Rhodesian Bush War Bibliography

This is my selected Rhodesian Bush War bibliography for my book Lessons From the Rhodesian Bush War. My favorite titles are bolded. Comments are below each entry, when I have something to say about them. My research focused mainly on how the war affected civilians, not so much on how it was fought by the soldiers. Unfortunately, a lot of the books out there (especially the popular ones) are all war stories from the RLI, SAS, and Selous Scouts, not so much the farmer. 

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A.J. Balaam, Bush War Operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and Beyond, 2013. https://amzn.to/406yLZF

Andrew James Balaam, Skuzapo: The Untold Story, 2024. https://amzn.to/4ku0zOK
Tony Ballinger, A Walk Against the Stream: A Rhodesian National Service Officer's Story of the Bush War, 2015. https://amzn.to/4nEhXmO

Jim Barker, Paradise Plundered: The Story of a Zimbabwean Farm, 2020. https://amzn.to/4lIqALe
Probably the singular best farmer’s account of defending a farm.

Timothy Bax, Three Sips of Gin: Dominating the Battlespace with Rhodesia’s Elite Selous Scouts, 2022. https://amzn.to/40a8Mk1

Peter Baxter, Rhodesia: A Complete History 1890-1980, 2018. https://amzn.to/4lgpmaa

Ngwabi Bhebe, The ZAPU AND ZANU Guerrilla Warfare and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, 1999

Ed Bird; Special Branch  War  – Slaughter  in  the  Rhodesian  Bush – Southern  Matabeleland  1976 – 1980, 2013 https://amzn.to/4kpkr5x

P. J. H. Petter-Bowyer, Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot, 2008. https://amzn.to/4nu2xRY
Excellent description of the Air Force and the modifications to weapons and aircraft.

Josiah Brownell, The Collapse of Rhodesia; Population, Demographics and the Politics of Race, 2011. https://amzn.to/3TpimM6

Gregory Michael Budd and Jake Harper-Ronald, Sunday Bloody Sunday: A Soldier's War in Northern Ireland, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Iraq, 2023. https://amzn.to/4lJkfzl

Graham Bursey, SILF: Book 3, 2015. https://amzn.to/4eGzUNp

David Caute, Under the Skin: The Death of White Rhodesia, 1983. https://amzn.to/3IbuBJV
If you are looking for a gritty almost chronological account of the attacks and the progress of the war, read this. It contains many stories of farm attacks as if you had the contemporary news reports.

Keith Chisnall, Watch My Tracer, 2018. https://amzn.to/4lqw4uE

J. K. Cilliers, Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia, 1985. https://amzn.to/4eCOPZb

Chris Cocks, Fire Force: A Trooper's War In The Rhodesian Light Infantry, 1988. https://amzn.to/3IgR1JK

Chris Cocks, Out of Action, 2008. (First published as Survival Course, 1999) https://amzn.to/3IgR2xi

Kerrin Cocks, Rhodesian Fire Force, 1966-80, 2015. https://amzn.to/4lF3gxV

John Cronin, The Bleed: A Memoir of Surviving Vietnam, Rhodesia, Beirut and London University's Graduate Program, 2012. https://amzn.to/4lGmIKL
Easily my favorite account of the RLI/Selous Scouts side of the war, with excellent graduate-level political analysis of the Bush War and counter insurgencies in general.

Glenn Lyndon Dodds, A Rhodesian Childhood Remembered, 2017. https://amzn.to/44iavpU

Henrik Ellert, The Rhodesian Front War: Counter-insurgency and Guerrilla War in  Rhodesia 1962-1980, 1989. https://amzn.to/4nCdQrl
 
Herik Ellert and Dennis Anderson, A Brutal State of Affairs: The Rise and Fall of Rhodesia, 2020. https://amzn.to/3TvhUMq
This is my favorite history of the war in general.

Ken Flower, Serving Secretly: Rhodesia's CIO Chief on Record, 1987. https://amzn.to/4lmL1xC

Alexandra Fuller, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, 2002. https://amzn.to/4kD8KZq
An adult’s memoir of being a little girl during the Bush War. It is heartbreaking and deceptively graphic in some spots, but accurately captures the civilian side of the war on rural farms.

Peter Godwin and Ian Hancock, Rhodesians Never Die: The Impact of the War and Political Change on White Rhodesia, c. 1970–1980, 1993. https://amzn.to/3IgtEzY
Another good account of the war in general by journalists, back when they still did journalism. Not quite a substitute for chronological reporting, but close.

Peter Godwin, Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa, 1996. https://amzn.to/44HfWhb
This capture’s a boy’s coming-of-age in Rhodesia up through his service with the BSAP in the war and to the days of Zimbabwe. Interestingly, he and his family knew the first victim of the war, which Godwin’s mother attended as the coroner.
 
Trevor Grundy and Bernard Miller, The Farmer at War, 1979. https://www.rhodesians.co/images/Farmer_at_War.pdf
More a pamphlet or magazine insert than a book, but this covers the impact to farmers and many of their practical preparations.

Peter Henderson, Rhodesian Catholic Peace and Justice Commission, Report on Activities: March 1977.

Thomas Angus Hogg, Concertina at the Dip Tank, 2025. https://amzn.to/44nNSAw

M. T. Howard, Black Soldiers in the Rhodesian Army: Colonialism, Professionalism, and Race, 2024. https://amzn.to/44Dsxlt

John Kimber, Rhodesian Terrorist War, 2019. https://amzn.to/3GzOxp8

Humphry Koch, Marandellas and Beyond: A Rhodesian Story, 2016. https://amzn.to/44GaLxP

Peter G. Locke and Peter D. F. Cooke, Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80, 1995.
This book covers basically all weapons and vehicles used in the war. It’s an excellent picture book. PDFs are available if you search for them.

Major Charles M. Lohman & Major Robert I. MacPherson, Rhodesia: Tactical Victory, Strategic Defeat, 1983. https://www.scribd.com/document/2546386/Rhodesia-Tactical-Victory-Srategic-Defeat

George Makonese Matuvi, The War As I Saw It: In Rhodesia, Now Zimbabwe, Through the Eyes of a Black Boy, 2023. https://amzn.to/3Ij5i8y
A very interesting and rare account of being a black African during the war. The native Africans were very much victims of the terrorists.

David Martin and Phyllis Johnson, The Struggle for Zimbabwe, 1981. https://amzn.to/4nIJrb2

Peter McLaughlin and Paul Moorcraft, The Rhodesian War: A Military History, 2008. https://amzn.to/4nJfOqa

Peter McLaughlin and Paul Moorcraft, The Rhodesian War: Fifty Years On, 2015. https://amzn.to/46tRdiD
Another good, excellent general history.

Charles D. Melson, Fighting for Time: Rhodesia’s Military and Zimbabwe’s Independence, 2021. https://amzn.to/3Gd2FEU

Martin Meredith, The Past is Another Country: Rhodesia 1890–1979, 1979. https://amzn.to/4llIL9U

Paul Moorcraft and Knox Chitiyo, Mugabe’s War Machine, 2011. https://amzn.to/4lHiank

Lindsay O’Brien PCG, Bandit Mentality: Hunting Insurgents in the Rhodesian Bush War, A Memoir, 2017. https://amzn.to/3TqWRKX

Lindsay O’Brien PCG, Sitting Target: Working in Rhodesia’s Bush War—A Memoir, 2019. https://amzn.to/4lLQVbu
A good account of what it was like to be on a farm during the war and just how exploitative the farmers could be.

Robin Palmer, Land and Racial Domination in Rhodesia, 1977. https://amzn.to/44xSrqv

Jim Parker, Assignment Selous Scouts, 2006. https://amzn.to/44CH8gM

James R. Peters, Dawn of Deliverance: A Novel, 2009. (Fictionalized semi-biographical account) https://amzn.to/4nEBH9N

Michael Raeburn, Black Fire! Accounts of the Guerilla War in Rhodesia, 1978. https://amzn.to/4nHWDgo

Ron Reid Daly and Peter Siff, Selous Scouts - Top Secret War, 1982. https://amzn.to/4kLK6pz

Peter Rische, Command—Shoot to Kill: Rhodesian Bush War Operator, 2018. https://amzn.to/4lGTWtr

Mike Rook, Farewell Rhodesia—Goodbye Zimbabwe: A Personal Account of Regime Change in Africa, 2018. https://amzn.to/406Wskq

Andy Ryan, Combat and Survival Secrets of the Rhodesian SAS (They Who Dared Book 8), 2021. https://amzn.to/3TpVJqV

Ian Smith, Bitter Harvest: The Great Betrayal and the Dreadful Aftermath, 2001. https://amzn.to/4lF4ol9
Not a bad read about the politics in general, but it’s a defense by Smith, not an account of how the war was fought.

Ivan Smith, Bush Pig – District Cop: Service with the British South Africa Police in the Rhodesian Conflict 1965–79, 2014. https://amzn.to/4nBnyu4

Barry Stranack, Demand A Brave Heart: A True Story, 2016. https://amzn.to/3IwUyn4

Kevin Thomas, Follow My Tracks: Combat Tracking & Pseudo Operations—Recollections, 2023. https://amzn.to/4eY6lY5

Paul J. Tompkins Jr. et al, Unconventional Warfare Case Study: The Rhodesian Insurgency and the Role of External Support: 1961-1979, 2024. https://amzn.to/45ZxI1f

Katja Uusihakala, Memory Meanders: Place, Home and Commemoration in an Ex-Rhodesian Diaspora Community, 2008.

Rod Wells, The Part-Time War: Recollections of the Terrorist War in Rhodesia, 2011. https://amzn.to/4lJlRsT
Wells didn’t do anything dramatic in the war, but his account explains the toll that the constant call-ups of reservists took on the individual and the economy.

(Wessels' books are very good accounts of the special forces and fighting in general)

Hannes Wessels, A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia, 2015. https://amzn.to/46vUhLa

Hannes Wessels and Andre Scheepers, We Dared to Win: The SAS in Rhodesia, 2018. https://amzn.to/4kw6DX4

Hannes Wessels, Men of War: The Fighting Few Who Took on the World, 2020. https://amzn.to/44iyWn4

Luise White, Unpopular Sovereignty: Rhodesian independence and African Decolonization, 2015. https://amzn.to/4lBl7qd

Luise White, Fighting and Writing: The Rhodesian Army at War and Postwar, 2021.
Tom Wigglesworth, Perhaps Tomorrow, 1980. https://archive.org/details/perhapstomorrow00wigg

David Young, Young and Bulletproof: Half a Lifetime of Service With the British South Africa Police (1962–1983), 2018. https://amzn.to/4lNtWwJ

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