Harry Fecitt

Mervyn

I was serving in the Zambia Army as a contract infantry officer when the Rhodesian rebellion (known as UDI) started, so perhaps I may offer comment from that perspective.

(In the UK through Soldier magazine the South African, Rhodesian and Zambian armies all advertised vacancies. I was totally naive about how time-warped white public opinion then was in southern Africa and I applied to all three. Luckily for myself and my young family the Zambians were fastest on the ball, and our life did not get bogged-down in a losing situation further south.)

Your thread title asks a question, but then you jump in with both feet and use the phrase: the shameful betrayal by the British Government of their own Colony.

I am pretty sure that history shows that the British government, which had to consider its responsibilities to all sections of the Rhodesian community, offered suitable terms. Twice the Royal Navy provided a venue for meetings, but the white Rhodesian spokesman never seemed to have the authority to settle the issue.

One got the feeling that there were manipulators behind the southern African political scene who had their own profitable agendas.

What I never understood from a military perspective was why the Rhodesian army did not recruit far more Africans. Surely the expansion of the Rhodesian African Rifles into a couple of infantry brigades would have both helped the security situation and shown the world that this was not just a 'white settler' military operation?

I like reading about military operations in southern Africa from the 1960s onwards, and I find the late Ken Flower's book "Serving Secretly" interesting. He doesn't tell the full story, but he mentions a couple of intelligence failures. Firstly he says that the Rhodesians didn't know how much pressure military cross-border operations (thanks to a lot of South African help) were deteriorating relations between the Mozambique government and the insurgents. Secondly the Rhodesians (or at least the decision makers in Salisbury) seem to have been unaware of the strength of support for the insurgents in the rural areas when elections were held. Those were bad intelligence failures.

However, in the end Rhodesia was discarded by its sustainer South Africa who had her own situations to resolve in Angola and South West Africa. The chaps who had fought in the Rhodesian bush on both sides of the fence then had to watch the behind-the-scenes manipulators looting the country as railway loads of cattle etc headed south.

With hindsight we can see that the collapse of white-settler power in the Belgian Congo (and in Algeria further north) started an inevitable chain reaction.

When Portugal had its revolution and abandoned its colonial policies then South Africa and Rhodesia could only fight rear-guard actions.

Now that I live in Portugal I take a lot of interest in Portuguese anti-insurgency operations in Africa. Not much is known about them but they were pivotal to Rhodesian survival.

I will end by saying Mervyn that when ex-Rhodesian organisations and web-threads devote more time and space to commemorating the black and coloured chaps who fought and died for Rhodesia, then a more healthy and less biased attitude will prevail, to the benefit of all.

Harry

Silks with card backings.

From Soldiers of The King, a set of 14 medium sized inserts issued with copies of My Weekly and The Happy Home magazines during the Great War.

A couple of dashing Diggers and a relaxed gunner.

From Gallaher's Types of the British Army issued in two different sets of 50 cards each between 1897 and 1898.

No descriptive text on the back, only cigarette brand adverts, Depending on the brand printed on the back, expect to pay up to 10 pounds sterling per card.

After a visit I posted several photographs at:

http://1914-1918.inv...=1

If any member would like close-up images or further comments posted here, then please advise.

Harry

These are 'Scissors' cards aimed at the British troops in India.

A set in VG condition costs around 75 pounds sterling, but an identical Wills set issued under the United Service Cigarettes brand has blue backs and is catalogued at a few pounds less.

A set for the ex-gunners amongst us.

From an extra-large set of 12 cards issued by John Player & Sons in 1917 titled Artillery in Action.

Expect to pay around 60 pounds sterling for the set.

A large print of an illustration above a Kipling stanza from The Song of the Cities: Bombay.

Royal and Dowager-royal, I the Queen

Fronting thy richest sea with richer hands -

A thousand mills roar through me where I glean

All races from all lands.

Get hold of a copy of East of Suez by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Donald Maxwell, to see some really evocative prints of part of the greatest empire that the world has ever seen.