"Uncle Ron"

Lt Colonel Ron Reid Daly

22 September 1928 – August 9 2010

CLM DMM MBE

As mentioned in a previous Blog not many men get to set up a army unit, much less an irregular one that had such a huge impact in such a short time. The Selous scouts were either loved or loathed, I guess it all depended on what side of the rifle you where on.

There are probably 2 units perhaps 3 that became the continents and perhaps even the world’s  best pseudo operators  and the very name of the unit/s struck fear into the hearts of the men that they fought against. The Selous Scouts or “Skuzapo” as they were known to their enemies  that they killed so effectively, was one of those units.

The word Skuzapo translates into “excuse me here” or “excuse me for what I have just done”. Skuz is a corruption from the English “excuse me” and Apo is a Shona word for “here” 

Formed in 1973 by Ron Reid – Daly,  this unit would in a short time write its name in the records of military history  and were responsible for 68% of guerrilla causalities within Rhodesian borders during the civil war that was in no means “civil”. The Scouts began as a small unit of trackers but turned into a pseudo unit  and consisted of intelligence experts of the BSAP, men from the Rhodesian military as well as turned terrorists from humble beginnings the Scouts when disbanded  was a 1400 strong.

The Selous Scouts who ceased to exist after Robert Mugabe won the election on March 4 1980 were to earn 1 Grand Cross of Valour, 9 Silver Crosses, and 22 Bronze Crosses as well as numerous other innumerable awards for valour and gallantry.

Lieutenant Colonel Ronald "Ron" Francis Reid-Daly as already mentioned founded and commanded the elite Selous Scouts special forces unit that fought during the Rhodesian war was Born September 22, 1928 in Salisbury , Southern Rhodesia.

While Reid – Daly was a Born Warrior he had no intention of becoming a soldier and was only through peer pressure from his team mates with whom he played rugby that he signed up to join the newly formed all Rhodesian C Squadron Special Air Services  (Malayan Scouts) it was here that he was exposed to the British Armies developing counter-insurgency as well as Pseudo operations.

In 1955 after his tour of duty in Malaya, he was posted to the School of Infantry in Gwelo as an instructor. It was only in 1961 that he left and became the first RSM of 1^st Battalion the  Rhodesia’s crack Commando unit the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI). This unit became the vanguard of Rhodesia’s counter-insurgency operations in the Zambezi valley from the mid 60’s till the end of the war.

Having worked his way through the ranks, in 1973 Captain Reid-Daly, RSM of the RLI retired and looked to start a life in Civvy street, this however was not to be his destiny and late in 1973 he was summoned to the offices of Rhodesian Army Commander, General Peter Walls commissioned, given the rank of Captain and was asked to form the Selous Scouts to counter the increased threat of nationalist guerrillas. 

Drawing on his Malayan experience, Reid-Daly built a skilled and highly professional regiment from scratch. Although the Selous Scouts achieved many of their military objectives, their unorthodox methods created tensions within the military hierarchy. Reid-Daly had several brushes with the Rhodesian authorities.

During the early days of setting up the Scouts Reid – Daly paid a visit to Vila Pery in Mozambique to study the methods and tactics of the Flecha’s (the Portuguese pseudo unit) that was under the command of Captain Alvaro Alves Cardoso. in the book Pamwe Chete it incorrectly names Oscar Cardoso as the man he met in Mozambique. Reid -  Daly was impressed with their methods and took some of what he saw back to Bindura. (more info about the Portuguese Flecha’s can be read in the Blog on this site called Major Alvaro Manuel Alves Cardoso.)   

          

In 1979 Lt Colonel Reid-Daly resigned his commission, due to a ridiculous and unsavory court martial, In 1979 rumours surfaced in Salisbury that the Scouts were poaching ivory along the  Zambezi valley. These allegations were never proved, and the colonel, as a well-known conservationist, dismissed the allegations as ridiculous. In the process of defending himself against them, Reid-Daly verbally attacked Major General John Hickman. For this he was charged with insubordination and sentenced to a reprimand. Disgusted, he resigned as the commander of the Scouts in August but continued to fight a legal battle against the judgement, proclaiming his innocence even after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and stopped doing so only after he moved to South Africa.

The Scouts next OC was Lt Colonel Pat Armstrong and after the surprise election victory of “mad Mugabe” he had a meeting with Mugabe who seemed surprised but happy that a good number (especially the black troops) wanted to stay and serve under the new government.

Many officers and NCO’s of the unit had however decided to move to SA and join the South African Special Forces. It became obvious that the Selous Scouts would not be able to exist in its present form and name so the unit changed from its Selous Scout colours to those of previous parent regiments, mainly RLI, SAS, RAR, etc. a farewell parade was never held so the Selous Scouts were never officially disbanded it just ceased to exist in the name and the reason it had been formed in 1973.

The units name was changed to 4 Bn (Holding unit) RAR and was commanded by Colonel Brian Robinson and under his command performed so well to become the cornerstone of the Zimbabwe National Army parachute Battalion.     

After moving to South Africa Reid - Daly became involved with a security company and wrote the book Selous Scouts Top Secret war as told to peter Stiff. It was the very first book that I read on African military conflicts and I read it from cover to cover, this started my fascination with military/political history and the reason that today I collect books on the subject.

In the early 1980's he did accept what he thought was solely a military appointment in the Transkei the job was to reorganize the Transkei Defence Force, Transkei was the first of the South African "homelands" to be granted "full independence" by the then South African government. He was put in charge of the Transkei army and was joined by other former Selous Scouts to give basic military training.

In fact, the state's rulers, Kaiser Matanzima and his brother George, saw the presence of the Selous Scouts as a deterrent to the numerous others plotting to dethrone them. In 1987 the Matanzima brothers were overthrown in a bloodless coup by Major-General Bantu Holomisa, ironically one of the officers trained by the Selous Scouts. Reid-Daly and a number of ex Scouts were forced to quit the Transkei. He returned to Gauteng and continued in the security industry. It was here that he was attacked in his driveway by hijackers he fought of the attack but was wounded in the attack. He wrote written a book called “Staying Alive – a Southern Africa survival handbook” and it’s something of a collector’s item today 

He decided it was finally time to hang up his boots and he retired to Simon's Town, near Cape Town, to indulge in his hobbies of reading military history and watching rugby. He also published a book called Pamwe Chete and updated version of the Selous Scouts He died  of cancer  after being in a coma for 3 days on  August 9. His wife, Jean, predeceased him, and he is survived by a son and a daughter. A memorial service was held in Cape Town on 20 August to honour and say farewell to ‘Uncle Ron’. There was an incredible turnout of Selous Scout members to say cheers to their old commander. 

‘uncle” Ron had instructed Tom Thomas the Chairman of the Selous Scouts association that he wanted a small and simple funeral, as he put it “in somebody’s back garden”. The service was held at the Kelvin grove club in Cape Town and was attended by 350 people from all part s of SA as well as many overseas guests. In accordance to his wishes his berets of the 3 units he had served (RLI, SAS and the Selous Scouts) were displayed in front of a large banner of the Selous Scouts Standard.

While the occasion was a sad one a selection of Selous Scouts regimental songs were sung and included funeral songs that were sung at funerals of Selous Scouts soldiers. And in accordance with military tradition, the ceremony was followed by a well attended wake.     

Sources

The Rhodesian light infantry regimental association

Wikipedia

www.telegraph.co.uk

selousscouts.tripod.com

Selous Scouts - The Men Speak - Jonathan Pittaway 

Pamwe Chete - Lt Colonel Ron Reid - Daly

Selous Scouts  - Top Secret War - Lt Colonel Ron Reid  - Daly 

Orde Wingate

Crazy Orde

DSO and two Bars

In my last Blog  about Colonel Jan Breytenbach, I mentioned that Major General Orde Wingate had  founded the “Chindits” (airborne deep-penetration troops trained to work behind enemy lines in the Far East campaigns against the Japanese during World War II.)  I  decided I would look into his life, and it would seem that he was involved in setting up at least two other irregular units. Orde Wingate or Crazy Orde as he was sometimes called was a Born Warrior, a Soldier in the Shadows, so I decided to do a little piece on him for the Blog……………………Enjoy.

Born in India 26 February 1903  in Naini Ta near Almora in Kumaon India to an Army Officer and a very religious mom “praise the lord and pass the ammunition”. Wingate spent most of his childhood in England where he received a very religious upbringing. It was not uncommon for him to be subjected to long days of reading and memorizing the  Old Testament and he was also subjected, by his father, to a harsh and Spartan regimen. He and his siblings were kept away from outside influences and until he was 12 years old he hardly mixed with other children.

In 1916, his family having moved to  Goldaming, Orde attended Charterhouse school as a day boy. Because he did not board at the school and took no part in sports, he became increasingly isolated, so that he missed out on many of the aspects of a public school education of the period. At home lazing about and idling were forbidden, and the children were always given challenging objectives to encourage independent thought, initiative and self-reliance.

After four years Wingate left Charterhouse and in 1921 he was accepted into the  Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, the Royal Artillery’s officers training school to become a artillery officer. Being neither an outgoing man or a good student, he barely managed to graduate from the academy as a junior officer.. In 1923 Orde received his gunnery officers commission in 1923 and was posted to the 5^th Medium Brigade  at larkhill on Salisbury Plain. It was here that he was able to exercise his passion and interest in both horse riding and fox hunting and due to his reputation for being able to find suitable crossings of rivers while hunting foxes he earned the nickname “Otter”

Due to his riding skills he was posted to the Military School of Equitation and excelled, much to the disappointment of the majority of Cavalry officers who found him insufferable as he frequently challenged the instructors, something they were not accustomed to.

Orde wanted to get posted overseas and he was persuaded by his cousin, Sir Reginald Wingate to study Arabic, the reason was that Sir Reginald was the Commander of all British forces in Anglo – Egyptian Sudan. Orde managed to swing a trandfer to the Sudan where he was given command of a company of Sudanese irregulars and his duties it would see was to arrest Ethiopian smugglers, slavers and poachers.

Orde was a serious individual and prone to bouts of depression, between these bouts he would go out into the  desert and learn to navigate the desolate landscape by using either a compass or the stars. He also learned how best to set up ambushes in the desert and this skill assisted him to capture many criminals. Once Orde took a leave of absence to investigate the lost army of Cambyses and  to try and find a lost Oasis of Zerzuza in the Libyan desert, the expedition was not successful but Orde Learned some harsh lessons about survival in an extremely hostile environment and used the expedition to test both his endurance as well as his organisational skills.

On his return to the UK in 1933, Wingate was posted to Bulford on Salisbury plain and was heavily involved in retraining, as British artillery units were being mechanised. On the sea journey home from Egypt he met Lorna Moncrieff Patterson, who was 16 years old and travelling with her mother. They were married two years later, on 24 January 1935.     

 

In 1936 he was assigned to the British Mandate of Palestine as a staff officer in the intelligence unit, Orde arrived as the Jewish state was being created as a separate state to Palestine, Orde saw this as a fullfilmrnt of a Christian prophecy and he immeadiatly put himself into a alliance with Jewish political leaders

Palestinian guerrillas had at the time of his arrival begun a campaign of attacks against both British mandate officials and Jewish communities, which were part of the Arab revolt of 1936 - 1939. Orde became politically involved with a number of Zionist leaders, and became an ardent Zionist, despite not being Jewish. He always returned to Kibbutz  En Harod — because he felt familiar with the biblical judge Gideon, who fought in this area, and used it himself as a military base.

He formulated the idea of raising small assault units of British-led Jewish commandos, armed with grenades and light infantry small arms, to combat the Arab revolt. Wingate took his idea personally to  Archibald Wavell, who was then the commander of British forces in Palestine. After Wavell gave his permission, Wingate convinced the Zionist Jewish Agency and the leadership of  Haganah, the Jewish armed group.

In June 1938 the new British commander, General Haining, gave his permission to create the  Special Night Squads, armed groups formed of British and Haganah volunteers. The Jewish Agency helped pay salaries and other costs of the Haganah personnel.

Wingate  not only  trained and  commanded the unit he also accompanied them on their patrols. The units frequently ambushed Arab saboteurs who attacked oil pipelines of the  Iraq petroleum company, raiding border villages the attackers had used as bases. In these raids Wingate's men sometimes imposed severe  collective punishments on the village inhabitants that were criticized by Zionist leaders as well as Wingate's British superiors.

Wingate disliked Arabs, once shouting at Hagana fighters after a June 1938 attack on a village on the border between Mandatory Palestine and Lebanon, "I think you are all totally ignorant in your Ramat Yochanan [the training base for the Hagana] since you do not even know the elementary use of bayonets when attacking dirty Arabs: how can you put your left foot in front?"  But the brutal tactics proved effective in quelling the uprising, and Wingate was awarded the DSO in 1938.

Orde’s deepening direct political involvement with the Zionist cause and an incident where he spoke publicly in favour of the formation of a Jewish state during his leave in Britain, caused his superiors in Palestine to remove him from command. He was so deeply associated with political causes in Palestine that his superiors considered him compromised as an intelligence officer in the country. He was promoting his own agenda rather than that of the army or the government. In May 1939, he was transferred back to Britain. Orde became a hero of the Yishuv (the Jewish Community), and was loved by leaders such as Zvi Brenner and Moshe Dayan who had trained under him, and who claimed that Wingate had "taught us everything we know."

It’s interesting to note that after the Second World War a number of men that Orde has trained and commanded in the Chindits would themselves be fighting against the Jewish men that had Orde had trained and fought with against the Palestinian guerrillas. They would form the Police Special squads and later they would conduct Pseupo - ops with the army against the Irgun, Lechi or Stern groups who were fighting against the British Mandate authority in Palestine      

On the outbreak of the Second World War Wingate was sent to Khartoum where he formed the Gideon Force  that included  kibbutz volunteers that he had trained in Palestine  and had been allowed to join him at his request (via General Archibald Wavell ). Orde organized raids against Italian units on the Abyssinian border. With only a few hundred men Wingate bluffed 12,000 Italians into surrender. Wingate then joined up with General William Platt and the Sudan Defence Force and on 4th May 1941 they entered Addis Ababa. Apparently Wingate had already predicted to one of his sisters that one day he would restore Haile Selassie to his Throne in Ethiopia. He also apparently told the same thing during their courtship to his future wife Lorna -- whom he married in 1936, the same year he was posted to Palestine.

By May 5th, 1941 after a series of engagements fought by mixed British, Palestinian, and native forces in Northern Ethiopia, Wingate mounted on a white charger was escorting Haile Selessie who, frazzled and weary, preferred riding in a Ford convertible into Addis Ababa six years after his discomfiture.

Now the events that led to Wingate's greatest fame and demise were about to unfold. First of all, it was in Ethiopia that Wingate had his first encounter with then Colonel, later Field Marshall, William Slim who had command of a small mechanized unit, which had suffered many reverses coming up from the South with a mixed group of Kenyans, British, and Indian Army units, which had also been badly mauled. Wingate's extraordinary success doubtlessly did not sit very well with these groups or these commanders. Once back in Cairo, Wingate's report of the Ethiopian Campaign (Wavell now having departed) was flatly rejected at GHQ and all those he recommended for DSO's denied. In turn, Wingate considered that his extraordinary success there entitled him, once more, to return to Palestine and raise an Army of Jewish Volunteers (this did eventually transpire, but much smaller and later than Wingate envisioned -- called, as everyone now knows, "the Jewish Brigade").

Then in despair, all his hopes having been dashed; on July 4th, 1941 Wingate did the unthinkable for a British Officer -- he tried to commit suicide, plunging a bayonet into his throat in his room at Shepheard's Hotel and only being saved from cutting both his carotid artery and jugular vein (he had stabbed himself from both sides -- he was later determined to have been suffering from severe cerebral malaria) by the involuntary tightening of his neck muscles. By September, he was on a Hospital ship on his way back to England which docked in his family's native Northern Scotland in mid-November.

After his recovery, Wingate was sent to Burma  in May 1942 where he formed 'Wingate's Raiders' - though they are better known as the Chindits, named after the Burmese word 'chinthe' meaning lions; after the lion statues that guarded the temples in Burma. Wingate arrived as a major but was quickly promoted to colonel.

The Chindits were to cause chaos to the Japanese behind their lines. They used classic hit-and-run tactics against the Japanese who up to 1942, had only really experienced military success. Now they had to fight an enemy they could not see. The Chindits were especially successful along the Irrawaddy River where they caused a great deal of damage to Japanese supply lines. The Chindits also sent information back to the Royal Air Force to assist their operations. This unit did a great deal to weaken the Japanese force that was in Burma and its work continued even after Orde Wingate was killed in a plane crash in April 1944.

In February 1943, Wingate and 3,000 Chindits entered Burma. Their task was to disrupt Japanese communications, attack outposts and destroy bridges. The operation was very costly and of the 2,000 who returned, 600 never recovered to be able to fight again. Wingate met Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt in August 1943 and explained his theory of Long Range Penetration. Churchill was impressed and agreed to expand the size of the Chindits and Wingate was promoted to major general and given six brigades (3rd Indian Division).

Roosevelt also decided to create a similar group led by the  American officer, Frank Merrill who where known as Merrill’s Marauders. Wingate returned to India in September 1943 and began to plan Operation Thursday. The plan was aimed at destroying Japanese communications from southern Burma to the those fighting General  Joseph Stilwell in the north and William Slim in Imphal and Kohima.

Operation Thursday was launched by Wingate in Burma on 5 March 1944. The Chindits established Broadway, a jungle clearing 200 miles behind Japanese lines. This included an airstrip that enabled supplies and reinforcements to be flown in and the wounded flown out. Over the next few months the Chindits destroyed Japanese roads, railways, bridges and convoys. Once again the Chindits suffered heavy losses. Orde Wingate was himself killed when his plane crashed into a hillside near Imphal during a storm on 14th March 1944

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The crash was so violent as to dig a pit eighteen feet into the ground. No identifications of the crew or passengers were possible and only the remains of Wingate's telltale sun helmet was found, which is why the whole crew with Wingate are buried in a mass grave at Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S.A.

Sources :

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

Wikipedia:

Soldiers in the Shadows  - William Weir

Selous Scouts (the men speak)  - Jonathan Pittaway