The Planned Russian Invasion of Rhodesia
In 1979, Rhodesian intelligence sources reported that the Russians had held a high-level meeting in Lusaka, Zambia. While the Chinese sponsored Mugabe, the Russians were sponsoring Nkomo. Nkomo's army was known as: ZIPRA. The Russians wanted to knock Rhodesia down before the Chinese and so they planned 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 by Cuban, 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-out Ferret armoured cars which were constantly breaking down. The best weapon in their armoury were some South 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 with what 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. The Selous Scouts (an elite counter-terrorist unit) had built the "Pig" armoured car. It was based on a 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 was over!


The Pig

The Rhodesian SAS made their own modified version of the Pig. It had a very sharp nose which was intended 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 Army Engineers 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 to be mine-protected (which the Pig was not). The reason for basing it on the Pig was that Rhodesia had 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 the Rhodesian 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 by Rhodesia they nevertheless attempted to fight off the much more advanced Russians. The entire Rhodesian airforce had been moved to the east of the country and the pilots had devised a series of tactics to try to trap the much faster Russian aircraft. When the Russians sent the aircraft back 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). They were raced over fields and rolled to see if they were rugged enough. They were tested to see how well they could stand up to landmines. After some initial teething problems they passed with 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 intimidation to win that first election. Just as he is now using strong-arm tactics to win in 2002. A leopard never changes its spots - that's a saying we have here in Africa - and Mugabe is the same old lying cheat that he ever was. He never cared for democracy or voting except when he won. Watch out, the ANC in 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 bunch of whining losers. When the chips were down we fought for our survival and we were pretty ingenious, not to mention well-adapted to the conditions on the continent which is our home.

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