Kevin.D.Thomas

In Follow My Tracks – Combat Tracking & Pseudo Ops: Recollections, former Rhodesian game ranger and regular army Selous Scout turned author, Kevin Thomas, looks at how combat tracking and pseudo-operations evolved as a counter insurgency tactic during the Rhodesian Bush War.

 

This civil conflict lasted from July 1964 until December 1979. Early on the importance of using skilled combat trackers during counterinsurgency operations was realised and by 1970 the Rhodesian Army had formally established a tracking school at Kariba.

 

During mid-1973 the concept of using pseudo counter-gangs was experimented with in the operational theatre and in December 1973 the Selous Scouts was formed and the Kariba Tracking Wing absorbed into the newly raised unit.

 

The author was involved as a combat tracker from December 1972 while still a National Parks game ranger, and in January 1974 he joined the regular Selous Scouts and became a pseudo-operator, remaining operational for a period of just over three years.