The RLI was formed in February 1961 as a light infantry battalion made up exclusively of white recruits. After first seeing action in September 1961 on the Northern Rhodesian border with Katanga, it relocated to Cranborne Barracks, Salisbury the following year and remained there as part of the Southern Rhodesian Army after the Federation dissolved on 31 December 1963. Violent political intimidation of black Rhodesians by two rival communist revolutionary parties, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), necessitated a specially trained counter-insurgency unit, and the RLI was accordingly reformed into a commando regiment during 1964 and 1965 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Walls.
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| - History of the Rhodesian Light Infantry (1961–72)
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| - The RLI was formed in February 1961 as a light infantry battalion made up exclusively of white recruits. After first seeing action in September 1961 on the Northern Rhodesian border with Katanga, it relocated to Cranborne Barracks, Salisbury the following year and remained there as part of the Southern Rhodesian Army after the Federation dissolved on 31 December 1963. Violent political intimidation of black Rhodesians by two rival communist revolutionary parties, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), necessitated a specially trained counter-insurgency unit, and the RLI was accordingly reformed into a commando regiment during 1964 and 1965 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Walls.
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| - Further talks between the two took place in October 1968, aboard HMS Fearless, seen in 1996 off North Carolina.
- Ian Smith and Harold Wilson , pictured outside 10 Downing Street in October 1965, during independence negotiations
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| - A black-and-white photograph of two middle-aged men in dark-coloured suits, looking towards the viewer. The man on the left is tall, thin and dark-haired, and smiles widely. The man on the right is shorter, more stocky and grey-haired. He wears a neutral expression.
- An impressive modern frigate, viewed from a high vantage point, white in colour.
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| - HMS Fearless off North Carolina 1996.JPEG
- Smith et Wilson.jpg
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| - --12-04
- --01-22
- (Lieutenant-Colonel A. N. O. MacIntyre recounts the decision to include two batmen as "terrorists" in a simulated contact at Glamis Stadium)
- (Corporal Dennis Croukamp voices his admiration for Lieutenant Jerry Strong)
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| - Lieutenant Strong was one of the very many officers I would have followed to the end of the earth and back.
- We were in rehearsal and 2 Commando were to re-enact a contact ... into my office came Lovemore and Langton. Lovemore was clearly unhappy and I invited him to speak. 'Bwana, it is crazy to have 2 Commando do a contact and have Lou Hallamore painted black as the terrorist.' I waited. 'Bwana, Langton and me will be the terrorists.' I still waited. 'Bwana, have you ever seen Langton dying?' Pause. 'Okay, Langton. Die for the Bwana.' With an ungodly screech this black Douglas Fairbanks leapt in the air and came down in a mass of flailing arms and legs from seven feet up on to the cement floor of my office where he moaned, twitched and gurgled into eventual silence. ... They were duly installed as two of the terrorists in 2 Commando's show.
- When we received the news of his [Brading's] death over the radio, we were stunned, especially the corporal in command of our ambush. They had joined the army together and were good buddies. ... Then there was movement in the thick bush to our front and our corporal snapped: 'This cunt's mine!' We all understood where he was coming from as the terrorist walked straight toward us. He was so close we could smell him. The corporal fired a single shot and the guy slumped to the ground and was no more. The corporal then approached the body and pumped what was left of his magazine into the lifeless body. At the end of it he just broke down and sobbed. ... We had a lot to learn about war.
- We came into the Admiral's day-cabin to find Mr Wilson in an absolute fury. I have never before seen a man indicating such vicious malevolence as this man did at this moment. 'You will sign these documents! I will not have Britain humiliated! You will sign before you leave this ship!' he shouted.
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| - The RLI was formed in February 1961 as a light infantry battalion made up exclusively of white recruits. After first seeing action in September 1961 on the Northern Rhodesian border with Katanga, it relocated to Cranborne Barracks, Salisbury the following year and remained there as part of the Southern Rhodesian Army after the Federation dissolved on 31 December 1963. Violent political intimidation of black Rhodesians by two rival communist revolutionary parties, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), necessitated a specially trained counter-insurgency unit, and the RLI was accordingly reformed into a commando regiment during 1964 and 1965 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Walls. Following Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain on 11 November 1965, the RLI became widely known for its counter-insurgency operations during the Rhodesian Bush War against incursions by ZAPU and ZANU's respective military wings, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The Regiment acquitted itself well in several such operations, with some of its soldiers winning decorations for their actions. Some operations, such as Operations Flotilla and Excess in 1968, involved cooperation with the Portuguese Armed Forces in Mozambique. The nationalist incursions became fewer and further between after the two guerrilla armies suffered repeated setbacks against the security forces during the late 1960s, with many attacks being countered by the RLI. The capture by the RLI of Phinias Majuru, the ZIPRA Director of Operations, in January 1970 caused a cessation for six years of major operations by ZIPRA, which had been the more active guerrilla army up to that point. The Rhodesian Light Infantry's performance during this early period of the Bush War is generally considered to have been of a very high standard, with historian Alexandre Binda pointing to Operation Cauldron (1968) in particular as having contributed to the Battalion's formidable "fighting character" and reputation as "outstanding and peerless anti-terrorist fighters". This opinion was shared by Platoon Warrant Officer Herod of the Rhodesian African Rifles, who was wounded during this operation while fighting alongside the RLI on 18 March 1968. "We of the RAR used to laugh at your soldiers," he said in hospital to a visiting RLI officer; "To us they looked like boys. But they showed us how to fight. They have the faces of boys, but they fight like lions."
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