Bush War Operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and beyond

by Andrew Balaam

Overview

From the searing heat of the Zambezi Valley to the freezing cold of the Chimanimani Mountains in Rhodesia, from the bars in Port St Johns in the Transkei to the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, this is the story of one man's fight against terror, and his conscience.

Anyone living in Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s would have had a father, husband, brother or son called up in the defense of the war-torn, landlocked little country. A few of these brave men would have been members of the elite and secretive unit that struck terror into the hearts of the ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas infiltrating the country at that time - the Selous Scouts. These men were highly trained and disciplined, with skills to rival the SAS, Navy Seals and the US Marines, although their dress and appearance were wildly unconventional: civilian clothing with blackened, hairy faces to resemble the very people they were fighting against.

Twice decorated - with the Member of the Legion of Merit (MLM) and the Military Forces' Commendation (MFC) - Andrew Balaam was a member of the Rhodesian Light Infantry and later the Selous Scouts, for a period spanning twelve years. This is his honest and insightful account of his time as a pseudo operator. His story is brutally truthful, frightening, sometimes humorous and often sad.

In later years, after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, he was involved with a number of other former Selous Scouts in the attempted coups in the Ciskei, a South African homeland, and Lesotho, an independent nation, whose only crimes were supporting the African National Congress. Training terrorists, or as they preferred to be called, 'liberation armies', to conduct a war of terror on innocent civilians, was the very thing he had spent the last ten years in Rhodesia fighting against. This is the true, untold story of these failed attempts at governmental overthrows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781909982772
Publisher:	Helion and Company
Publication date:	12/03/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

List of photographs vii

List of maps ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xii

Maps xiii

Prologue xv

Part 1 Rhodesian Light Infantry, 1967-74 21

1 Kanyemba, Zambezi Valley November 1967 23

2 Chewore Wilderness Area, Zambezi Valley, 1972 28

3 Shamva, Operation Hurricane, 1972 33

4 Tete Province, Mozambique, 1972 35

5 Mukumbura, Mozambican border, 1973 45

6 Operation Hurricane, Mount Darwin area, 1973 48

7 Fire Force: Mount Darwin, 1973 56

Part 2 Selous Scouts, 1975-80 61

8 Selection course: Kariba, 1975 63

9 Ruya River, Mozambican border, 1975 79

10 Tire snatch: Eastern Highlands, Operation Thrasher, early 1976 96

11 Attack on Mapai: Mozambique, June 1976 100

12 Attack on Nyadzonya / Pungwe base: Mozambique, August 1976 115

13 Pseudo op: Operation Repulse, late 1976 121

14 Parachute training: Dukuduku, South Africa, 1977 128

15 Mujiba: Operation Thrasher, 1977 134

16 Pseudo op: Chiredzi, late 1977 136

17 Chiredzi, Operation Repulse, 1978 146

18 Tete Province, Mozambique, 1978 150

19 Pseudo op: Fort Victoria, 1978 154

20 My last operation in the Selous Scouts: Chiredzi, 1980 158

Part 3 South Africa: Homeland Security, 1982-88 163

21 Port St Johns, Transkei, 1982 165

22 The Lesotho Liberation Army: Qacha's Nek, 1983-4 167

23 The Lesotho Liberation Army: Sani Pass, 1984 192

24 Last throw of the Lesotho dice: Zastron, 1985 197

25 The Ciskei Liberation Army: Transkei, 1986 200

26 Preparation and double-cross: Ciskei, January-February 1987 216

27 The attack on the presidential palace: Ciskei, 19 February 1987 227

28 Fallout and aftermath 238

29 Epilogue: Indaba Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg, 1988 251

Editorial Reviews

The finest account I’ve read on the Selous Scouts. Without any kind of glorification whatsoever, Andy Balaam tells it like it was—the fear, the terror, the adrenaline highs of combat in the bush—and is one of the first accounts to actually describe in depth the workings of the Scouts famed ‘pseudo ops’.

Chris Cocks