"Operation Repulse": Rhodesian Army Raid on Border | Guerrilla Reveals Buried Arms Cache | Jan. 1977

January 1977.
Footage of the aftermath of a Rhodesian Army raid in the south eastern part of the country on the border with Mozambique. The target was an African Kraal (village) where the populations were often suspected of aiding the activities of Black African Nationalist guerrillas. This was part of "Operation Repulse", a series of raids on border areas.
The footage also shows a captured guerrilla is captured who begins to talk freely about his movements, his base-camp, his unit and the location of a hidden cache of arms, ammunition and explosives. The contents included a supply of mortar shells, ammunition and land-mines. The captured guerrilla, like others, faced trial for his life.
The backs of Black Africans detained in the area were checked for marks which would indicate the prolonged carrying of arms & ammunition using back packs.
The raid took place soon after the collapse of the Geneva conference where Prime Minister Ian Smith, the leader of the minority White government, refused to accede to the proposal by the British government for an interim government with Black African participation.
The economic strain on the economy caused by the 4-year guerrilla war was apparent by now. The annual defence budget of £120-million sterling (nearly 200-million U.S. dollars) represented an increase of 34 per cent over the previous year. Territorial call-up was extended to 18 months fulltime, with reserve duty up to nine months a year after that.
Of the 50,000 members of the combined forces of Rhodesia, over 40,000 were White - around 20 per cent of the total population. Every able-bodied male between 16 and 60 was expected to do military service.
Military experts of the time assessed that the White regime would be able to continue to prosecute the war for several years subject only to the possible intervention of Cuban military forces. The Rhodesian military was according to national estimates up against 15-hundred guerrillas operating inside Rhodesia's war zones with 4-thousand guerrillas and new recruits based in camps inside Mozambique.
Source of footage: Reuters News Archive.
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