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During the period that I spent as the Personal Adjutant to Lieutenant General CA 'Pop' Fraser, the General Officer Commanding, Joint Combat Forces, SADF, I had the opportunity of meeting General Walls, the Commander of the Rhodesian Army on a number of occasions in Pretoria and Salisbury. My service in the Rhodesian Army was arranged with his authority.

The terms of service were that I should go as if I was a Rhodesian National Serviceman and as such I was committed to a minimum term of 11 months and would earn National Service pay. I was to start out as an officer cadet with an intake of National Servicemen and accept whatever rank I earned on that course for the balance of my service. I started in mid 1973 and returned some eighteen months later.

The period at the School of Infantry involved the normal stresses of officer training, beginning with PT, drill and small arms, and progressing to appreciations, orders, conventional warfare, counter insurgency and staff work.

After some five months of continuous activity, I passed out as a second lieutenant. Of the fourteen of us on the course, seven were commissioned, and of those seven, two were killed by terrorist activity over the following years.

My first posting was to a so-called 'independent' company headquartered at Kariba, under the command of Major Harry Harvey, of the SAS. My troops were white National Servicemen. The first few weeks were spent patrolling the escarpment and the Zambezi valley between Kariba and Chirundu, during which time we got to know our platoons and became used to long patrols. The area was a game paradise and we constantly encountered elephant, buffalo, rhino, hippos and numerous species of antelope while on patrol. However, our surroundings were due to change abruptly and we were deployed on our first tour of duty to the more active area in the North East of Rhodesia where the war had begun in earnest one year previously.

We were based at Mukumbura, on the border with Mozambique's Tete Province and were deployed inside Rhodesia but more often across the border in Mozambique where our adversaries were both Frelimo and ZANU. The six week tour of duty saw virtually our whole company involved in their first contacts with terrorists We emerged having inflicted casualties but having suffered none. Shortly after our return from the Mukumbura operation, I was transferred to the Rhodesian African Rifles, and became the platoon commander of various groups of black regular soldiers.

The RAR were professional soldiers. Many of the senior NCO's had been in the army for decades and some had seen service in the Malayan campaign. During the period with the RAR our forward battalion headquarters was Centenary, the area where the first terrorist attacks had taken place. From there we conducted operations in the surrounding tribal trust lands and white farming areas of Centenary, Mtepatepa and Mount Darwin.

On one occasion I was contacted by radio and told to walk to the nearest road, where I was picked up by a vehicle and taken to Mount Darwin. At the time Rhodesian television was compiling a documentary on the war and were interviewing various members of the armed forces. Because of my non-Rhodesian origin I was selected to appear. I was given a microphone and told by Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Derry McIntyre to tell the listeners who I was and where I had come from. I stuttered some incoherent remarks and duly appeared on Rhodesian TV for all of ten seconds. I can only assume that they were hard up for material. As it happened, that ten second snippet was included in a documentary that was later screened in South Africa at meetings of the Friends of Rhodesia Association, one of which I attended after my return from Rhodesia.

It is perhaps opportune to comment briefly on operations in general and one operation in particular. One of the few advantages we had over the enemy was the mobility and fire-power provided by air support which was used extensively and to good effect. The most memorable operation was a raid on a terrorist base in Mozambique involving Canberras which had taken off from Salisbury bombing the camp, followed immediately by a rocket attack from Hawker Hunters which had taken off from Gwelo, followed immediately by a helicopter born assault (that had taken off from Mukumbura) led by me. It was a thrilling experience to fly at tree top height across the flat basin of the Zambezi valley, seeing the flame, smoke and dust of the bombs, the Hunters diving at the camp area and leaping from the helicopters at the moment of touchdown not knowing what to expect.

During the period that I spent as the Personal Adjutant to Lieutenant General CA 'Pop' Fraser, the General Officer Commanding, Joint Combat Forces, SADF, I had the opportunity of meeting General Walls, the Commander of the Rhodesian Army on a number of occasions in Pretoria and Salisbury. My service in the Rhodesian Army was arranged with his authority.

The terms of service were that I should go as if I was a Rhodesian National Serviceman and as such I was committed to a minimum term of 11 months and would earn National Service pay. I was to start out as an officer cadet with an intake of National Servicemen and accept whatever rank I earned on that course for the balance of my service. I started in mid 1973 and returned some eighteen months later.

The period at the School of Infantry involved the normal stresses of officer training, beginning with PT, drill and small arms, and progressing to appreciations, orders, conventional warfare, counter insurgency and staff work.

After some five months of continuous activity, I passed out as a second lieutenant. Of the fourteen of us on the course, seven were commissioned, and of those seven, two were killed by terrorist activity over the following years.

My first posting was to a so-called 'independent' company headquartered at Kariba, under the command of Major Harry Harvey, of the SAS. My troops were white National Servicemen. The first few weeks were spent patrolling the escarpment and the Zambezi valley between Kariba and Chirundu, during which time we got to know our platoons and became used to long patrols. The area was a game paradise and we constantly encountered elephant, buffalo, rhino, hippos and numerous species of antelope while on patrol. However, our surroundings were due to change abruptly and we were deployed on our first tour of duty to the more active area in the North East of Rhodesia where the war had begun in earnest one year previously.

We were based at Mukumbura, on the border with Mozambique's Tete Province and were deployed inside Rhodesia but more often across the border in Mozambique where our adversaries were both Frelimo and ZANU. The six week tour of duty saw virtually our whole company involved in their first contacts with terrorists We emerged having inflicted casualties but having suffered none. Shortly after our return from the Mukumbura operation, I was transferred to the Rhodesian African Rifles, and became the platoon commander of various groups of black regular soldiers.

The RAR were professional soldiers. Many of the senior NCO's had been in the army for decades and some had seen service in the Malayan campaign. During the period with the RAR our forward battalion headquarters was Centenary, the area where the first terrorist attacks had taken place. From there we conducted operations in the surrounding tribal trust lands and white farming areas of Centenary, Mtepatepa and Mount Darwin.

On one occasion I was contacted by radio and told to walk to the nearest road, where I was picked up by a vehicle and taken to Mount Darwin. At the time Rhodesian television was compiling a documentary on the war and were interviewing various members of the armed forces. Because of my non-Rhodesian origin I was selected to appear. I was given a microphone and told by Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Derry McIntyre to tell the listeners who I was and where I had come from. I stuttered some incoherent remarks and duly appeared on Rhodesian TV for all of ten seconds. I can only assume that they were hard up for material. As it happened, that ten second snippet was included in a documentary that was later screened in South Africa at meetings of the Friends of Rhodesia Association, one of which I attended after my return from Rhodesia.

It is perhaps opportune to comment briefly on operations in general and one operation in particular. One of the few advantages we had over the enemy was the mobility and fire-power provided by air support which was used extensively and to good effect. The most memorable operation was a raid on a terrorist base in Mozambique involving Canberras which had taken off from Salisbury bombing the camp, followed immediately by a rocket attack from Hawker Hunters which had taken off from Gwelo, followed immediately by a helicopter born assault (that had taken off from Mukumbura) led by me. It was a thrilling experience to fly at tree top height across the flat basin of the Zambezi valley, seeing the flame, smoke and dust of the bombs, the Hunters diving at the camp area and leaping from the helicopters at the moment of touchdown not knowing what to expect.

As it happened, the camp had been vacated hurriedly moments before, because the bomb attack had been minimally off target, thus allowing the enemy to scatter into the bush, and we found ourselves entering a deserted camp that had held scores of terrorists until a few moments before our arrival. The operation yielded no casualties but considerable enemy supplies. Flying around in helicopters became a part of life, but this particular operation was the most interesting of its kind in which I was involved.

However, most operations were of a far more mundane nature. Contacts with the enemy were few and far between, mainly because they were indistinguishable from the local black population. Operations involved endless weeks of patrols, ambushes, cordons and long periods concealed in observation posts, much of it by night, interspersed occasionally with a brief contact. In comparison with the experiences of RLI veterans of the World Wars, who took part in momentous battles involving huge armies, our encounters with the enemy were very minor. Contacts were of short duration (sometimes less than seconds) and short range (often less than ten yards) but involved the same type of association with death, danger and suffering that has been the lot of soldiers since conflict began. At the end of 1974 I resolved to return home, having learned a great deal, in spite of an offer to remain in the Intelligence Section of the RAR.

Within a year of my return, hostilities began in South West Africa and in due course I was deployed there with the RLI for a three month tour of duty, where my Rhodesian experience proved invaluable to the conduct of operations in Ovamboland, Kaokoveld and Caprivi.

My association with the military lasted another fifteen years after my return from Rhodesia. However, I have missed the flexibility and the close cooperation between the army, police and air force that made serving in the Rhodesian forces so rewarding, and the camaraderie that resulted from serving with a small but highly professional army.

Editor's Note:
Murray Hofmeyr has had 25 years service with the Regiment and retired in 1990 with the rank of major. Apart from his period of service with the Regiment, including service on the Angolan border, he served as Personal Adjutant to Lt Gen Fraser. His service with the Rhodesian Forces followed this and his experiences make interesting reading. He was awarded the Rhodesian General Service Medal.

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