Chapter 1

Reminiscing on past OPS (Operations)... 1970 – 1980

Support Group – RLI (Rhodesian Light Infantry)

We had been based at Darwin for a few days and just getting used to our new troop officers that came to us from the NS (National Service) intake 136 ... Jim, Dick and a few others boasted 20 years of university and not one degree amongst them ... Great bunch of guys...

At about 15:00 SB (Special Branch- Police) guys came to the OPS (Operations) room and were huddled with the OC (Officer Comanding) and Lt Jim ... About 18:00 we were called for a briefing ... The OP was a walk in to ambush a Gook leader who was known to be attending a beer drink at a kraal near Ruchinga ... We had an SB guy and informer to lead us in...

We left Darwin in the Bedfords just after last light and were dropped off supposedly 5km from the kraal ... The informer got lost and we were about ready to gut him when we heard the sounds of a good party ... We crept forward to outside a kraal in extended line and we were about 50m from the edge when we saw 2 figures with AK's slung walking towards us ... Jim upped and opened fire and being a good MAG gunner I had 4 belts joined, so, without pause I opened up and hosed off 4 belts without taking my finger off the trigger ... I can't remember who the other gunner was but we both went through 8 belts ... Jim shouted for us to stop and we sank down and watched for a few minutes but had to pull back a bit as we had started a bit of a bush fire that was a bit intense ... At first light we swept through the village and found 2 Gooks, one believe it or not still alive although well ventilated ... all his wounds sealed and cauterized by the bush fire ... The Gook, Herbet Chikwatwa or some such name was the main man for the Darwin area and SB had a short chat to him but with 25 7,62 holes in him he didn't really last long...

One of Support Groups last contacts before becoming a commando...

Morning startup

One of my memories is of Grand Reef. Early morning PT with the commando in three ranks standing at ease with everyone standing with their hands down the front of their shorts keeping the hands warm!!!!

The smell of breakfast cooking in the mess tent and as we start the call out siren goes – O well here we go again ... grab two slices of bread, slap an egg and bacon on and try to put on kit while running to the choppers as you could already hear the turbines winding up – Giggle at the chopper tech as he is doing his walk around trying to eat breakfast and watch the run up...

As you roll out the revetments open up the cammo cream tub and start on legs and the buy the time you have done the roll off your face is striped up...

Wafa Wafa – the war starts... (Wafa translated means dead – spoken like this can be taken as "if yo die you die – no problem)

A Hot affair

Fire Force Darwin in the early days was a scream a minute ... We were based next to the chopper pad with only bunkers and a shower block next to the chopper pad – I don't know who was supposed to keep the fire going in the "donkey" for hot water but generally after last light there was no more hot water – not a problem, a quite stroll to the chopper pad and relieve them of a bucket full of Avtur ... threw a can full on to the donkey fire and you have instant fire!!!! Until one night coming back from the club we decided that we wanted a lot of hot water – yes we did – on whole bucket on the fire which produced one hell of a fire consuming half the ablution block!!!!! The OC's voice bellowed out and like all good troopies no on was seen in 5 seconds flat ... Boss never did find out who singed his eye lashes.

Note – donkey here refers to a Rhodesia boiler made up out of 45 gal drums with a fire box underneath.

A Gunners Perspective

In the early days of fire force the MAG gunner sat in the left front to support the Tech (doubled as a door gunner with 2x30 Brownings) on his Browning ... One of my early call outs we were sent by K Kar (Comand Helicopter armed with a 20mm cannon) to circle an area a klick (kilometer) from the main contact site ... As the G Kar (Troop carrier) pulled up 2 gooks opened up at us so both the Tech and I replied with virtuous intensity (Tech was JB Britten).

Now comes the painful part of the story ... Sitting in the front you have to shoot left handed which is not that big a problem except when it comes to changing belts where muscle memory has to be re-learnt ... The biggest problem is the spent doppies (Catridge casings)– they shoot straight down – now remember one is firing from a sitting position, most troopies go commando – yes you guessed it – very hot NUTS ... The next biggest problem is Vellies (Bush shoes)– Nice and open at the top to receive hot doppies ... Now try to imagine what the tech was thinking as I was bouncing around shooting and trying to get hot doppies out of painfull places ... JB, the Tech, nearly wet himself and was no help at all – O and the Gooks lost 2 love...

Freedom Of The City

One of the most moving yet painful parades ever was the RLI freedom of the City of Salisbury. The most emotional moment of it all was when we wheeled into First Street and the RAR band struck up THE SAINTS ... The crowd lining First Street went ballistic and all one could faintly head was the drum cadence.

What no body thought about or even considered was that we marched for bloody hours with an FN in the left hand all the time with no relief ... OK if you were clever you hooked the cocking handle on to your stick belt ... When we halted at the drill hall and RSM shouted "ORDER ARMS" it sounded like a ship load of scrap metal hitting the tarmac ... I know it took me 15minutes to get my flaming fingers straight never mind working...

Darwin Memories

In the early days Darwin was the centre of the war effort – the road from Bindura was still dirt and was mined occasionally.

Darwin consisted of – Police Station, Club, a few stores and the army depot – On an open piece of ground near the club the Air Force established a chopper pad & next to that became the fire force base...

Darwin's residents supported the troops with an intensity that astounded us all ... Supported by various Ladies organizations from Salisbury they started the Troopy Canteen ... Just about any time of the day or night a large Hamburger, chips and salad was always available ... Entertainment was non stop – Clem Tholet, 4 Jacks & aJill, John Edmond are a few to mention...

The real heroes of the war effort were those Ladies that supported their sons and Friends...

Tracking – Wafa Wafa.

One of my best memories of Kariba is WAFA WAFA the wonderful tracking training camp at Kariba – the wonderful rustic Bashas (Stick & leaf shealter), no food, assault coarse, no food, rope course, no food and the esteemed training staff who were bushmen of note!!!!! Ant, John, Zengai and the rest of the instructors were brilliant and taught us well – Mind you they had their week spot when we swapped a 12ft Python for a T bone each – well they said we could eat what we caught and having never had noka (snake) before we were willing to try but they insisted we would like 500g T bones instead.

One of the highlights of the course was operation egg ... To the civies (Civilians) reading this, this is the culmination of your survival training. You are issued with one fresh egg, one rifle with one taped magazine, strip searched and allowed to wear shorts, T shirt and vellies. A belt and knife are also allowed ... Come last light you are all dropped off in the valley about 5km apart – the mission is to cook your egg before first light ... The main problem is that this is a National park area and the instructors send out a notice to all the inhabitants of the date of the exercise.

I was dropped off well after last light so while the RL (A 5 ton Truck) was driving away I used its lights to find the biggest tree in the area. First objective – FIRE ... Now rubbing sticks together don't work ... As Bear Grylis has shown on TV it's a mission even in daylight ... However having been in a farming family, necessity is the mother of invention!!! Did I mention a taped magazine – well not a problem, slide the bottom off and extract previously hidden matches etc... – start fire and already feeling good. Dig a hole and line with leaves, piss in it, cover with more leaves and soil, scrape fire over the top and one instant oven,,, Easy until you look up and in the fire light see a very large Lion licking his chopps (lips) ... Grab rifle and climb tree – easy – Noooo ... I didn't check the tree out and it's a bloody knob thorn!!!! O well torn and bloody I look down and I could swear those bloody cats were laughing at me – I gave up and just froze to that thorny branch for the rest of the night –

Collected in the morning my egg was cooked and the instructors walked around and laughed at me as the tracks were a bit obvious ... O well another life experience

"Shot in the foot"

Again

One of the best things about the School of Infantry in Gwelo was that it literally shut down on a Friday until Monday morning – If you could keep your nose clean and dodge duty it was easy to duck out at about 3 and hit the road to Bumba Zonke (Salisbury) for a very quick 3 hour drive...

I was using a BMW 2002 that I briefly owned and this thing could run. I had blasted though most dorps (Towns) until I got to Norton where there was a road block and I was stopped by some very irate Cops – I was told I was under arrest for blasting through Gatooma at 120mph and got clocked leaving Hartley at 130mph ... as quick as a flash I told the cop I was on an urgent call out hoping he would believe me and send me on my way – fat chance – sat me down and he hit the radio and they phoned camp – 5 minutes later he comes running back and tells me to follow the highway patrol BMW as there was a call out and I was to be escorted to the main gate – SHIIIIIT!!!! That one did not go down well. Mind you I did have fun as there was very little in the top end between a 2+2 or a 2800 – (Old BSAP drivers will know what its like)...

Moral of the story is don't lie – you just get in to worse kak(shit)– I had to track for 2 days and still be back on course on Monday – Snyed again...

SB & the Troopy

John Gordon Davis summed up an RLI troopy in "Hold my hand I am Dying" in that no one can strip a gook as fast of valuables as an RLI Troopy – However, we constantly snyed them ... In fact at one stage it was so embarrassing that I took a lot of the "stuff" over to my SB buddy who kept his trap shut. One particular contact we didn't fes (Own) up to we made out like Bandits – We had a good contact and we had at least an hour before SB and GC (Ground Coverage – Police) arrived so you can imagine that a good inspection was done – we had hit a paymaster and the area commander plus his retinue so the pickings were great – I was a bit worried so I put back a roll of money into the gooks back pocket and we then stood around – the SB guy was one of those pricks no one liked at all including his own staff. He floored me totally when he got me off to one side after clean up and slipped me a roll of money and said "you guys are really slipping up, you left some cash on this guy" Shit I was floored – I had already tossed all my graze (Food) out of my pack and had it stuffed with notes, the roll that was left was like pocket change. Like any good Sgt I shut up and we went back to base. (we were para (parachute)sticks so had to wait for the trucks to uplift us).

Anyway that money was put to some serious troop entertainment and purchase of some good luxury items... (New Datsun 1200) – You may ask how much – I am not telling but I will say I went over to Austria every January skiing for many years ... To be honest Mack (SB Boss) did ask me a few years later when I was working for him how much I had scored – I gave him the answer and he just shrugged his shoulders and said that he had always wondered where the money had got to!!! He never said another word ... O by the way – I was lucky enough to klap 4 paymasters in my time ... Kept me honest...

Recce schooling

Having done my Para course at Tempe I had met many SADF (South African Defence Force) guys and we became good friends. In fact RSM K was the one that helped me put my first folding stock together.

About a year after our meat bomb course we were based at a wonderful resort type bush airstrip called Mabalahoota ... Now this was a place that was definitely hidden from the AA guide – basically because there was stuff all there ... The Ellies (Elephant) in that part of the world were the most aggressive and dangerous to be found – they had been shot at, had feet blown off by AP mines and were really grumpy...

From this world renowned place we deployed into Mozambique and had great fun causing mayhem and despair for the poor Freds and Gooks ... Anyway back to the theme of the story – I don't know if you guys realize but the kit we wore in the RLI was mostly hand made – we had a brilliant Taylor and Cobbler back in camp that would make anything to spec – I think in fact that the first jacket webbing was designed and made by Taffy Liverick. We all had our own design of kit that was sewn together to suit personal preferences so that as a group going out on patrol we must have looked like a bunch of Hobo's. Because of the climate most of the guys wore shorts and T shirts with vellies. Some even lost the T shirt.

We were briefed on an upcoming OP (Operation) and the senior NCO's (Non Commissioned Officers) were taken to one side and told of the arrival of some guest troops to see how we did it ... Now this was going to be a scream a minute I could see it coming ... After lunch we heard a Dak (Dakota)approach and watched it land with interest as it was not one of ours. The doors opened and out stepped my old friend RSM K and Major XXX. The guys watching just about pissed themselves laughing as we were treated to one of the smartest parades of men ever seen. Shit these guys were immaculate ... I asked the RSM if they were just stopping off for lunch before going on to a main parade some where else – he gave me a dirty look and then burst out laughing at me when it dawned on him as to who I was ... To give you an idea, I was in shorts, T shirt, Sandals and cammo (Camouflage cream – also known as Black beauty cream) cream with a cut down folding stock FN in one hand ... We had a long meet and greet and I introduced the guys to our OC and we sat and chatted about their expectations. The poor SADF guys were gobsmacked with the food, dress and attitude of the camp – it was definitely a culture shock for them. The Captain I was allocated was shocked when he learnt that he had to wear shorts ... Please let me explain – I know a person moves one hell of a lot quieter through the bush in shorts as you can feel branches, grass & thorns etc. In Long combat fatigues I found most guys just blunder on – a good way to get compromised. Another thing was footwear – Footwear was what the local population wore ... that was bare foot or Namantalas – what's that you may ask – specially designed sandals constructed from old Dunlop SP49 tyres – the best sandals ever made ... The other option was to get your Vellies retreaded by the camp Tailor using Michelin!!!!

So the guys were happy with their education but went on to work with the SAS and found that was more to their liking as they could wear jump boots again...

Life goes on

Watching TV with friends the other day we were giggling at an old A team episode ... My buddy asked me if all units had a "Face" man – the unit scavenger – Yes we did ... I don't know about other units but we had 2 ... Chris Meyers and Kapie Warner ... What those two couldn't find was not worth talking about – Chris could come up with cold Beer and T Bones in the middle of the Low Veld ... KP procured gensets, weapons and bits and pieces that HQ had never thought about ... I think we had the only fully electrified bush camp in the Batalion until 1Cdo got jealous!!!!