Bound for Africa by Douglas H. Hubbard

Author:Douglas H. Hubbard [Hubbard Jr., Douglas H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612514215
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

CHAPTER 5

The Other War

WHILE SUPPORT UNIT was gearing up for counterinsurgency operations, there was another secret, far more unconventional war under way in Rhodesia.

There had been rumors that the army was raising a special tracker unit that would have a high percentage of African members—and when eventually I heard that its European members would grow beards and blacken their faces, it became more obvious to me that what was being planned was something more than a tracking operation.

The Selous Scouts, as the regiment came to be known, was in its infancy during 1974—its new commanding officer reaching everywhere to find the uniquely qualified men that he needed. I first saw Major Ron Reid-Daly one day at Tomlinson Depot when he pulled up in a battered camouflage Land Rover, parking it next to the office wing that housed our commander, Assistant Commissioner Guy Houghton. A man of medium height with the erect carriage of a career soldier, Reid-Daly’s rows of decorations on his army camouflage denim order battle dress were illustrative of extended service. He was, I later came to learn, one of the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) contingent that served in the Malaya Emergency as a noncommissioned officer (NCO). Now, he was looking at what Guy Houghton might provide for his emerging regiment. I was curious that first day, but not curious enough to ask many questions. The world of special operations, after three years in Vietnam, was not a new concept, and I was not anxious to learn things that I didn’t need to know to do my job.

There would be more such visits, and over time selected African volunteers transferred from Support Unit to the Scouts. There were also a very few patrol officers who likewise moved across from the British South Africa Police (BSAP), passed a rigorous selection program, and put on the unique brown beret of the Selous Scouts.

I was also unaware that my friend Winston Hart was by that time an integral member of the Scouts in his Special Branch role. His early involvement in gathering intelligence about enemy activities both within Rhodesia and externally, made him a logical choice—but the organization had not gotten off to an easy start.

When the Altena Farm attacks had firmly focused attention on the emerging war in the northeast, a joint group of senior officers met at Mount Darwin to consider options for countering the threat of marauding terrorist gangs. During that meeting, it was pointed out that the British forces during the Kenya Mau Mau insurrection had successfully countered terrorist gangs by fielding “pseudos”—friendlies dressed and trained to act as though they were also insurgents. In Malaya, the British had again employed the technique against groups of Chinese terrorists operating in the jungle. Tactics called for the pseudo gang to find, befriend, then attack the enemy once they were able to do so.

The officers who met at the Joint Operations Center (JOC) Mount Darwin that day decided that the pseudo concept had merit, deserved further investigation and testing—and should be managed by Special Branch (SB).

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