Minor reissues the 1980 Rodhesian mine protected Land Rover conversion and releases a set of MP-48 antenna bases, both at 1/35
I think this is slightly misleading in that this is the pattern of kit used by the British in Rhodesia during Op Agila, the Commonwealth Monitoring Force operation.
It was based on conversions undertaken in Aden back in 63-67; the Rhodesians I believe, carried out their own modifications which were different to the Brit design, and in fact went on to design a whole range of mine-protected vehicles. That said, it may well be that the Rhodesians did utilise a Brit-type design (based on their own experience) so happy to be corrected, but as I say, I think this modification is a Brit one.
Hi Brian, I am not familiar with African Wars. Could you tell me what was going on down there? TIA
Varanusk (Carlos) asked much the same question a few years back; my reply is below in Italics, just to help one keep track of this convoluted reply.
Essentially, and this is pretty basic, Rhodesia had been fighting a bush war against insurgents for several years. Needless to say various factions within a succession of British governments railed against such colonial “oppression” and blatant “white supremacy” despite the black population having a much better standard of living than in any other country in Africa. During the 60s Rhodesia broke away from the Home Country ie the UK, and declared independence. Much wrangling followed over the years and eventually Rhodesia was brow-beaten into accepting a cease-fire. A Commonwealth force was set up to monitor it all, and this is where my reply to Carlos comes in; I hasten to add I wasn’t deployed as part of the monitoring force but did deploy to Zimbabwe as it subsequently became known and I also refer to this; anyway, my reply to Carlos:
Not really Carlos, I wasn’t part of the Monitoring Force however, you may recall there’d been a deadly bush war type insurrection against white rule in Rhodesia for some years; sanctions were imposed by a lot of countries (against the white Rhodesian government) including those imposed by Britain, Perfidious Albion living well up to its name. A cease fire was eventually brokered - there being 3 main protagonists, ZIPRA, ZANLA, both African factions against the Rhodesians. I think, as per usual for Africa, the division between ZIPRA and ZANLA was tribal, ie Shona and Ndebele but there is far more political impact than that gross oversimplification.
It was agreed that elections would be held in 1980 - in fact - I think it may well have been a Conservative government who managed to field all that - I can’t remember - and I too can’t be bothered to look it up; I am sure there are some far more objective and informative sites dealing with this on the www somewhere. All factions were meant to be disarmed and held in cantonment areas pending the elections - apart from the Rhodesian military: many units, sensing which way the wind was blowing, “gapped” it, as it was known, in their entirety to South Africa. What has been described as the finest light infantry force in the world was therefore effectively disbanded.
Mugabe, and I really can’t remember which faction he was from, won the election and thus Zimbabwe was born. And surprise, surprise, it all turned to rat sh*t shortly after – but that is a far from objective view, save I was there in the early days and it was pretty clear how it was going to end, even back in 1981.
Part of the deal in running the elections was that the Brits would supply a training team to nurture the new Zimbabwean Army, which now would be composed mainly of Africans (some whites would in fact, stay on); in fact, despite my jaundiced view on all this, the British Army does/used to have a good record in providing “BMATTs” – British Military and Advisory Training Teams all over the world, so it was a sot of logical deal really. Two BMATTS were formed, strangely enough numbered 1 and 2; BMATT 1 was the combat arms training piece, and BMATT 2 was the establishment of a junior (officer) Staff Course for the emerging new leaders of the Army. It was the latter I volunteered for when a trawling signal came around the BAOR HQ I was working in at the time. As a young (26-year-old) newly promoted Sergeant, I was struggling a bit within the constraints of a large, soul-less administrative Staff branch (even though the subject matter – Intelligence – was interesting); I’d also been in the same garrison for nearly 5 years or so and was getting a bit jaded. My application was accepted and in February 1981, I arrived at the King George VI barracks just outside what had been Salisbury, the capital, and was now Harare, with 6 officers, to begin what became a 7-month tour.
I won’t bore you with the rest as I’m more than aware that you only requested a take on the background. However, needless to say, assimilating the differing warring factions, in other words terrorists, into the new Army, was a challenge; as was accepting that one could be spat upon by white Rhodesians, but that’s another story!
Afternote: having re-read all this, I do realise it’s far from accurate and not in the least objective, but really reflects what I knew at the time – which clearly wasn’t much(!) Forgive me if my sweeping statements ruffle any feathers, but that was how I saw it all back then.
Now, as I say I’ve simplified somewhat, and my take on things may offend some of the more sensitive souls around (not many on here I must admit!), but this was clearly a case of “careful what you wish for”, and the betrayal of a white population and their country; granted it may please those who dwell on such colonial actions but look at Zimbabwe now eh? That worked out well didn’t it? Practically a failed state.
Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a political view/answered. If you want to know in detail how my Zimbabwean tour on a training team panned out, I’m happy to send it you by PM - it runs to some 7 pages - and may not be that exciting a read(!) i don’t think it would win me many friends if I posted it on here.
Hi Brian, not necessary to send PM, the is information is enough. Like said, African Wars are not my cup of tea. I am afraid I will find another area of interest that I can´t handle. Cold War, Bundeswehr, NVA and Modern US Army are more than enough.
Isn’t that the truth!
As an aside, you might be interested in these BTR-152s - knocked out when I was there; a rebel faction was marching on Harare, and a couple of Eland 90s set about them:
I also got to drive a T-55; my tour back in 1981 wasn’t dull!
Oh Lord, don´t you lead me in temptation!
H.P.
Well, there was a bit more to it that that; the tropical gear at the time was an overall green (OG) set of shirt and trousers, the shirt being of the Aertex type (a light, cellular cotton), and the trousers with side fastening buckles, in cotton, with 2 x rear pockets, 2 x at the side and a map pocket on the left leg. An OG bush hat completed the ensemble. The badge for the operation was produced on a brassard:
worn thus:
‘58 pat webbing was worn but for tropical climes 2 x water bottles are issued.
I suspect that the speedy nature of the operation caught many quartermasters on the hop and photographs show No 2 Dress shirts being worn instead of the OG version; also officers (being officers) elected to wear their own pattern of shirt, often cream in colour. So, coupled with the endless variations of regimental and corps finery, the result will be the normal Brit mish-mash of dress and accoutrements. I suspect the soldiers in the pic above have tailored their uniforms to provide shorts. As far as I am aware, there was no issue pattern of shorts. Personally, I’m no fan of shorts in hot climates; there’s always something that wants to eat you.
The Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) Tropical Version, was just about coming into service at the time but I don’t think it was issued for Agila. I had it in 1981 during my time there on the BMATT, but that was a couple of years after Agila.
Rodhesia? Just east of Wakanda?
South of Nambia? Where is ‘Nambia’? President Trump ‘invents’ African country
The expression “This is Africa” can be used for all the crap that happened there Rhodesia, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, now the Belgian Congo, Zaire, who am I missing? Oh yeah the mau mau uprising in Kenya. And I’m sure I’m missing some other stuff but I mean at my age you know Rhodesia was the the big one cuz I had relatives there that left and Mozambique because there was an influx of their Jewish population in Israel for a while and then a lot of them move to Brazil and that’s where the expression was when the Jews are gone it’s too late
Sierra Leone perhaps? I was there in 2000 (during the hostage rescue operation); Africa - still a dangerous place to be.
I was amAzed by what I saw during my two stints for our govt there. One was in south Africa for two months doing a security detail which was all boredom and nothing more, the second was a training mission in Zaire where we trained indigenous troops some really funny fkrs there. The RSM was basically a pygmy with a mustache and I’m talking to good mustache he embarrassed me problem is I don’t speak French I understand it but I don’t speak it very well so I was there for a couple of months doing weapons training teaching how to break down galil’s stuff like that the stench of bush meets still gets me I’ll have to do is think of it and smell it
Correct, but it has been reissued and updated, now uses 3D printed parts instead of cast resin
