Selous Scouts
The Selous Scouts (named after Frederick Selous , a companion of Cecil Rhodes ) were an elite unit of the Rhodesian Army and part of the Rhodesian Special Forces during the Rhodesian conflict . The unit was created in 1974 as the Tracker Combat Unit ( Tracker Combat Association ), but was renamed Selous Scouts after a short time.
history
Operations by the Selous Scouts were kept confidential. Selous scouts often lived and operated for months away from care and external guidance. Notoriety became known in missions in which the white relatives disguised themselves with make-up (nickname "Black is beautiful") and infiltrated terrorist camps under the leadership of the black Selous scouts in order to suddenly take up the fight. This way of fighting made the opponents - the organizations ZANU and ZAPU - insecure and led to the fact that trust among the insurgents dwindled and morale dropped dramatically.
An essential part of counter-insurgency operations is to win over opponents ("turn around"). The Selous Scouts also used this means.
assignment
The task of the unit was to collect reconnaissance results about the guerrilla units of the ZANU and ZAPU by means of long-distance reconnaissance and search for clues, and to carry out hunting and commando operations against them. The association fought in so-called branches (squads) of four to five soldiers . To camouflage the soldiers disguised as ZANU and ZAPU members. White relatives often posed as East German military advisers to the NVA .
After Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, members of the Selous Scouts carried out several bomb attacks on church facilities and clergy. Press comments in the media close to the Selous Scouts denounced the victims as communist atheists . The patterns of action followed the approach of the former OAS groups against national liberation movements in Africa: a disintegration of civil society, triggered by subversion and terrorism .
The political developments in Zimbabwe offered them no other field of activity and many of them found in neighboring South Africa on new tasks, for example, in the structures of the Civil Cooperation Bureau and 3 Reconnaissance Regiment of the SADF , which makes them in the border war between West Africa and Angola against the SWAPO used were.
The tasks of the Selous Scouts are summarized today as Counterinsurgency (COIN).
organization
The association temporarily consisted of 1,000 soldiers.
Recruitment and training
The Selous Scouts were recruited from all ethnic groups in the country. The officers were white (as were all soldiers in the beginning), some came from Great Britain and the USA .
The selection process was similar to that of the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS). A special focus of the training was on survival training in the savannah and without care. Much of the training was similar to the Rhodesian SAS, with a focus on covert operations against resistance groups.
Survival training, weapon training and ordnance training (especially on prey weapons and combat equipment), tracking, counter guerilla tactics , parachute jump (partly in the HALO ).
equipment
The standard weapon of the Selous Scouts was the FAL rifle 7.62 mm . Due to the way they operated, they also used Soviet-style captured weapons .
The unit wore the standard uniform of the Rhodesian army. As a "special feature", the relatives often only wore fragments of the standard uniform (shorts, cut sleeves, etc.).
Web links
- The Selous Scouts Home Page Unofficial site with lots of information and links
Individual evidence
- ^ Stan Winer, South African History Online: Ghosts of the past . on www.v1.sahistory.org.za (English)