southern Rhodesians of all races had served in the armed forces, 8,390 of them overseas, operating in the European theatre, the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre, East Africa, Burma and elsewhere. The territory's most important contribution to the war is commonly held to be its contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), under which 8,235 British, Commonwealth and Allied airmen were trained in Southern Rhodesian flying schools. The colony's operational casualties numbered 916 killed and 483 wounded of all races.
The Battle of Chinhoyi, also known as the Battle of Sinoia was a small military engagement fought near Sinoia between a small unit of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) guerrillas and the Rhodesian police force on 28 April 1966. The skirmish is generally considered the opening engagement of the Second Chimurenga. A team of seven ZANLA cadres engaged with British South Africa Police forces near the northern town of Sinoia. The seven guerrillas all eventually died in the battle, the police killing all seven.
Operation Yodel was an operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces on 13 September 1966 in response to an attack on civilians executed by communist insurgents who crossed over the border from Zambia into Rhodesia.
Operation Nickel or the Wankie Campaign or the Wankie Battles was a military operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces on 1 August 1967 in response to the group of ZIPRA and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) fighters crossing the Zambezi River, which marked the Rhodesian-Zambian border. The operation was a success with only one of the cadres out of a force of seventy-nine making it back to Zambia.
Operation Cauldron was launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces in response to an incursion by ZIPRA insurgents on 28 December 1967. Despite the death or capture of 77 out of 79 men, ZAPU, from its base in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, did not regard the incursion as a failure; on the contrary, its leaders were pleased that they had inflicted some casualties on the Rhodesian African Rifles. Buoyed by what they perceived as a success, they planned another operation to take place in northern Mashonaland: about 100 men—75 ZIPRA and 25 MK—were to infiltrate the Zambezi valley and establish a series of camps, including underground caches containing food, clothing, weapons and other equipment. They were instructed to avoid the Rhodesian Security Forces "at all cost" while they recruited local tribesmen to the nationalist cause and trained them. Once a sufficient indigenous force existed, they were to inform Lusaka, which would then coordinate a mass uprising. The aim was not to defeat the government forces, but rather to force the British military to intervene. If the operation were a success, the MK men were to be escorted to South Africa to begin similar activities.
Operation Birch was an operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces in response to a group of 22–25 ZIPRA insurgents crossing the Zambezi River, which marked the border between Rhodesia and Zambia, in January 1970.
Operation Excess was a military operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces, on 27 July 1968, in response to an incursion of ZIPRA terrorists in Mashonaland West province.
Operation Griffin was a military operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces, on 16 July 1968, in response to an incursion into Rhodesia by communist insurgents belonging to the ZIPRA based in Zambia.
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