Bruce Moore-King White Man Black War

Essentially, this book is largely responsible for my being drawn into interest in the Rhodesian war. The (extremely grubby) copy I still have, has, on its cover, the private bag number of the school I worked in Tsholotsho, Northern Matebeleland, Zimbabwe. This account of the war is by someone who can quite reasonably be described as a Zimbabwean, NOT a Rhodesian. If you are wanting to read one of the standard pro-Rhodesian accounts of the war, I would suggest looking at most of my other reviews. Most were written for a more receptive audience, although it would be interesting to see what Bruce Moore-King makes of the current situation in Zimbabwe - the Rhodesian war, nasty as it was, cannot be used by Mugabe and his acolytes to explain, let alone justify, the current mess in Zimbabwe. The Rhodesians may have laid the foundations for some of the early problems in Zimbabwe, but the current mess is all their own work. It should be remembered that Mugabe was perfectly happy to use remnants of the Rhodesian forces to suppress ZAPU dissent in 1981 - before he got the Fifth Brigade to do it for him. 

In his account of his wartime experiences, Moore-King swaps between accounts of the increasingly bloody struggle (combined with an awareness that the war cannot be won) and more recent interpretations.  He takes some of the standard quotes from Rhodesian government, "the things the Elders do not tell the young ones about" and discusses them somewhat disparagingly. That he had a wide experience of working with, being commanded by, or commanding, a wide variety of different units and nationalities in the Rhodesian struggle gives a degree of resonance to other accounts, which often tend to focus much more on a single unit. 

(Click on link for a downloadable 3D-EBOOK™ version of the book, with added extras - link will open a new window)