The War and Campaigns of the British South Africa Police
The British South Africa Police, from its founding in 1889 until its disbandment in 1980, carried a dual burden as both guardians of civil order and the nation’s first line of defence, a role that repeatedly drew it into conflicts far beyond conventional policing. In its earliest years the force fought in the Matabele campaigns of 1893 and 1896, and in the Mashona Rebellion, establishing its reputation as a regiment in all but name. Members were later deployed in the Second Boer War, and during the First World War they earned the battle honour East Africa 1915–18, while in the Second World War many former policemen served across multiple theatres. In its final decades the BSAP was deeply engaged in the Rhodesian Bush War, where policing and military duties became inseparable. These pages therefore commemorate all known former members, preserving their service and sacrifice for families, colleagues, historians, and the wider public.
Military Campaigns
The BSA Police and its predecessor forces took part in a number of campaigns in their capacity as a military regiment and later as a police force in the true sense and as the country's first line of defence, including the following (Click on the heading banners to open up the section):
Matabele War 1893
There is doubt as whether the predecessor forces of the BSA Police had any official role in the Matabele War, but evidently a good number of attested men did, in their personal capacity, including officers and ranks, following their discharge from the BSA Company Police.
There has been long debate as to the cause of the Matabele War, as it came to be known. Many references suggest the conflict was sparked off by what was to be called the ‘Lendy Affair’.
In mid-1893 there had been small incidents involving local tribesmen stealing wire and generally sabotaging telegraph communications between Fort Victoria and Tuli. Dr Leander Jameson had become somewhat restive with this situation.
By some accounts, it is alleged, remarkably, that Jameson had invited the Matabele King, Lobengula (1836-1894) to send in an impi (a unit of warriors perhaps equivalent to a company strength) to install discipline among the local tribesmen. However, there is some doubt about the authenticity of this.
Point of fact though, that two Matabele impis, were sent by Lobengula, to “punish” Chief Gomella’s people following on from the theft of telegraph cables, after Gomella had mischievously paid ‘fines’ using the king’s cattle.
The impis had raided the Fort Victoria town commonage, murdering and abducting the Mashona inhabitants who had been working for the ‘settlers’. Fort Victoria’s white inhabitants had been somewhat disturbed and had quickly assembled a force of 400 men gathering in the Fort, with their womenfolk.
Jameson had rushed to Fort Victoria to negotiate with the invading impi, but the young indunas had demonstrated outright defiance to demands that they should withdraw, claiming Matabele sovereignty over Mashonaland, in the name of their King.
The story goes that Captain Charles Frederick Lendy (1863-1894), formerly of the Royal Artillery, who had previously been in command of “F” Troop – Artillery of the BSA Company Police, was then the Magistrate of Fort Victoria. He had taken command of the scratch force, and following Jameson’s attempts, had decided that the indunas were not going to obey the settler demands.
Lendy led a mounted charge against the Matabele resulting in the death of a dozen of their number. Skirmishes followed between a Mashonaland Mounted Police (MMP) force led by Lendy and an impi on 18th July in the area of the Shashe River, which flows into the Tokwe River just north-west of Fort Victoria (not to be mistaken with the Shashe River near Fort Tuli). They withdrew hurriedly across the Shashe River, as had been demarked by Jameson.
These encounters resulted in the deaths of some 30 Matabele warriors at Magamoli’s Kraal. Thus, if the allegation is true, in reacting to the cable theft, Lobengula had played into the hands of the white settlers of Mashonaland and the occupation of Matabeleland quickly became a conquest ambition of Jameson. It seems illogical in light of Jameson’s immediately preceding demobilizing of three quarters of his only regular forces.
The Matabele had been causing havoc among the Mashona ever since the Pioneer Column arrived. In 1891 that had extending their brutal raids as far as the area of Chief Lomaghundi, near where current day Chinhoyi exists. Lomaghundi was murdered. Chief Bere’s people, not too far from Fort Victoria had been a serious victim of these raiding paties, after accusations of cattle theft. It was not just the Mashona who were subjugated by the Matabele, the Bechuana chiefs had also suffered the villainy of Lobengula, as had the Barotse.
In reality, the King’s men had been on their usual forays against the Mashona, to steal their cattle and enslave their women. Lobengula’s economy was founded on raiding eastward and collecting tributes from the Mashona. The rival claims to the territory of Mashonaland by both the BSA Company and by Lobengula were, seemingly irreconcilable. Clearly the Matabele had to be stopped.
It took Jameson three months to put together an invading force, drawn from volunteers and former members of the MMP, many of whom were laid off at Jameson’s instigation, to save BSA Company funds. Cecil Rhodes, at first reluctant to participate in such a gamble, eventually backed Jameson’s war aspirations and financed the occupation.
Two columns were quickly put together, one from Fort Victoria and the other from Fort Salisbury. As the storm gathered, the Imperial Government was persuaded to believe that a Matabele invasion of Mashonaland was imminent and decided to send its own invasion column comprising Bechuanaland Mounted Police (BMP) and the Raaff Rangers to Matabeleland. The southern column included a sizeable number of Bechuana warriors.
Raaffs Rangers met with the BMP force at Macloutsie, but before this had travelled from the Rand, in the Zuid Afikaansche (Boer) Republic via Fort Tuli to attest into the now almost disbanded BSA Company Police. Two forces were thus thrust into a race to hoist their flags in “Gubulawayo”.
The Fort Salisbury Column, led by Major Patrick Forbes, an MMP Officer (or recently retired there-from) met up with the Fort Victoria Column, under the command of Major Allan Wilson, at Iron Mine Hill. There had been minor skirmishes en route to the rendezvous.
The northern column advanced towards Bulawayo. There followed two battles, one in which Jameson’s forces clashed with Matabele amabuto (regiments) numbering some 6000 during the night of 24 October when they attacked the column in the ensuing ‘Battle of Shangani’ near the river of that name.
The attack was fought off with the Matabele suffering large numbers of casualties. They had made a fatal error in their offensive, attacking at night and doing so when the column was already in laager. The nocturnal initiative lost the Matabele their visual communication between regiments, critical for successful light infantry tactics. Their disastrous experiences of attacking the Boers in laager, 57 years earlier, had obviously faded through generations of military inactivity against white settlers.
A week later Lobengula’s regiments engaged in a second attack against the column in the ‘Battle of Bembezi’ (1 November) which saw the ultimate defeat of the Matabele, sadly, with great loss of life to Lobengula’s force. This battle remains an unexplained tactical calamity for the Matabele army.
Lobengula had instructed his induna amabuto (regimental commanders) to allow the two columns to commence the crossing of the Umguza River, before launching any further offensive. The Umguza was a difficult river to cross on account of its steep, boulder strewn, banks and such crossing could only be done out of laager. The river was also within quick range of his reserve regiments.
Apparent disunity within the Matabele force, arising from accusations of cowardice following on from the previous battle; a change in leadership to senior indunas who had not experienced the Shangani confrontation; and the fact that the two columns were an inviting ‘sitting duck’ may have led to the premature attack.
The Matabele outnumbered the column in manpower (6000 to 700) and firearms (2000 to 700). The column laagered at midday and sent their draft animals to forage and be watered to the south. The Matabele army was sighted on a rise, in full force, about 2 kilometres away, by the column, but well within 7 pounder artillery range.
The Matabele were fired upon and as shells burst about the amabuto the decision was made to their launch the attack proper. Pure numbers are no match for firepower. The maxim machine gun created havoc so great for the Matabele regiments, many perished, and remnant attackers were forced to flee with mounted infantry hard on their heals. Thus the Matabele army saw its death’s knell.
The Salisbury and Fort Victoria columns marched into Bulawayo on 4 November 1893. The Imperial column from Bechuanaland was nowhere to be seen. They had set march on 18 October heading north for Bulawayo and had encounter a minor skirmish with the Matabele near Mphoengs on 2 November (referred to as the Battle of Singuesi or Empandeni).
The column finally reached Bulawayo on 15 November, a delay which probably saved the Charter Company’s then newly occupied territory being annexed to Imperial Bechuanaland.
King Lobengula had escaped capture and moved north, only to be pursued by Major Allan Wilson’s, now famous, Shangani Patrol, which met its eventual fate on the edge of the flood swollen Shangani River. Seventeen (some source suggest 34) men, surrounded by Lobengula’s retreating regiments and against insurmountable odds fought to the end in a legend which was to be embellished by Rhodesians.
King Lobengula died in the early part of the following year, some suggesting by suicide others by disease.
Before the occupation of Matabeleland a revered Shona spirit medium, Chaminuka, from the Hartley area, had prophesized the occupation by white people, ‘people with no knees ‘. He had been put to death by Lobengula’s raiding Imbizo regiment (the King’s first regiment) in about 1885 on account of such a treacherous foretelling.
Matabele Rebellion 1896
The Matabele Rebellion of 1896, remembered by Africans as part of the First Chimurenga, was one of the most significant uprisings against colonial authority in Southern Rhodesia. Unlike the Matabele War of 1893, which had been a set‑piece campaign of conquest, the rebellion was a spontaneous and widespread insurrection, driven by famine, disease, dispossession, and the spiritual call of Mlimo. It erupted suddenly in March 1896, catching the British South Africa Company and its police force unprepared, and for months threatened the very survival of the settler community in Matabeleland.
The immediate causes of the rebellion lay in the devastation wrought by rinderpest, which destroyed the cattle herds upon which the Matabele economy depended, and in the drought and locust infestations that followed. The imposition of hut tax, the alienation of land, and the humiliation of chiefs compounded the grievances. Mlimo, the spiritual leader, declared that the white settlers were responsible for these calamities and urged his people to rise. His message resonated deeply, and impis began attacking isolated farms, missions, and mining camps.
Bulawayo, the administrative centre of the Company, was quickly surrounded. Settlers and their families retreated into laagers, and the town endured weeks of siege. The British South Africa Police, though primarily a constabulary, found themselves thrust into a military role. Many of its men were deployed as mounted infantry, conducting patrols to rescue stranded families and to harass rebel impis. The BSAP’s discipline and training proved invaluable in these early defensive operations, though their numbers were small and reinforcements were urgently needed.
To meet the crisis, the Bulawayo Field Force was hastily assembled under Colonel Napier, comprising BSAP detachments, volunteers, and irregulars. They were joined by scouts such as Frederick Russell Burnham and by officers including Robert Baden‑Powell, whose later fame as founder of the Boy Scouts was foreshadowed by his daring patrols in the Matobo Hills. The Field Force mounted sorties from Bulawayo, often riding long distances to relieve besieged farms or to strike at rebel kraals. These operations were dangerous, as the Matabele impis were skilled in ambush and fought with determination, but the firepower of Maxim guns and artillery gave the defenders a decisive edge.
The Imperial Government, alarmed by the scale of the uprising, dispatched reinforcements. General Sir Frederick Carrington arrived to take command, bringing with him regular troops, including detachments of the West Kent Regiment, the York and Lancaster Regiment, and artillery units. The Bechuanaland Border Police also marched north to assist, while local units such as the Gwelo Field Force and the Victoria Rangers contributed to the campaign. The BSAP, though stretched thin, remained the backbone of the Company’s forces, providing mounted patrols, intelligence, and the organisational framework for the irregulars.
The campaign in Matabeleland centred on the rugged Matobo Hills, where the rebels had taken refuge. The hills provided natural fortresses, riddled with caves and difficult terrain, and the impis used them to launch raids and then melt away. The BSAP and the Field Force conducted systematic sweeps, burning kraals, destroying crops, and attempting to flush out the rebels. These operations were arduous, involving long marches, shortages of supplies, and constant skirmishing. The discipline of the BSAP was critical in maintaining cohesion among the mixed forces of volunteers and irregulars.
A turning point came with the assassination of Mlimo in June 1896. Burnham and Captain Jack Armstrong infiltrated his cave near the Matobo Hills and shot him dead. Though historians debate the immediate impact, the removal of the spiritual leader undermined the morale of the rebels. Cecil Rhodes himself then undertook a bold initiative, entering the Matobo Hills unarmed to negotiate directly with the chiefs. His parley, conducted under the shadow of danger, persuaded many of the Matabele leaders to lay down arms, and gradually the rebellion in Matabeleland subsided.
The suppression of the rebellion was not solely a matter of negotiation. The BSAP and Imperial troops continued to conduct punitive patrols throughout the latter half of 1896, ensuring that resistance was broken. The use of Maxim guns, artillery, and disciplined mounted infantry proved decisive against impis armed largely with spears and a limited number of rifles. By the end of the year, Matabeleland was pacified, though at the cost of thousands of African lives and the destruction of many communities.
The role of the BSAP in the rebellion was emblematic of its dual character. Though established as a police force, it was repeatedly called upon to act as a regiment, and in 1896 it bore the brunt of the fighting until Imperial reinforcements arrived. Its men were often former soldiers, accustomed to military discipline, and they provided the nucleus around which the irregular forces were organised. The rebellion demonstrated that in Southern Rhodesia, policing and soldiering were inseparable, and the BSAP would continue to serve in both capacities until its disbandment in 1980.
The Matabele Rebellion left a deep legacy. For the settlers, it was remembered as a desperate struggle for survival, fought with courage and endurance. For the Matabele, it was a tragic but heroic attempt to resist dispossession and to defend their way of life. In nationalist memory, it became part of the First Chimurenga, the first great uprising against colonial rule, and its leaders and spirit mediums were later revered as symbols of resistance.
In historical perspective, the rebellion was distinct from the Matabele War of 1893. The earlier conflict had been a campaign of conquest, fought in set battles such as Shangani and Bembezi. The rebellion of 1896 was an insurrection, fought in sieges, ambushes, and guerrilla raids, and suppressed by a combination of police, volunteers, and Imperial troops. It was not a war of conquest but a war of survival, and it revealed both the resilience of the Matabele and the determination of the settlers to hold their ground.
By October 1896, the rebellion in Matabeleland was effectively over, though sporadic resistance continued. The Mashonaland uprising, which had begun in June, dragged on into 1897, but that was a separate campaign. In Matabeleland, the BSAP and its allies had restored Company control, and the territory entered a new phase of colonial consolidation. Yet the memory of the rebellion endured, shaping the identity of both settlers and Africans, and foreshadowing the struggles of the twentieth century.
Mashona Rebellion 1896-1897 – “The First Shona Chimurenga”
The Mashona Rebellion came as a surprise to the BSA Company’s authority in Fort Salisbury, despite the ongoing Matabele crisis in the west of the country. The settlers saw the Mashona as a pastoral/hunter people, fragmented with no common organisation, owing allegiance to no single authority and ‘incapable of planning any combined or premeditated’ military action as a nation.
The Mashona comprised a number of autonomous chieftainships spread mostly through the eastern part of the occupied territory which was to become Rhodesia. They were not respected in any way as a military threat, nor were they organised in any way along the scale of the Matabele regiments, but clearly their cunning and intelligence had been under-rated.
So too had their resentment at being subjugated by their newly imposed rulers who had taken their land, coerced them into the workforce, introduced forms of taxation (hut tax), which they had resisted, and had usurped the authority of their Chiefs.
Evidently, the same problems that afflicted the Matabele, rinderpest, drought and locusts, played a role. These issues formed the, anti-white/settler, secular melting pot of the spirit mediums. It is no co-incidence that Muwkati, who had escaped arrest at Intaba zika Mambo, found his way to Chief Matshayangombi’s kraal, near Hartley, the hot bed of the rebellion in Mashonaland.
The Hartley area, too, was the home of the late oracle Chaminuka and was the then abode of the spirit medium Kaguvi, ‘the Mondoro’ or Gumbareshumba, ‘The Lion’s Paw’, who originated from Chief Chikwakwa’s area (Goromonzi). It is common knowledge that the mediums also sought to re-establish the powerful Rozwi monarchy (which had succumbed in 1834), an accomplishment that would have, perhaps, unified the Shona.
The stage was set for a bloody uprising and thus on 15 June 1896 news of two prospectors, Tate and Koefoet, who were captured, bound hand and foot, and thrown to the crocodiles in the Umfuli River, filtered into Salisbury.
A Native Commissioner, Moonie, was slaughtered at a kraal in the Hartley District on the same day. The following day Norton’s Porta Farm was attacked and his entire family was slaughtered along with two employees.
During the ensuing months some 119 settlers were murdered and attacks took place on isolate mines and farms mostly in a broad crescent running rapidly through from Hartley in the West, north to Mazoe and east to Makoni’s area. The Karanga Chiefs in the Victoria region were notable by their lack on involvement in the rebellion, as were Chief Mutasa’s people who remain neutral throughout.
The white population followed the example of their beleaguered Bulawayo folk and went into laagers established at Forts Salisbury and Charter and later at Umtali, Fort Victoria and even Melsetter. A pattern of rescuing settlers in the outlining areas, followed by mounted infantry resistance to the rebellion, as utilised in Matabeleland, was to pursue.
The laager established at Hartley was attacked on the 18th June by rebels emanating from Matshayangombi’s Kraal during which it was apparent that Matabele warriors had taken part. On the same day miners at Alice Mine had sent a desperate message to Fort Salisbury seeking relief after being attacked and besieged by rebels. More farm murders took place in the Charter district, mostly of Boer farmers who had settled in the area.
Nesbitt’s now famous ‘Mazoe Patrol’ reached the laager at Alice Mine on the 20th June and secured the relief of survivors against incredible odds, an action which resulted in his award of the Victoria Cross.
Herbert Eyre and Trooper Arthur Young of the MMP were murdered on 21 June in Umvukwes. Across to the east Chief Makoni’s people launched attacks on a laager established at Headlands, which had to be abandoned, the occupants who eventually made their way to Umtali.
Clearly, the rebel campaign was a concerted one, but notably lacking in the conventional military strategies of the Matabele. A less conventional hit and run, guerrilla war offensive which suited the Shona domain had evolved.
On 25 June two Mounted Infantry companies under the command of Colonel Edwin AH Alderson of the Royal West Kent Regiment had arrived in Beira, originally destined for Matabeleland. These companies were diverted to the Mashonaland crisis where they pursued a ‘commando’ styled mounted campaign (which appears to have it roots in southern Africa) against rebel strongholds, relieving them of their grain and cattle.
Aldeson’s Mounted Infantry initiative was described as ‘highly mobile and pugnatious’ comprising brisk scorched earth forays intent on destroying pockets of rebel resistance and capturing their grain supplies and livestock, obviously aimed at bringing their logistical support structure crashing down.
One of Alderson’s first major offensives, with two companies of Mounted Infantry, was against Makoni’s Kraal on 3 August – he established Fort Haynes in the process. Makoni was only captured on 4 September, during a second raid, tried by Court Martial, and summarily executed by firing squad, an act which was not without its controversy.
Gatsi and Mangwende faced his force’s wrath between 10 and 16 August. A major skirmish took place at Simbanoot’s Kraal between 8 and 14 September and Alderson ventured against Matshayangombi’s fortress on 5 October, but it is doubtful that that stronghold was taken successfully. There followed offensives against Chiefs Mapondera, Gatsi, Chikwakwa and Tandi’s Kraals during the ensuing month.
Inadvertently, the Mashona Rebellion had significant impact on the re-formation of the police force in the territory, seriously depleted by Jameson’s raid, and following mounted infantry initiative during the first five months of the campaign, the entire initiative was placed in the hands of an almost newly recruited police force.
Alderson had been criticised because no ‘thorough punishment’ had been inflicted on the rebels, those responsible for brutal murders had not been arrested, nor had the rebel chiefs, except for Makoni, been deposed or brought to justice. On 1 October the Mashonaland and Matabeleland Mounted Police forces came under the auspices of the Rhodesian Mounted Police and a serious recruiting programme followed.
By the end of December establishments had been set and the force became known as the British South Africa Police. Lt. Colonel the Honourable FRWE de Moleyns, DSO took over from Alderson on 12 December.
Alderson left the territory on Christmas eve 1896 destined for Durban, with Carrington, leaving control of the police in the hands of Colonel Sir Richard Martin and the police force as the territory’s ‘first line of defence’. Strategy changed too.
The new offensive concentrated on the establishment of forts in those areas where rebellion still festered, rather than along principal communication routes. Fort Martin was established near Matshayangombi’s Kraal and Fort Harding was set up near Chikwakwa’s Kraal amongst others.
The tactic of using dynamite to blast cave fugitives into submission is increasingly evident. In January police elements raided Manyese’s Kraal, Sekki’s Kraal was overun and a Fort was established at Gondo’s Kraal, which was assaulted on 16 February. Chinamora and Makombi’s Kraals suffered similar fates on 1 March.
In early March there was an extraordinary expedition sent to the north east, into the Mtoko area, to establish ties with Chief Gurupila of a sub-tribe called the Budjga who were apparently in conflict their Shona neighbours. It was considered that Gurupila could join forces with the colonial forces and help with bringing the rebellion to a close.
Gurupila did in fact join forces with the expedition and provided some 500 men on the occasions, but the combined force was enveloped in a Shona offensive between the Inyagui and Nyadiri rivers and half Gurupila’s men deserted. The following day an unsuccessful attack by the force on Chief Shauangwe’s Kraal saw the sudden demise of Gurupila and the rest of his men deserted. Most of the expedition’s member fell victim to fever and eventually had to be rescued.
On 17 March Matshayangombi launched an attack on Fort Martin (in the Charge of Captain Nesbitt), but was beaten off after a fierce three hour battle. On 1 April Chief Umzililemi apparently surrendered in the Charter area, but at Svosve, in the same area, rebels attacked a patrol resulting in raids on several kraals that were relieved of their food supplies. A Fort was established at Lomagunda as the police influence spread. Kunzwi’s Kraal was attack on 19 June as was Mashanganika’s Kraal.
On 24 July there had been a decisive attack on Matshayangombi’s Kraal conducted by the police, ably assisted by the 7 Hussars troop, left in the country after Alderson’s departure. During this offensive the Chief was killed, although some sources indicate he may have escaped with Kaguvi and Mukwati who travelled to the Makoli Mountains, then Chipolilo and eventually sought refuge with Mbuya Nehanda, a powerful and influential female medium in the Mazoe Valley.
Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, as she was known, was considered to be the female incarnation of the oracle spirit Nyamhika Nehanda (daughter of Motota the first Monomatapa). Her role in the rebellion was significant, if not more so, than that of Mukwati and Kaguvi, ‘blooding her spear’ when she ordered the killing of Pollard, a Native Commissioner. He had been resented by her people for having thrashed Chief Chiweshe who had failed to report an outbreak of Rinderpest.
Chief Zvimba surrendered on 21 August as did Chief Mangwende, of Mrewa, on 2 September, he being the last significant Chief to succumb to the authorities during the rebellion. The spirit medium Kagubi also eventually surrendered to the Native Commissioner at Mazoe on 27 October 1897.
He had attempted to influence Mbuya Nehanda to surrender with him, but she refused. She was arrested before the year was out. What became of of Mukwati is uncertain, but there is reference to his having been murdered by the Shona during the latter course of the rebellion. Kaguvi’s arrest marked the end of the rebellion, and for his part he faced trial with his sister medium in 1898, both were sentenced to death by hanging. And so ended what the Shona regard as their first Chimurenga.
South Africa: 1900-02 – Second Boer War
Content required
East Africa: World War I
Content required
The BSA Police in World War II
The build-up of the Nazi regime in Germany and Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1938, despite the assurances given in the Treaty of Munich, were a major cause of concern, even in Southern Africa. In August 1939 there was a non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia, which included secret clauses for the division of Poland. No sooner signed and done, on 1 Sept 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. The British and French governments declared war.
The declaration of war had not come as a surprise. There was very much a feeling of expectancy and there had been much activity in Southern Rhodesia in anticipation of conflict. Emergency Regulations had been promulgated, and the BSA Police, in response, had conducted a mammoth secret intelligence exercise to establish the identity and whereabouts of all potential enemy aliens. There had also been a large exercise to check on enemy firearms holdings too. BSA Police Stations were each requested to maintain “Aliens Registers”. The force had also been busy recruiting a reserve force, in anticipation that regular members would serve out of the country. Aside from this, it was business as usual for the Southern Rhodesia Colony and the BSA Police.
At the outbreak of World War II on 3 September 1939, the BSA Police was immediately placed on official active service, as had happened in World War I, with all men being required to serve on any front within or beyond the borders of Southern Rhodesia. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), under the command of Captain Frederick Harrison (2323) and assisted by uniform branch troopers and Askari Platoon, straightaway rounded up 508 internees, as the war was declared. They were first held at the Salisbury Prison pending transfer to an internment camp. The operation took three days.
Shortly before the commencement of hostilities, Sir Godfrey Huggins had won a general election and his government was styled along with a wartime Cabinet. The Rhodesia Regiment and Regimental Reserve were summonsed to their Drill Halls as a general mobilisation took place.
BSA Police Commissioner, John Morris, had previously been appointed Commandant of all Southern Rhodesian Forces, but he reverted back to just police command 10 months after commencement of the war. Morris was appointed Inspector General, the only Rhodesian police officer ever to hold that rank. At this time the force had a ‘European’ strength of 529 men, 325 of whom were in the districts. One third of these men were committed to war service outside Southern Rhodesia.
The BSA Police was never called upon to fight as a unit, as it had done in World War I, yet directly and indirectly the Force made many sacrifices. Recruitment and training of new police recruits was terminated for the duration of the war and Depot became No. 1 Training Camp. Corps Orders carried a notice concerning discharges and leave. No discharges or leave would be granted unless by special grounds authorised by the Commissioner. The Commissioner was inundated with applications for discharge by men who wished to enlist. [1] Regimental Order 514/1940 required members of the force to desist from making such applications.
Some tried to leave, by desertion and by other means, but they were mostly recognised as serving BSA Police members and rejected. One such officer who fled north, hoping to enlist in Cairo, was arrested in Northern Rhodesia, and returned to face prosecution and imprisonment at the Training Depot. Another ploy was to get married within a then 10-year proscription period (since commencement of service), which carried the penalty of discharge, but that never worked, as some member found after serving time in Depot cells, they were not discharged!
Some men did manage to enlist overseas. Maurice Palmer (3892) and Charlton ‘Jamaica’ Harrison (3869) managed to escape the net and join up with South African Forces; seeing combat in North Africa. Henry ‘Harry’ Fagan (3700) joined the Royal Navy. All three men returned to Rhodesia after World War II and each was subject to Court Marshal, but given very light sentences due to the courageous war records. [2]
The police force was thus, somewhat ignominiously, deployed to protect vital installations, such as bridges, rather than deploying to a war arena as most men had wished. There was no better body of men ready for active service in Southern Rhodesia. Three bridges immediately drew attention as vital installations: Beit Bridge; the then recently opened Chirundu Bridge (opened on 24 May 1939 by Lady Lillian Beit, widow of Otto Beit); and the famous Victoria Falls Bridge, the latter of which, so intelligence at the time suggested, was a target of German nationals in South West Africa, according to Commissioner Basil Spurling.
In October and November 1939, shortly after the German capture of far off Warsaw, a number of serving members were seconded to the Southern Rhodesia Forces including the Nyasaland Force (One-col); the Victoria Falls Force (Two-col); the Permanent Staff Corps; the Southern Rhodesia Air Force; Internment Camp and Defence Headquarters. Captain A S Hickman was seconded to Staff of the Command, Southern Rhodesia Forces, while Lieutenant WHD Walker went to Staff of the Commander, Military Forces. [3]
Another duty allocated to the BSA Police was the establishment of enemy alien internment camps. Two camps were set up originally in Salisbury, by the police, who provided logistics and guards until such time that an Internment Camp Corps had been established. The BSA Police Askari Platoon remained on guard duties until re-assigned to the new Rhodesian African Rifles Regiment. Interestingly, the role of internment was by then governed by the 1929 Geneva Conventions rules requiring separation of race and nationality. One camp, referred to as No1. (General) Internment Camp was for Italians in the main, while No. 2 (Tanganika) Internment camp was for German nationals.[4] The camps become pretty much multi-national in the end.
Several military units had been established and much of their training, and that of the Internment Camp Corps, was undertaken by BSA Police instructors. Former Regimental Sergeant Major, Jock Douglas (1228) came out of retirement and was commissioned as Captain in the Southern Rhodesia Internment Camp Corps (SRICC). He later transferred as a Flight Lieutenant to the Rhodesia Air Askari Corps. [5] Some were initially housed at the police Training Depot. The No.1 Signal Company, comprising many Post Office men who had enlisted, the Light Battery and Mechanical Transport Company were formed at the police Depot or as it became known, No. 1 Training Camp. As an aside, one of the benefits of the association with the Signal Company was the introduction of Radio Communications to headquarter stations.
It was the exercise to seek, register and intern enemy aliens that gave rise to a police intelligence division to be established. For this purpose, a Security and Intelligence Bureau had been set up (under Criminal Investigation Department control) in Bulawayo. This came to be known as ‘XB’. This new branch had its work cut out for it, and added to its task was the monitoring of the Afrikaans community, a few of whom had belonged to the secret society Ossewabrandwag, an anti-British and pro-Nazi German organisation in South Africa. Five South African were interned! The Boer War resentment of the British was long lasting.
The Criminal Investigation Department investigated a number of security related crimes involving Afrikaners. One Sarel du Toit was disenfranchised for refusing to serve in the Imperial forces. The lady who ran the Macheke Hotel, Ann Walker, was prosecuted for her outspoken support of German rule. Another Afrikaner resident of Macheke, seemingly a little hotbed of discontent, was imprisoned for nine months for sedition, including the dissemination of printed German propaganda. There were others too, including a former Member of Parliament! [6]
Wartime brought yet further work for the CID. It had fallen upon them to operate a form of parole system for enemy aliens permitted to go back to work. The branch had also become responsible for tracking down military deserters and also internment camp escapees. They were also tasked with the duty of controlling manpower with Exit Permits, which one commentator suggested were the bane of their lives. There was no easing of crime during the war. Commissioner Morris reported high incident of murder during the war years.
The BSAP Regimental journal, The Outpost, contained many reports of former members enlisting, and thus the Force was to play a large indirect contribution to the war effort. Their previous ‘military’ service in the BSA Police was well recognised. One of the first published deaths in action was that of Anthony ‘Tony’ Booth (3325) who had served in the force between 1933 and 1939. After leaving the BSA Police he had joined the Air Force at Norton in the Hartley District. Booth, then a Pilot Officer with 235 Squadron, had been shot down on 25 May 1940, while rendering assistance to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and Royal Navy off Calais, France. [7]
The police played a role in the formation of the Rhodesian African Rifles, and in accordance with the Rhodesian Defence Force War Diary in June 1940, Major Francis Wane took command. He was previously a member of the force (593) and later an employee of the Native Department. Twenty-Nine European NCOs from the BSA Police were transferred or seconded and a good number of African police (mostly members of the Askari Platoon) were transferred to the Rifles regiment.
The BSA Police took on another roll when the Southern Rhodesia Military and Air Force Police were established in May 1940 being that of training these two units in police methods. Detachment of these military units were established in Salisbury, Bulawayo, Gwelo and Umtali. [8]
By December 1940, Italian forces in North Africa were routed by the British led by General Sir Archibald Wavell. His victory against the Italians was offset by his inability to beat the German Afrika Korps out of North Africa. Hundreds of Italians were brought into Southern Rhodesia following the downfall of Mussolini in East Africa placing pressure on the local government to establish camps in No. 3 Internment Camp – (Gatooma), No 4. Internment Camp – (Umvuma), and No. 5 Internment Camp – (Fort Victoria). Tanganyika off-loaded a large number of German nationals, mostly women and children, who ended up in Southern Rhodesia too.
The tragedy of war was to confound all when the requisitioned troop carrier SS Nova Scotia carrying both Italian prisoners of war Italian civilian internees from the Port of Massawa Eritrea was sunk by a German U-boat U-177 under the command of Robert Gysae along the Natal Coast. Gysae was ordered to abandon the survivors in the water. Reportedly 858 drowned in shark infested waters and 194 survivors were fished out of the water by a Portuguese frigate from Lourenço Marques.[9]
It was not only enemy aliens who were dribbling in, but also refugees from countries such as Poland, also mostly women and children. The refugees were set up in camps at Rusape and Marandellas. Everybody needed to be registered and catalogued. Nearly 700 German nationals were detained, but the bulk of the internees were Italian, some 3,800 of them spread between all of the camps in the end. Others included Iraqis, Saudi Arabians, 4 Britons and a French national. [10]
Police manpower was being placed at a premium and, stepping back a little, it was shortly before the war, in August 1939, that consideration had been given to a Police Reserve, at first drawn from ex members via the Regimental Association. Divisions of the Reserve had been established in Salisbury, Bulawayo, Umtali, Gwelo and Gatooma. Lesser units were formed in the smaller towns. For the duration of the war, Police Reserve strength was at 300 men.
Fears that Mozambique might fall into enemy hands during 1940, stimulated a little hysteria causing the rapid creation of a force of BSA Police members, assembled in Salisbury, under the command of William James (3085), who was in charge of the Askari Platoon at the time. Portugal was Britain’s longest standing ally. This force became known as “Three-col” and deployed to the Eastern border, based in Umtali at the Park River Training Camp under the command of Major Tute of the Southern Rhodesia Reconnaissance Unit. They were made ready to rush into Mozambique to protect lines of communication and oil reserves in Beira. The Three-col force never saw active service and it was later disbanded.
By early 1941 German and Italian troops had attacked Yugoslavia, Greece and the island of Crete. German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel led the axis powers back to North Africa. In March 1941, members of the force were permitted to volunteer for service beyond the borders of Southern Rhodesia, specifically to serve in Enemy Occupied Territories. The purpose of this has been to re-establish administration and civilian policing, devastated by the Axis forces. While more men were demanded, initially the force put together some 50 members on secondment for periods in excess of six months.
In July 1941 a contingent of European Police was sent for service in Abyssinia and Eritrea. This contingent comprised two officers, two NCOs and 48 men, including a few reservists who had been readied for their role. They were deployed in June 1941 sailing from Durban on 11 July destined eventually for Berbera, British Somaliland, in the Gulf of Aden. By this time Hitler had attacked Russia – in Operation Barbarossa. The BSA Police contingent landed first at Aden and were met by former member Andrew Pickup (2292), who was then Deputy Commander of the Aden Police, a part of the Colonial Police.
Also during the course of 1941 the Southern Rhodesia Woman’s Auxiliary Police Service (SRWAPS) had been formed, bringing great relief to the Force. The establishment of the reserve force was very much a prelude to the secondment of regular members for service outside Southern Rhodesia. With the aid of the men and women of the Reserve/Auxilliaries one of the Colony’s essential services – the maintenance of justice law and order was maintained.
The contingent sent to the Gulf of Aden was split and men were landed, initially, in Asmara, Eritrea (commanded by Captain Appleby) and Addis Ababa, Abyssinia, now Ethiopia (under the command of Assistant Superintendent Frost) in what were to be called the Enemy Occupied Territories Administration (EOTA). Another former member of the force popped up in Addis Ababa, being Lieutenant Forrest (James 3351) who had served until January 1935. One of the first casualties of the contingent was Trooper Edward O’Byrne (3682 died in service 7 August 1941, while en route to Addis Ababa from dysentery, aged 24). Those deployed assisted in the formation of police forces and gendarmeries.
A second contingent of 16 men left Rhodesia in September 1941. Former Central Intelligence Organisation chief, Ken Flower (3654) had been deployed to Somaliland, where he found the isolation to be worse than that of Gokwe! His nearest neighbour, Bernard Bulstrode (3096) was a mere 253 miles away, in Barao, which was the Headquarters of the Somali Camel Corps. Of the five Administrative Districts being policed in Somaliland, four were in the hands of BSA Police men – the other two being Captain Eric Halse (ex 3147), who by then was in the Northern Rhodesia Police, and then Trooper Arthur Lennard (3569).
Spencer Bamberger (3316) had joined the Rhodesia Regiment, and saw action with a Nigerian Regiment. He died on active service in Nairobi, Kenya on 4 January 1941. Ex-Trooper George Owen (3449) an Officer Cadet in the Coldstream Guards, was killed by an enemy action in the United Kingdom on 29 January 1941. Frank Holman (3408) an Umtali born lad, who served in the Force between 1934 and 1936, had joined the Royal Air Force. He was killed during aerial combat over Greece on 20 April 1941. Former Trooper John Bazeley (3248) of No 47 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve was killing on active service in Abyssinia in a flying accident on 27 November 1941. [11]
The Outpost of May 1942 carried to death notice of Frederick Linfield (formerly 3429) who was serving as a Lieutenant with the Royal Navy Reserve on board HMS Sotra – torpedoed by a German U-boat between Tobruk and Alexandria on 29 January 1942. This edition start reporting on former members taken prisoner of war, such as Cecil McCallum (2577) who had left the force and joined the Native Department.
Assistant Inspector Charles Mansfield (3877), another member of the BSA Police Contingent to the Gulf, aged 22, was killed during faction fighting 8th May 1942 in Abyssinia. Former Reginald Smail (2889) serving with the 4th Anti-Tank Battery, Royal Horse Artillery Regiment, was killed in action in the Western Desert on 25 May 1942. Another former member, Laurence Hyslop (3153), a Captain, who enlisted into the South African Army, the Transvaal Scottish fell in Libyan desert on 11 June 1942.
It is perhaps well known that 1942 was a decisive year for the Allies in North Africa. General Sir Harold Alexander had been briefed by Churchill who ordered the destruction of the German-Italian army commanded by Field-Marshall Rommel, along with its logistics in both Egypt and Libya. As soon as sufficient materiel had been accumulated, Alexander joined by General Bernard ‘Monty’ Montgomery, and on 23 October 1942 the Battle of El Alamein took place. Montgomery launched his attacked on the German-Italian army with a massive bombardment followed by an armoured attack.
In May 1943, British and American forces managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa, leading to their surrender. Trooper Charles Stride (3581), then Lieutenant in the Imperial Army, aged 30, who was killed in action in the Western Desert on 18 January 1943. In September 1943 the Outpost magazine began to record a Roll of Honour, first recording the death in action of Flying Officer Lawrence McNamara (formerly 3536), shot down over the Netherlands following a raid into Nienberg, Germany.
By 1944 the BSA Police released 138 men for service outside Southern Rhodesia. In June that year, the Allies launched an attack on Germany’s forces in Normandy, Western France during the now famous D-Day landings. Those members who had been detached from the Force and seconded to imperial military units served in many theatres of active service, principally Abyssinia, Somaliland, the Western Desert and Italy. Spurling discusses BSA Police presence in many countries including those not yet mentioned: Cyrenaica, Dodecanese Islands, The Aegean, Burma, Cyprus, Tripolitania, Aden, Palestine, India and Malaya.
Another former member of the force, Francis Stokes (3016) then serving as a Lieutenant with 144th (8th Bn. The East Lancashire) Regiment was killed in action in France on 23 August 1944, two days before the liberation of Paris. Trooper Derek Simpson (3817), seconded to the Tripolitania Civil Police Force, died on active service in Tripolitania on 12 November 1944.
For those policemen and women who continued to serve in their civilian rolls, there was a hard burden and painful duty that fell upon the police, that being to inform the wives and family of those who had fallen in action on some foreign battlefield. As one Outpost commentator put it, “it makes one feel proud of being British to see the way the news was received. A standing very straight. No indication of the shock of grief, and a courteous voice thanking us for being kind enough to carry out such a painful duty”. Many Rhodesians made this final call, serving King and country.
In April 1945, Berlin fell first to the Russians and Hitler’s successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, offered an unconditional surrender to the allies on 7 May 1945. The following day, victory in Europe was celebrated. The conflict had been long a bitter. Succeeding the war there was a demobilisation and many members of the force were repatriated to Southern Rhodesia.
During the conflict many of those who had served overseas had been commissioned. Three BSA Police members were awarded the Military Cross (MC): Captain John Elvy (3700), seconded to South African Forces – awarded with two bars [12], Hugh Ballard (3774) serving as an acting Major with the South Africa Forces [13], and Captain George Pitt (3539) with The King’s Royal Rifle Corps. [14] A number of former members received the same decoration, including William Blackburn (2646), and William Poles (2501).
In the following year, 1946, a flood of new recruits began, of men who had fought in the war bringing with it very great military experience, which perhaps went against the grain of intended de-militarisation (which Commissioner Morris had attempted to stimulate at the beginning of the war) of the force as later recommended in the Mundy Commission.
So many had wanted to serve during the conflict, yet had been frustrated by the need to remain in South Rhodesia. The value of the BSA Police in a military role had been recognised early, yet there was an empirical reason that they should remain in their civilian policing roles. Author J F Macdonald in his “War History of Southern Rhodesia” writes, “The war years made no sterner demands on anybody of men within the Colony than it did of the personnel of the British South Africa Police. No better material was available from which to draw leaders for the Colony’s military forces proceeding on active service. That a number should be released for this purpose was inevitable, but it was equally inevitable that each man spared to the army meant an increase of the burden to be borne by those members of the Force whom duty compelled to remain in the Colony.” Those who remained behind acquitted themselves well and much beyond the call of duty.
[1] Spurling, B G; “History of the British South Africa Police” unpublished; – Rhodes House Library, Oxford
[2] Crabtree, W ‘Bill’; “Came the Fourth Flag”; Scotforth Books, Lancaster
[3] Macdonald, J F “The War History of Southern Rhodesia”, Government of Southern Rhodesia, Salisbury
[4] Heritage of Zimbabwe – Publication No. 31 – 2012 Edkins, Coccia, Sternberg and Leon; “Some aspects of Internment in Southern Rhodesia in World War
[5] Support Unit Association, “The Black Boots”
[6] ibid
[7] Outpost editions, 1939
[8] Op. cit. Macdonald
[9] Op. cit. Heritage
[10] Ibid.
[11] Outpost editions, 1941
[12] The London Gazette, Publication date:17 April 1945, Supplement:37039, Page:2074
[13] The London Gazette, Publication date:2 October 1945, Supplement:37293 Page:4885
[14] The London Gazette, Publication date:18 September 1945, Supplement:37274, Page:4675
Rhodesian Bush War – “The Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle”
Rhodesia suffered an escalation of nationalist sentiment during the early 1960s which was eventually to pit Rhodesian security forces, including the BSA Police, against two guerrilla forces. This brief article attempts to identify the war from a policing perspective.
The British South Africa Police, which had been styled along the lines of a mounted infantry regiment before and since its inception. The force had struggled to drop its apparent military pretence, despite being a civilian police force. Old habits die hard and the BSA Police retained the modus operandi and rank structure of the military until well into the early 1950s, not too long after the Mundy Commission’s recommendation to drop military ranks. With the advent of a small scale war on their doorstep, many policemen took on military rolls and the force experienced its re-militarisation.
The first violence of the insurgency is attributed to Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union (ZANU) dissidents who ambushed and murdered an innocent Silverstreams Wattle Company employee, Pieter ‘Andrew’ Oberholzer, in the Chipinga area of the Eastern Highlands. This matter was investigated as a murder by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and two accused, Victor Mlambo and James Dhlamini were arrested and later convicted and sentenced to death.
Mlambo and Dhlamini’s execution, by hanging, in controversial circumstances, took place in March 1968, despite a reprieve by the Sovereign. A third accused, arrested later, Master Thresha, escaped the noose, being under aged. Another of the perpetrators, later glorified for this heinous crime, escaped arrest and, notably, later became a Senator in the Mugabe government.
The early 1960s saw the police actively pursuing the political will of government to clear the nationalist scourge. The National Democratic Party (NDP) and Zimbabwe African Peoples Union had been banned in quick succession. Passive resistance to ‘colonial rule’ was beginning to set in.
In 1964 ZANU made a firm commitment to armed struggle at its Congress in Gwelo, thus openly escalating the threat. The Rhodesian government reacted with promulgation of Law and Order Maintenance law amendments to curtail the activities of the nationalist movement, including detentions. In August 1964 a number of nationalist leaders were confined to detention centres.
It was about at this time the Dare ReChimurenga was formed and a number of prominent nationalists left the country to set up a liberation movement, operating from the recently independent Zambia (October 1964). The ZANU Zhanda campaign, bent on petty sabotage and dissention, had been in full motion by then and many incidents of petty sabotage and petrol bombings were occurring in Southern Rhodesia.
The BSA Police established two Sabotage Squads within the CID in response, and they functioned out of the two major cities, Salisbury and Bulawayo. These squads were dedicated to tackling political crimes and building up an intelligence network in support of their tasks. In some way, these CID squads were a predecessor to the Terrorists Desk. Special Branch (SB) had only just been formed and its various Desks were concentrating their efforts on political intelligence.
Four groups of twenty-four insurgents infiltrated from Zambia targeting the Feruka Refinery Pipeline and other non-strategic targets in April 1966. The security forces’ first engagement with these militants was near Sinoia (a small town in the Lomagundi district). This was initially a BSA Police and Royal Rhodesian Air Force (RRAF) deployment.
This first major engagement of the war is now celebrated by contemporary politicians as the commencement of the second chimurenga or rebellion (the first being the Mashona Rebellion). Seven terrorists were killed. Survivors of this defeat went on to murder innocent civilians on their farms near Hartley three weeks later.
In October 1966, an incident took place near Chirundu on the Zambesi River, as members of the elite Special Air Service were being deployed, resulting in an accidental explosion and the death of Superintendent John Wickenden (3990). One might suggest he was the first BSA Police casualty of the insurgency.
There followed a number of operations during the ensuing years in both northern Mashonaland and Matabeleland, the more significant being Operation Cauldron, and Operation Nickel among others. The operations had been highly successful resulting in 175 insurgents killed for the loss of 14 Security Force men, including members of the BSA Police. The first phase of the insurgency was crushed.
One of the first casualties of the counter-insurgency operations, killed in an action against terrorists, was Patrol Officer Spencer Thomas (7009), slain during an action on 23 August 1967 in the Tjolotjo District of western Rhodesia. He was a Matabeleland Dog Section dog handler on follow up operations when attacked by insurgents. His dog, Leon P/D 211, survived the incident and was found 40km from the contact site 5 weeks later.
On 21 December 1972 the now better organised, Chinese trained and equipped, Zimbabwe African Nationalist Liberation Army (ZANLA) perpetrated an attack on Altena Farm in Centenary district of Rhodesia. BSA Police SB intelligence had been reporting for some months on the change in attitudes and various pointers to the fact that new incursions were taking place, but were ignored, often in favour of Internal Affairs native department assessments.
The concept of joint operations had been established in the mid 1960s, but shortly after the Altena Farm attack, Operation Hurricane was established and a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) established at Mt Darwin. This combined the efforts of all security forces, including the police.
The supposed liberation forces had changed tactics to pursue a reign of terror against mostly civilian targets in rural Rhodesia, with white farmers taking the brunt of hit and run attacks, and blacks, who were perceived as collaborators, suffering often horrific brutalisation and usually callous murders to set up a framework of fear, which became a signature of the post-independence ruling party.
Insurgent forces abducted young men and women en masse from remote mission schools for external training and began to saturate the north east, developing a cell structure which demanded total obedience to the new order. A large movement of refugees into neighbouring territories became the source of terrorist recruitment.
The BSA Police escalated its intelligence initiatives in the north east with the deployment of Ground Coverage (GC) teams in some of the outlying areas of the Zambesi Valley. While this had been sound in peace time, as a grass roots intelligence system, the advent of terrorism in the north eastern rural areas was such that plain clothes policemen could not operate. Many GC men were exposed by villagers and murdered.
Special Branch manpower was diverted to counter-insurgency intelligence, but not at the expense of other intelligence gathering operations, especially that of the Nationalist Desk (from which, ultimately, the Terrorist Desk was created). Many officers spent time in the operational areas alternating between their normal tasks and the war.
Incidents occurring during the insurgency were treated as criminal matters, being mostly in contravention of the Law and Order Maintenance Act. Common law crimes were treated as such. Serious crime was the purview of the CID, and many of its officers were deployed to the operational areas in support of security forces. Criminal investigation work during an insurgency proved to be a sole destroying task, with enormously high volumes of crime versus little detection potential.
The BSA Police also sought to gear up its large reserve force, many of them farmers in the affected areas, who were not subject to military call-ups. Many of them, all volunteers, served in the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit (PATU) established in the 1960s. The unit was not a formal Branch of the BSA Police, but was served in by men from most Branches of the force. PATU suffered many war dead during the course of the war. By the end of the war, it is estimate that some 19,000 police reservists were serving in the force.
The Police Reserve Air Wing (PRAW), which had been formed as early as 1957, took on a more military role, involving itself in the operational areas with aerial surveillance, re-supply runs to remote bases, and in general support of ground forces when called upon. Some of its aircraft carried out offensive actions against insurgents.
The Support Unit of the BSA Police had experience a change from its mostly ceremonial duties to a fully-fledged regiment of black troops, and this unit expanded as the war escalated, being similar in size to other regular Security Force battalions by the end of hostilities. The notably unsung BSA Police Support Unit became a leading participant in defending the nation.
The Rhodesian (BSA Police) Special Branch had been instrumental in the formation of pseudo insurgency groups in about 1972, working with Army tracker units, and had operated with some success in the North East Operation Hurricane area. In November 1973 a special forces unit, styled the Selous Scouts, had been established, made up of hardened soldiers of all races from regular infantry, commando and special forces units (Special Air Service).
One of its many tactics was that of pseudo operations, and like a few other African insurgencies, captured terrorists were extensively debriefed by SB men and then turned against their own. The Special Branch enjoyed very strong ties with the Selous Scouts and intelligence men were deployed to all Selous Scouts forts as SB Liaison Officers.
Insurgents continued to operate from bases in Zambia and from Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) insurgent-controlled areas in Mozambique. In April 1974, Portuguese military coup, styled the Carnation Revolution, in Portugal saw to immediate collapse of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique.
By mid-1974 the BSA Police Support Unit was expanded significantly and its command enhanced and restructured. This coincided with the introduction of police National Service, many members of whom were deployed to the Support Unit. A good number of this new manpower was deployed to stations across the country and also deployed to CID, GC and SB.
In December 1974 a ceasefire had been announced following talks between the South African, Rhodesian and Zambia leadership in the hope of bringing about a Détente exercise. Not surprisingly, the insurgents never maintained the ceasefire, and on 23 December 1974, Herbert Shungu persuaded elements of the South African Police to attend surrender talks, which, somewhat naively, they did. The South Africans along with a couple of BSA Police Constables were ambushed on the Mazoe Bridge, in the Mtoko area, and six of them were killed. Constable Mutasa Mandaza (21666) escaped the scene and went missing in action. He was never found.
Many police officers were expected to perform beyond the call of duty and often did so in difficult and dangerous situations, frequently placing their lives in danger. The first award of the Police Cross for Conspicuous Gallantry (PCG) went to Constable Columbus Kamupaundi (21149) of the Support Unit, who, while injured during an ambush, beat of an attack by terrorists and then later ran through hostile territory in the Rusambo area to seek assistance for his wounded colleagues in February 1975.
Four other members of the force, operating in both Support Unit and PATU were recipients of the award. Twenty members of the force were recipients of the Police Decoration for Gallantry (PDG), most were war related.
The Portuguese coup opened the Mozambique frontier to a then well-established ZANLA force adding 1,300 kilometres of hostile border. By February and May of 1976 two new Rhodesian Operational areas and JOCs had been established in Umtali (Operation Thrasher) and Fort Victoria (Operation Repulse). The Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), had been steadily infiltrating insurgents in the western region of Rhodesia and by August 1976 Operation Tangent in Bulawayo had been formed.
ZANLA guerrilla forces continued to infiltrate armed men and women to take up occupation in most tribal trust lands, operating in groups of 6-8 men, each with a political commissar, preaching the Chinese Maoist doctrines of war. ZIPRA, predominantly Ndebele, on the other hand orientated toward the Soviet block and other sympathetic East European nations. They urbanised their terrorism, although were perhaps not as successfully as their Shona contemporaries (perhaps adversaries) in war. ZANLA commanded a battle order of 25,000 men and women by 1979, and by the same time ZIPRA were sporting approximately 20,000 combatants, many of the latter held in reserve for a conventional warfare phase.
In 1977 the Police Ground concept had been developed to allow the deployment of uniquely combined SB and GC teams to all Tribal Trust Lands suffering the scourge of insurgency, in an attempt to reconnect to the people and seek better intelligence. These teams were driven by personalities, some more successful than others. Newly formed Rhodesian Intelligence Corps elements joined these police team initiatives. Some say, Rhodesian Army intelligence inventiveness was simply too little, too late and the BSA Police had borne the burden of this critical task for the duration of the war.
Insurgents bombed a Woolworths department store in Salisbury on 6 August 1977, killing 11 and injuring 70. They were involved in many notorious incidents of mass murder in the Eastern Highlands at the time. In November 1977, in response to SB Reports suggesting the build-up of ZANLA guerrillas in Mozambique, Rhodesian forces launched Operation Dingo, against the Chimoio and Tembwe training camps in Mozambique. The escalation had been in anticipation of the launch of a more convention campaign of war.
Towards the latter part of 1977, ZANLA had yet again change tactics and commenced their final push in an attempt at more conventional warfare, particularly targeting the south eastern supply lines from South Africa, which continued to support the Rhodesians with materiel and munitions.
Many missionaries were killed in the fray, usually drawing international attention to the conflict and along with this sickening counter-claims of responsibility. On 7 February 1977 a massacre of seven Roman Catholic priests and nuns occurred at the St Pauls Mission, near Musami, in the Mrewa District. In June 1978 the depravity continued with ZANLA terrorists bludgeoned and bayonetted to death 12 British Missionaries at the Elim Pentecostal Mission in the Rhodesian Eastern Highlands. This incident had been particularly nauseating to civilized people; with four of the victims being children, one a three-week old baby.
In May 1978, 50 civilians were killed after curfew, in crossfire between insurgents and the Rhodesian military, in the Gutu Tribal Trust Land, when a police patrol stumbled across a ‘pungwe’, an indoctrination gathering. It is recorded as the greatest number of civilians killed in an engagement until then. Sadly, a BSA Police PATU unit had been involved in the incident.
ZIPRA terrorists notoriously brought down a civilian aircraft with a SAM-7 missile carrying 53 people on board on 3 September 1978, in the Urungwe Tribal Trust Lands. Miraculously, 18 survived the crash landing but 10 of them who remained with the downed aircraft, 6 of them women, were murdered by terrorists. Two off duty members of the BSA Police were killed in the incident. This was one of Rhodesia’s darkest day. Rhodesian Security forces responded with attacks on camps in neighbouring territories.
In December 1978, a ZANLA unit penetrated the outskirts of Salisbury and fired a volley of rockets and incendiary device rounds into the main oil storage depot. The storage tanks burned for five days, giving off a column of smoke that could be seen over 100km away. In 1979 ZANLA was committed to their final phase of the war, the Year of the People’s Storm (Gore reGukurahundi).
A second Viscount civilian aircraft was shot down by ZIPRA terrorists on 12 February 1979, killing all 59 passengers and crew aboard, one of them an off duty National Service policeman. Two weeks later Rhodesian Security force launched a retaliatory, deep probing, attack against terrorist camps as far afield as Angola.
Eventually, in 1979, the politicians from all sides were drawn to the negotiating table, following the mostly United States Henry Kissinger initiative, supported by Britain and South Africa to bring the conflict to an end. South Africa had done a nasty volte-face, abandoning and then throwing Rhodesia to the wolves. A ceasefire was declared as part of the outcome of the Lancaster House talks. The BSA Police was withdrawn from the operational areas, but civilian policing continued from police stations in the area.
The BSA Police had during the course of the war suffered 400 death casualties and untold numbers of policemen were injured during the conflict. The courage and determination of all men and women of the force during these turbulent times remains a very great tribute to the British South Africa Police.
Battle Honour
East Africa: 1915-18 – The Regiment was conferred with the honour “E.Africa 1915-18” by King George V on 4 May 1925 for the Regiment’s services in World War I. This was allowed as elements of the Regiment had fought in that conflict as a complete unit of battalion strength.
There is no evidence to show that an honour was bestowed on the Regiment for their services in other conflicts. No doubt they were earned, but the regulations of the time did not allow the force to have battle honour as they did not operate as a complete unit in that conflict.