Figure 1: Ribbon chart of the orders, decorations and medals of Rhodesia. 14 JOMSA Table 1: Rhodesian awards. Between 1923 and 1965 Rhodesians were eligible for for gallantry (combat and non-combat), distinguished the full range of British decorations and medals. The military and civilian service, campaign service and long only medal awarded in this period that can be considered service in the various uniformed government services. “Rhodesian” per se was the Southern Rhodesian Service The Rhodesian honours system, listed in order of wear, Medal, issued to recognise war service by Rhodesians (of is shown in Table 1. all colors) during the period 1939-45. With UDI British awards fell into disuse, with the exception of the various The ribbons of Rhodesian orders, decorations and medals grades of the Order of St John. are shown at Figure 1. As a self-declared independent republic Rhodesia was It is worth digressing at this point to give some background faced with the need to create a system of medals and on the Rhodesian Security Forces (or RSF). While the awards to recognise bravery and service. Between Bush War was originally low key and low scale, by the 1969 and 1979 the Rhodesian government created 33 late 1970s Rhodesia was a nation in arms. Almost every separate decorations and medals. These included awards white male and a large number of females were actively Vol. 64, No. 3 (May-June 2013) 15 involved in the war as members of the various arms The Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) was a largely all- of the RSF. Similarly a large proportion of the African volunteer force (as opposed to the army, which relied population was involved in the war in regular, part time or heavily on national servicemen to keep it up to strength) auxiliary arms of the RSF. The RSF originally consisted which operated a mix of aircraft, including Hawker of three arms - the British South Africa Police (BSAP), Hunter and de Havilland Vampire jet fighters, English the Rhodesian Army and the Rhodesian Air Force. The Electric Canberra jet bombers, Douglas C-47 transports, BSAP was both a civil police force and a para-military Augusta Bell AB.205 and Alouett II and III helicopters, armed constabulary, fully involved in the prosecution and various training and counter-insurgency aircraft, of the war and with a number of specialist combat units organized into eight flying squadrons and a number of that were military in all but name. The Rhodesian Army support units. During the bush war, the RhAF, thrown was organised very much along British Army lines, with largely onto its own resources as a result of international various individual regiments and corps, each with its own sanctions, achieved incredible feats of aircraft availability badges and insignia; the units and corps of the Rhodesian and operational success, including several cross-border Army, arranged by date of seniority, were: raids into Mozambique and Zambia in which the Canberra bombers and Hawker Hunter fighters of the RhAF carried Rhodesian Staff Corps (1927) the war to the enemy in no uncertain terms. Rhodesia Regiment (1929) Rhodesian Corps of Engineers (1929) Later in the war the original elements of the RSF were Rhodesian African Rifles (1940) joined in the field by the Guard Force, the Field Vedettes Rhodesian Corps of Chaplains (1940) (formally of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Intaf) and Pfumo re established, had existed since 1925) Vanhu, the so-called “Spear of the Nation.” Rhodesian Armoured Car Regiment (1941) Rhodesian Artillery (1st Field Regiment) (1941) The Guard Force was a semi-static, paramilitary force Rhodesian Army Medical Corps (1941) largely staffed by Africans, which was charged with Rhodesian Army Service Corps (1941) establishing and defending protected villages as well Rhodesian Army Pay Corps (1954) as other security tasks. Well trained and organised, Rhodesian Army Education Corps (1955) reasonably well armed, and well led by former Rhodesian Rhodesian Corps of Signals (1959) (as Rhodesia Army officers and non-commissioned officers, the Guard and Nyasland Corps of Signals, became Force established a solid reputation for success in the anti- Rhodesian Corps of Signals in 1964) terrorist war and maintained high morale to the very end. Rhodesian Intelligence Corps (1960) Rhodesian Light Infantry (1961) The Field Vedettes of Intaf were the uniformed, armed Rhodesian Special Air Service (1961) (as C operational arm of the department responsible for the Squadron, became 1 (Rhodesian) SAS administration of the government’s “native affairs” Regiment in 1978) policies. Intaf Field Vedettes were multi-racial, fully Rhodesian Corps of Military Police (1964) integrated and later in the war included white national Selous Scouts (1971) servicemen with appropriate skills (including fluency in Rhodesian Defence Regiment (1973) at least one African language). Originally viewing itself Rhodesian Women’s Service (1975) as a non-combatant body, Intaf was forced to evolve into Grey’s Scouts (1976) was a horse-mounted a paramilitary force in self-defence against insurgents, regiment of the former Rhodesian army and who saw the vedettes as “soft targets.” is now a regiment in the Special Forces of Zimbabwe. The official title is now Zimbabwe Pfumo re Vanhu, the “Spear of the Nation,” was created Mounted Infantry, but the old title is still used in 1979 from “returned” former members of ZIPRA and unofficially. ZANLA. Thousands of disillusioned members of these 1 Psychological Operations Unit (1977). Planned forces returned to Rhodesia following the “internal operations to convey selected information and settlement” of 1979. Much against its will and better indicators to foreign audiences to influence judgement, the RSF incorporated these “ex-fighters” their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, into the RSF as “Security Force Auxiliaries.” With and ultimately the behavior of foreign rudimentary training and limited equipment, Pfumo re governments, organizations, groups, and Vanhu units were deployed on static security tasks in their individuals. former homelands. The least successful arm of the RSF, Pfumo re Vanhu suffered from poor discipline, inadequate 16 JOMSA.