Rhodesia drawn into Congo crisis 1961-64

Read in a book on the Rhodesian Lt Inf sent me by a mate in Capetown that the RLI were actually mobilised for border patrol duty during the Katanga crisis, facing down both mercenaries and UN peacekeepers. How could Rhodesia have become directly involved in this war in some way, in temrs of the Rhodesian army being sent on combat missions into Katanga ?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Where was ZANU or ZAPU based? I think that was Zambia for one of them, but if the Rhodesians felt there were camps in the Congo, they would've hit them, either with bombers or possibly with the Selous Scouts.

YouTube is full of that radio chatter from the airstrike they did on Zambia, where that Canberra pilot tells the control tower to keep the ZAF aircraft grounded so they don't get shot down.
 
Read in a book on the Rhodesian Lt Inf sent me by a mate in Capetown that the RLI were actually mobilised for border patrol duty during the Katanga crisis, facing down both mercenaries and UN peacekeepers. How could Rhodesia have become directly involved in this war in some way, in temrs of the Rhodesian army being sent on combat missions into Katanga ?
Hmm...at the time, it was still the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, aka the Central African Federation. Even after it split apart, all three areas were still under the Crown until the UDI in '65 that made Southern Rhodesia independent.
So, perhaps avoid the CAF being split; have Britain for whatever reason get involved in the Congo Crisis (peacekeeping?), and the CAF goes along with it.
Rhodesia, the independent country, was too distant to do anything in the Congo; unless they marched right through Zambia. So your best bet is avoiding an independent Republic of Rhodesia in the first place.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Hmm...at the time, it was still the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, aka the Central African Federation. Even after it split apart, all three areas were still under the Crown until the UDI in '65 that made Southern Rhodesia independent.
So, perhaps avoid the CAF being split; have Britain for whatever reason get involved in the Congo Crisis (peacekeeping?), and the CAF goes along with it.
Rhodesia, the independent country, was too distant to do anything in the Congo; unless they marched right through Zambia. So your best bet is avoiding an independent Republic of Rhodesia in the first place.

Shows you what I know.

Thanks for the heads up, though. That's cool that someone else had even HEARD of UDI.
 
Learned it years ago. At least here in Jefferson County, High School course cover the whole decolonisation thing in World Civilization and World History classes (only difference between the two is that World History is an Advanced Placement course, while World Civ is the regular one). Rhodesia and the UDI is a part of that.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Learned it years ago. At least here in Jefferson County, High School course cover the whole decolonisation thing in World Civilization and World History classes (only difference between the two is that World History is an Advanced Placement course, while World Civ is the regular one). Rhodesia and the UDI is a part of that.

We had none of that. I shit you not, I started learning about decolonization in Africa by reading Vortex by Larry Bond when I was in 8th Grade and then researching on my own. Needless to say, if it doesn't have to do with the Bush War in Namibia, I'm sketchy.

Though I read a book once that was written by a guy who served in a fireforce in Rhodesia. Very interesting.
 
MacCaulay, if you need help on sub-Saharan Africa at the end of colonialization, look to me and Marius, friend. My father and grandfather lived it. :D

Now, getting Rhodesia involved in the Congolese civil war isn't terribly hard, as the Congo was a mess and the first independent leaders felt that the UN had a responsibility to help destroy the independence movements in Katanga and Kasai provinces. Attempts by the UN to gain control went south immediately, and the Belgians stayed around causing a ruckus.

You'd have to keep Rhodesia as one nation, which is not easy to do in the 1960s. Better idea is to start in the 1950s, and advance the liberalization of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and thus bringing the likes of Robert Mugabe, Dr. Joshua Nkomo and Kenneth Kaunda into the government. Problem there is a potential split in the country - don't bet on Ian Smith taking the idea of black rule too well.
 
Since your family loved through it ill ask, Why do you think Ian Smith didn't have the sense to bring in moderate Metebele and Shona leaders sooner, and avoid the hoo hah with Mugabe?
 
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