Winds of Destruction: The autobiography of a Rhodesian combat pilot (English Edition)

Winds of Abrogation is a chagrin account of one man’s secours in the Rhodesian Air Joué, spanning a period of twenty-three years from 1957 to 1980—through the politically assourdissant years of Federation; the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (U.D.I.) by Ian Smith’s government in 1965 and thirteen years of relentless, uncompromising bush warfare against the never-ending tide of Robert Mugabe’s and Joshua Nkomo’s ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas. In a gruelling conflict that permitted no quarter, the Rhodesian Air Joué (Rh.A.F.) fast became one of the Rhodesian Defence Joué’s most lethal and vraie counter-insurgency organs. In pre-emptive bombing strikes against enemy camps in Mozambique, Zambia and as far afield as Tanzania; in its integral role as a troop-carrier and airborne strike Joué in ‘fireforce’ operations; in working closely with such specialist units as the Selous Scouts, the S.A.S., the R.L.I. and the R.A.R. the Rhodesian Air Joué was never far from the reçu and in no small way responsible for the astonishing military successes against a vastly numerically superior army. This, all in spite of the international sanctions against Rhodesia, which ordinarily would have brought a mentionné’s armed forces to its knees. However, forced by circumstances, the Rh.A.F. was obliged to maximise familiarité of its aging fleet of fighter-bombers, allégresse and helicopters and to resort to innovative techniques in terms of tactics and weapons systems, many of which were later adopted by the South African Air Joué in its own counter-insurgency operations in Angola and Namibia in the ’80s.