Art Gallery - October 1998
Warwick Kutchen sent us a good collection of photographs. Here we see an armoured car unit going about their preparations to move out. The vehicles in question are South African manufactured
Eland 90's.
In this photo from Warwick Kutchen, soldiers of the Rhodesian African Rifles exercise their freedom of the city of Bulawayo.
Another of Warwick's photographs is this shot of a forward airfield. Alouette III gunships can be seen on the left hand side of the photograph. The weapon protruding from the gunship in the foreground is a swivel mounted Belgian MAG.
This photograph from Warwick Kutchen shows the countryside near Victoria Falls. The spray from the falls is clearly evident in the centre of the picture. The soldier in the middle of the group has a rifle grenade attached to his FN-FAL rifle.
Also one of Warwick's photographs is this fine shot of a soldier (barely visible) walking along a path through an indigenous tropical forest. The country has diverse natural vegetation. Most of the country is savanna, though areas of semi-desert and lush tropical forest are also found.
A former Rhodesian Light Infantry trooper sent us the following pictures of a Rhodesian attack on the guerrilla base at Chimoio in Mozambique. In this photograph, one can see the locally manufactured armoured personnel carriers that the Rhodesian army used. These were adapted from commercial trucks.
Above the group, is an Alouette III helicopter of the Rhodesian
Air Force.
In this photograph, we see a small group resting up during the operation against the base in Chimoio. The vehicle in the background is a Rhodesian manufactured armoured personnel carrier. Note the countryside in which the fighting took place. This made for heavy skirmishing and required great skill and precision in executing the attack. Photo courtesy of an "RLI Trooper".
Another Chimoio photograph. Part of the attack's rationale was to deny guerrillas the use of facilities. The Rhodesian attacking force thus torched or destroyed whatever facilities they found in insurgent base camps. Photo courtesy of an "RLI Trooper".
Sometimes, the soldier's duties were rewarded with moments of stunning natural splendour. In this photograph from Roy McIlwaine, the beauty of an African sunset is quite evident.
Another visually magnificent shot is this one snapped by Roy McIlwaine. Here a group of soldiers patrol literally at the edge of Lake Kariba. Soldiers patrolling in wild areas such as this would have had to keep a wary eye open for both wild animals and insurgents.
This photograph from Clive Hoy is of a group of Rhodesian African Rifles soldiers tending their camp fire. This photograph is from the early days of the war - the soldiers' rifles have not been painted over with the camouflage paint that was universally adopted as the war intensified.
Ingenuity was a Rhodesian trait. This fearsome home-made rope bridge appears to be part of an assault course. Its height above ground can be gauged from the Land Rover pickup on the track below the bridge. Photo courtesy of Basil Preston.
This photograph from Quentin Fourie is of a group of Rhodesian Light Infantry soldiers. Their flag motto reads "14 TP[troop] Poachers".
Another of Quentin Fourie's RLI shots; this is a group of soldiers posing around their bunker. Note the youth of the soldiers. The weapons displayed here are Belgian MAG's.
John van Zijl sent in this photograph. Bedford trucks were put to excellent use by the Rhodesian army. In later years, they were even lightly armoured and configured as mine protected troop carriers. The soldier depicted in the photo is dressed in typical bush wear of the period - camouflage shirt, cap, green PT shorts and veldskoens (suede casual shoes) with no socks!
This photograph from the Ian Dixon collection is of a group of Rhodesian African Rifles soldiers on the shooting range. Constant shooting range practice and never - ending training exercises honed the skills of the Rhodesian soldier.
This photograph from a
former Rhodesian Light Infantry trooper is an interesting shot of
a Rhodesian Air Force Augusta-Bell 205. A small number of these
machines were acquired in an ingenious sanctions-busting operation in the late 1970's.