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filipeamaral's review against another edition
4.0
This book gives a good overview of the conflict, focusing only on what is important and detailing the units and major actions. The authors' prose is delightful, making it hard to drop the book once you start reading it. For its size, Peter Abbott and Philip Botham did manage to put a lot of useful information on this 48 page MAA.
Unfortunately, as this book is from 1986, all photographs are Black&White. The authors did a decent job at presenting the Rhodesian badges and insignias, but missed the opportunity to add the famous badges of the RLI, the SAS and the Selous Scouts as insets on the plates.
Another problem is Peter Abbott's preference for showing walking out and cerimonial uniforms at the expense of combat uniforms, and the appearence of the plates do not reflect the actual appearence of the fighting men while "in the bush". The single biggest mistake of this book is to have only one plate of an RLI "Troupie", and using the Army Greens instead of the usual shorts with chest pouches and the typical field cap modelled after the French "Bigeard cap", with the Rhodesians using both locally manufactured and Portuguese ones. This fault is worsened by Abbott's choice to include a Zambian soldier in cerimonial dress; a plate that is very detached from the subject.
Another major blunder was to add Joshua N'Komo as a plate. Also, only two guerrillas are depicted, none using the almost universal "ChiCom" chest pouches, which is not depicted in any plate at all! The Selous Scout in plate C3 is unconvincing, as every picture about this unit shows heavily bearded men and they were nicknamed "Armpits" because of that, and the soldier depicted completely lacks facial hair. The regimental history of the Selous Scouts, as presented in this book, neglects the contribution of the Portuguese PIDE in its formation. Most plates are unarmed, and the SAS trooper is only depicted in his walking-out dress. The SAS and the RLI had to use AT guns in External Operations, so it would have been sensible to depict at least one AT operator. There is also a complete absence of Chinese advisors, that had a more important contribution to the war effort than the Zambian soldier in parade dress in plate F3. Also, Mugabe received North Korean advisors after the end of the war, and those advisors trained the Zimbabwe Army in its fight agains RENAMO (also neglected in the plates).
Overall, a very good primer, with a clear and very readable text, but disappointing in terms of color plates. A solid four stars.
Unfortunately, as this book is from 1986, all photographs are Black&White. The authors did a decent job at presenting the Rhodesian badges and insignias, but missed the opportunity to add the famous badges of the RLI, the SAS and the Selous Scouts as insets on the plates.
Another problem is Peter Abbott's preference for showing walking out and cerimonial uniforms at the expense of combat uniforms, and the appearence of the plates do not reflect the actual appearence of the fighting men while "in the bush". The single biggest mistake of this book is to have only one plate of an RLI "Troupie", and using the Army Greens instead of the usual shorts with chest pouches and the typical field cap modelled after the French "Bigeard cap", with the Rhodesians using both locally manufactured and Portuguese ones. This fault is worsened by Abbott's choice to include a Zambian soldier in cerimonial dress; a plate that is very detached from the subject.
Another major blunder was to add Joshua N'Komo as a plate. Also, only two guerrillas are depicted, none using the almost universal "ChiCom" chest pouches, which is not depicted in any plate at all! The Selous Scout in plate C3 is unconvincing, as every picture about this unit shows heavily bearded men and they were nicknamed "Armpits" because of that, and the soldier depicted completely lacks facial hair. The regimental history of the Selous Scouts, as presented in this book, neglects the contribution of the Portuguese PIDE in its formation. Most plates are unarmed, and the SAS trooper is only depicted in his walking-out dress. The SAS and the RLI had to use AT guns in External Operations, so it would have been sensible to depict at least one AT operator. There is also a complete absence of Chinese advisors, that had a more important contribution to the war effort than the Zambian soldier in parade dress in plate F3. Also, Mugabe received North Korean advisors after the end of the war, and those advisors trained the Zimbabwe Army in its fight agains RENAMO (also neglected in the plates).
Overall, a very good primer, with a clear and very readable text, but disappointing in terms of color plates. A solid four stars.