AHC: British military response to Rhodesia's UDI

[Mort the Reaper]

When Rhodesia gave its infamous unilateral declaration of independence (the first unilateral break from the UK since 1776), the British were understandably unhappy, and the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the move as an illegitimate attempt to preserve a racist regime. However, while the UN Committee on Independence urged military intervention from the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson's government decided an economic response was the better option.

Your challenge is to have the British go to war against Rhodesia over the UDI.

 

[Chris Nation]

Sure, easy enough, Wilson takes leave of his senses and forgets how tenuous his majority is. Sends Vulcan bombers over Salisbury. The Times runs a front page report on the carnage, and profiles a young widow of an ex-National Serviceman.

10-20 Labour MPs support a motion of no confidence. The resulting February 1966 general election produces a Tory majority on the Rhodesia question.

Newly inaugurated Defence Secretary Enoch Powell announces an end to the bombing campaign. Rhodesian independence on roughly Tiger terms in 1966.

As an added bonus, Britain is spared the worst excesses of socialism.

People forget that even economic boycott to the extent that Wilson brought in was highly controversial in Britain at the time. A bombing campaign, let alone a ground invasion, would be political suicide.

 

[Mitridates the Great]

They are Britain, they would first make sure to manufacture a legitimate casus belli, perhaps with a false flag attack that makes it appear that Rhodesia has attacked other people.

 

[jkarr]

They are Britain, they would first make sure to manufacture a legitimate casus belli, perhaps with a false flag attack that makes it appear that Rhodesia has attacked other people.

Sorry, thats the CIA's raison d'etre.

 

[sparky42]

Sorry, thats the CIA's raison d'etre.

Ah but where do you think they learned that from…

 

[Mitridates the Great]

Sorry, thats the CIA's raison d'etre.

MI6 want to talk with you about this...

 

[arrowiv]

It is my understanding that a number of British commanders actually balked at this concept due to the unrealistic nature of this plan and also of "kith and kin" in Rhodesia. Many British officers still had friends and family in Rhodesia and actually served alongside together with Rhodesian forces in WW2. Even Ian Smith was an RAF pilot in North Africa and Italy and still had good ties with the RAF brass.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Squadron Leader Massive Moustache

"You want me to bomb Salisbury where my Uncle and cousins live? I'm sorry but all my aircraft are down for essential servicing and won't be available until after the next election."

 

[Chris Nation]

Squadron Leader Massive Moustache

Wasn't he in Dad's Army?

 

[Strategos' Risk]

What about sending military advisors to the newly formed Organisation of African Unity? Not that they had peacekeepers then yet.

 

[tonycat77]

What about sending military advisors to the newly formed Organisation of African Unity? Not that they had peacekeepers then yet.

Seeing the very poor performance of independent african armies against even lightly armed insurgents (Congo,Biafra anyone?) I don't think they would go well against a modern military armed with 1950s tanks and jets.

 

[Cryhavoc101]

When Rhodesia gave its infamous unilateral declaration of independence (the first unilateral break from the UK since 1776), the British were understandably unhappy, and the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the move as an illegitimate attempt to preserve a racist regime. However, while the UN Committee on Independence urged military intervention from the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson's government decided an economic response was the better option.

Your challenge is to have the British go to war against Rhodesia over the UDI.

The White Rhodesians are the English Abroad

They are not going to war with them

OTL sanctions and a naval blockade of Beira etc off Mozambique to enforce it are the extent

 

[Riain]

OTL sanctions and a naval blockade of Beira etc off Mozambique to enforce it are the extent

Yes, this lasted a few years.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Seeing the very poor performance of independent african armies against even lightly armed insurgents (Congo,Biafra anyone?) I don't think they would go well against a modern military armed with 1950s tanks and jets.

During the war, Britain covertly supplied Nigeria with weapons and military intelligence and may have also helped it to hire mercenaries.

Uche, "Oil, British Interests and the Nigerian Civil War" (2008), p. 130. "In reality, however, the British government supplied many more arms than it was publicly prepared to admit. Apart from direct arms supplies, it provided military intelligence to the Nigerian government and may have helped it to access sophisticated arms and mercenaries through third parties."

Could the Brits even find any mercenaries willing to fight against Rhodesia, and not for them? Because hey there's another idea.

 

[Quintuplicate]

When Rhodesia gave its infamous unilateral declaration of independence (the first unilateral break from the UK since 1776), the British were understandably unhappy, and the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the move as an illegitimate attempt to preserve a racist regime. However, while the UN Committee on Independence urged military intervention from the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson's government decided an economic response was the better option.

Your challenge is to have the British go to war against Rhodesia over the UDI.

Didn't the UN give the UK the all-clear?

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Could the Brits even find any mercenaries willing to fight against Rhodesia, and not for them? Because hey there's another idea.

Any British minister caught hiring mercenaries to fight against Rhodesia will be out of office by the end of the week.

 

[Chris Nation]

Pretty much every single white Rhodesian in 1965 is either a British citizen or entitled to British citizenship. Many of them have served in the British military.

The people talking about finding covert means to kill them are off with the fairies.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Any British minister caught hiring mercenaries to fight against Rhodesia will be out of office by the end of the week.

Maybe, but it's not as if there isn't precedence for doing so.

I would think the greater difficulty is in finding competent mercs (sounds like while useful in the Congo Crisis, they performed poorly in the Biafran War). Also most soldiers of fortune in Africa at the time tended to be vaguely right-wing or colonialist holdouts, it's doubtful that they would want to fight against a fellow traveler regime in favor of a black native insurrection that was being portrayed as communist.

Pretty much every single white Rhodesian in 1965 is either a British citizen or entitled to British citizenship. Many of them have served in the British military.

You can say the same thing about the American revolutionaries!!!

 

[Chris Nation]

You can say the same thing about the American revolutionaries!!!

Bunker Hill wasn't broadcast live.

 

[Mitridates the Great]

Didn't the UN give the UK the all-clear?

Having the go-ahead from the UN usually means nothing. Recall that the UN authorized the Korean War and still got stuck at the 38th Parallel. It is also the same UN that was powerless to prevent the fall of the Belgian Congo into chaos as soon as it gained independence. It is doubtful that the 1965 population was particularly impressed by "the UN says this."