Commando News Edition 17 Dec2019

AFRICA’S COMMANDOS
1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry
1st February 1961 – 31st October 1980
Background
1st Battalion, Rhodesian Light
Infantry (1RLI), commonly The
Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI),
was a regiment formed in 1961 at Brady
Barracks (Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia)
as a light infantry unit within the army of
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasa -
land. Barely a year after its creation, it
was relocated to Cranborne Barracks
(Salisbury) where its headquarters The RLI Cap Badge
remained for the rest of its existence. The
Regiment became part of the Southern Rhodesian
Army when the Federation dissolved at the start of
1964 and later that year reformed into a commando
battalion — Rhodesia's equivalent of our 1st and 2nd
Commando Regiments.
After Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Inde -
pendence on 11 November 1965, the RLI became one
of the country's main counter-insurgency units during
the Rhodesian Bush War, which pitted the government
security forces against the rival guerrilla campaigns of
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA)
and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).
An all-white regiment, the RLI was made up wholly
of professional soldiers until 1973, when capable
conscripted national servicemen were first introduced.
Foreign volunteers from across the world, many
veterans of foreign conflicts, also joined and became a
key part of the Regiment. The RLI was nicknamed "The
Saints" or "The Incredibles", and regarded, through
astounding success with both internal Fire Force
Operations in Rhodesia and external pre-emptive
strikes against guerrillas based in Mozambique and
Zambia, as one of the world's foremost exponents of
counter-insurgency warfare.
So prominent were the airborne aspects of typical
RLI operations that the battalion became a parachute
regiment in 1976. The RLI served under the short-lived
government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, and the
interim British government that followed. After serving
under the new government of Zimbabwe for a brief
period, the unit was disbanded in October 1980.
The RLI's tactics and training contributed to
repeated successes in its counter-insurgency opera -
tions. "The advantage this gave them..." says United
States Army Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Grossman,
"...added up to nothing less than total tactical
superiority." Alexandre Binda writes that the RLI
"...earned for itself an enviable reputation as one of the
world's foremost anti-terrorist forces," while Major
Charles D. Melson, chief historian of the United States
Marine Corps, calls it "The Killing Machine".
The RLI Structure
Base Group
Battalion Headquarters (BHQ) was
called Base. Group, after Support Group
branched out from the original Head -
quarters Company.
Base Group imparted logistical,
opera tional and tactical support at the
Front, through specialised sub-units, and
organised administrative support (regi -
mental policing, training, store keeping,
record keeping and accounting, truck -
ing, catering, nursing, etc.) at the Rear. A sizable
portion of the administrative support was performed
by other military services stationed at Cranborne
Barracks for that purpose (mainly from 2 Brigade).
Commandos
The regiment was assembled into a Headquarters
and four company-sized units called Commandos:
One, Two, Three, Four and Support (each Commando
with ± 100 men). As a premise, a Commando could
have five troops, of which only four troops were
normally activated. However, with the arrival of Intake
150 (in May 1976) the Commandos were up to full
strength for the first and only time. Some of the
Commandos mustered five troops until the end of
1976; with the university students demobbing at the
end of 1976, the Commandos reverted to four troops
(in 2 Commando's case 9 Troop was deactivated). The
troops in each Commando relayed through Rest &
Relaxation (R&R) consistently one at a time; therefore,
the average fighting strength of a commando in bush
mode was just over 70 men. Depending on the
deployment and/or purpose, troops were divided into
a small headquarters and either two 'patrols' or three
“sections.” Support Commando had a history
dissimilar to all the other units and, for an era prior to
1976, was called Support Group.
Signals & Tracking Troop
Signals Troop and Tracking Troop were specialised
sub-units that interpolated into Support Group or Base
Group and worked with all the Commandos. Signals
Troop focused on front line communications in support
of Special Operations and airborne forces, but also
provided other essential services (exchange of
classified information, etc.) for the Battalion. A high
percentage of Signals Troop had served in one or more
Commandos before being selected and trained (inhouse)
as communicators. During the early planning
stages for proposed changes to Support Group, it was
accepted that Base Group was more suitable as the
48 COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 17 I 2019