[3 Pics] The Secret history of southern Africa: The Russian-backed invasion of Rhodesia which failed...

[This is one of the old but important stories from the original AfricanCrisis website that I am converting on to the new site, in the new format. Jan]

The Planned Russian Invasion of Rhodesia
In 1979, Rhodesian intelligence sources reported that the Russians had held a high-level meetingin Lusaka, Zambia. While the Chinese sponsored Mugabe, the Russians were sponsoring Nkomo. Nkomo'sarmy was known as: ZIPRA. The Russians wanted to knock Rhodesia down before the Chinese and so theyplanned a conventional invasion of it. The Russians planned an invasion of Rhodesia with tanks,and armoured personnel carriers operating under an umbrella of MIG fighters piloted mainly byCuban, Russian and East German pilots.

Rhodesia was too weak to put up any real resistance to a fully-fledged armoured invasion. There were only a few T-34 and T-54 tanks they had captured in Mozambique and some old, worn-outFerret armoured cars which were constantly breaking down. The best weapon in their armoury were someSouth African Eland 90 armoured cars (carryina 90mm gun).

Rhodesia was not in a position to buy armour from anyone. While South Africa could provide them withwhat they needed they just did not have the foreign currency to spare to purchase the weapons they needed.

Various units of the Rhodesian army had been experimenting with building their own vehicles. TheSelous Scouts (an elite counter-terrorist unit) had built the "Pig" armoured car. It was based ona German armoured car design, the UR416. It should be noted that the Pigs had been built without authorisation from the Germans! They reckoned they would worry about such issues when the war wasover!


The Pig

The Rhodesian SAS made their own modified version of the Pig. It had a very sharp nose which wasintended to tear down the bush. It was humorously named "Hot Lips".


Hot Lips

The military planners decided to counter the planned Russian invasion using armoured personnel carriers which were mine-proofed. They wanted vehicles which were very mobile in the African bush.

The Rhodesian Armoured Car regiment personnel became involved in the project as the Rhodesian ArmyEngineers were working feverishly on a some sort of vehicle which could be produced with the materials on hand. It was decided to build a new vehicle based on the "Pig" design. But it had tobe mine-protected (which the Pig was not). The reason for basing it on the Pig was that Rhodesiahad acquired Mercedes Unimogs trucks. This was to be the basic chassis for most of the vehicles.

The Russians had recently had the gall to send Mig-25's into Rhodesian airspace to test theRhodesian reaction. These aircraft had taken off from a Russian aircraft carrier which had been cruising off the coast of Mozambique. In spite of the slow and outdated aircraft used byRhodesia they nevertheless attempted to fight off the much more advanced Russians. The entireRhodesian airforce had been moved to the east of the country and the pilots had devised a seriesof tactics to try to trap the much faster Russian aircraft. When the Russians sent the aircraftback a second time the outclassed Rhodesian airforce very nearly managed a successful interception.After that, the Russians never returned.


Mine Protected Combat Vehicle (MPCV)

Eventually the engineers produced the completed MPCV's (Mine Protected Combat Vehicles). Theywere raced over fields and rolled to see if they were rugged enough. They were tested to seehow well they could stand up to landmines. After some initial teething problems they passedwith flying colours.

They could carry ten men and a gunner. 138 of them were built.

The Russians never managed to invade, because the Rhodesian SAS launched a devastating series of attacks on neighbouring states. They blew up every bridge in sight and kept it that way! Thus the Russians never managed to pull off a conventional invasion of Rhodesia!

In the end we lost because we were cheated during the elections by Robert Mugabe who used intimidationto win that first election. Just as he is now using strong-arm tactics to win in 2002. A leopardnever changes its spots - that's a saying we have here in Africa - and Mugabe is the same old lyingcheat that he ever was. He never cared for democracy or voting except when he won. Watch out, the ANCin South Africa is the same...!

Much more could be said about our efforts to keep the Marxist liars off this continent. Let it be said that the White Tribe of Africa, in spite of our low numbers are not a bunchof whining losers. When the chips were down we fought for our survival and we were prettyingenious, not to mention well-adapted to the conditions on the continent which is our home.



Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of: Government by Deception

     

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Readers' Comments

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Date Posted: Tuesday 26-May-2009
Russia always supported only Nkomo and ZAPU.
Mugabe left ZAPU in 1963. Since when he was and still be backed only by Chinese.

Since 1960 Russia and China were mortal ennemies till the end of 1980s. There was an open Russian-Chinese war in 1969 (a border war over Amur river) and two undirect wars in Indo-China (Chinese invasion to Vietnam in 1979) and the fall of pro-Chinese Pol Pot in 1978 in Cambodge with the help of Vietnamese troops. Chinese lost in all three cases.

In Southern Rodesia Blacks backed by Russia and China were two separate forces and were ennemies of each other as well.

List
Russia

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Date Posted: Tuesday 26-May-2009
Please the Editor i usually follow your writings but on this particular article i have my doubts as the end reader.

The strategy behind this is not mentioned why the struggle went the way it did.
Mugabe was infect one of Dr Nkomo's right hand man as he was the ZIPRA secretary in charge;thing went wrong as arguments emanated between the high ranges of ZIPRA forces.Mugabe was then ousted from the training camps in Bostwana that's when he came up with ZANU PF.The Russians had a treaty with ZIPRA forces the only chance Mugabe had was to go with the Chines and that is why till today there are still in bed with Him.
With no training ground he then had to use Mozambique as his base but Mozambique was already at war,that's then his followers fighting a war that was not theirs in the first place and that is why till today there is a good relationship between Zim and Mozambique.
Mugabe's forces had barely received full military training and Mozambique already at War this made it difficult for his forces to up a heavy war.Where as the ZIPRA forces had good training from Botswana Tanzania and Rassia.However Dr Nkomo of the ZIPRA forces had it good with the armament and medication from Russia with that he was certain of victory in liberating Rhodesia from Imperial colonialism and the next worry was to then deal with the interests of the Russians in his country in terms of payback and that is how Russia got involved in this war.

Prince
Jhb
RSA