Copper Wings: British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing Volume 2

By Guy Ellis

Lacking funding to purchase and operate own aircraft, the Rhodesian police established the British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing (PRAW). Equipped with private aircraft, mostly flown by owner pilots, this extended policing across a country that had few roads, reaching remote villages and farms, separated by long distances. Established in 1967, the PRAW assisted in the capture of criminals, transported police officers, and flew in support of police operations. During the 1960s, it was expanded into three flights with more than 20 aircraft.

By 1974, the PRAW included five flights, by 1979, nine, with two of its pilots being awarded the M.B.E. for outstanding services. As the conflict in Rhodesia escalated, it began actively cooperating with the Rhodesian armed forces: its miscellany of Beechs, Cessnas, Pipers, and Taylorcraft – all apparently ‘sports and utility’ aircraft - were armed: sometimes with light machine guns installed in underwing pods, but often with heavy machine guns that fired through the side doors, de-facto converting them into mini-gunships.

Based on extensive use of official documentation, participant recollections, and richly illustrated, Copper Wings: British South Africa Police Reserve Force Air Wing Volume 2 continues an account of this service.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helion and Company
• Release date: Jul 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781804515150

Guy Ellis

Guy Ellis is an aviation historian who has written many articles and is the author of, amongst others, Serve to Save – The South African Air Force at Sea and Britain’s Jet Age Volumes 1 and 2.

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Preface

The father of history, Herodotus, wrote that his ‘own responsibility … is simply to record whatever I may have been told by my sources.’ Following this principle certain terms and names used in the narrative are of the time. It is distracting to see both old and new place names in the text and as the first-hand accounts will always refer to names that existed at the time, these have been retained. In a similar manner the terminology used with reference to the groups that opposed the Rhodesian government largely remain as they were used at the time. The use of these is for historical and contextual reasons and is not, in any way, political. The main text is followed by direct submissions from crew members as they recall their experiences and have been retained largely unedited as they form an important record of the history of this time, albeit some terms then in use are not common today.

I am indebted to Bill Linfield, who served for a time as the commander of the unit, for his invaluable support to this project. He was the inspiration for the structure of the work and has contributed so much in the way of content, corrections and answering a myriad of follow up questions. Anthony Trethowan, Brian van Buuren, Bob Fernandes, John Steed, Gerry Cleveland, John Munro, Bob Needham, Peter Marchussen, Tony Mann, Mike Norton, John Tayler, Doug Towler, and Richard Wood, all provided me with their stories or allowed me to quote from their books. While Orlie Anderson facilitated phone calls with her mother Shelagh, who sadly passed away within a few weeks of our last call. Dave and Julian Scales spent time on the phone telling me about their father Peter and Andrew Watson wrote about his father’s Beechcraft Bonanza. Mimi Cawood related her experiences as a radio operator stationed at Beit Bridge and introduced me to Don Price who filled in the events that happened on the southern border. Andrew Tefler, ex RAR was always available to provide context and detail relevant to this unit. Late in the day I contacted Rod Bater, who kindly took the time to fill in some important detail. Hugh Bomford of The Lion & Tusk – Museum of the Rhodesian Services Association in Mount Maunganui www.thelionandtusk.org, put the word out to members and Sue Onslow allowed me to reference her work with Rhodesian ex-servicemen.

Thank you to all those who provided their photographs and access to the articles referenced. Particularly Alan Murray’s family and friends and especially Keith Holshausen who rescued several of The Outpost images that had been thrown away. To Eduard Pietersen who sadly passed away in early 2022 for his help and comments. Special thanks to Robin Norton who had the foresight to record Rhodesian aviation history on film. It is a privilege to have his permission to use some of his images that have added a valuable element to this work. Every effort has been made to establish and acknowledge ownership of the images provided.

There will no doubt be errors and questions, but this kind of work is not an exact science. It subject to the passing of time, lack of original documents and my understanding of what I am told.

Thank you to Tanya De Leersnyder for her support at all levels throughout this two year project.

Guy Ellis

Gloucestershire 2022

1

Towards the end

It was clear in the documents captured from ZANLA insurgents, that taking the capital city, Salisbury, was an important strategic goal. The first blow was struck when an eight-man force attacked a fuel depot in the city’s Southerton area. The rockets fired on 11 December 1978 set fire to the huge storage tanks, destroying 25 million gallons of precious fuel.

SALOPS – Salisbury Operations

ZANLA commanders focused on moving their forces from Mozambique into Rhodesia and by early 1979, the TTLs to the north and east of Salisbury were ‘liberated’ areas, where only the small towns were held by the RSF. Patrols were conducted in these areas, but any gains were not held for long. Manpower was in short supply, as white emigration soared, and the economy suffered from continual military call-ups of the workforce. To bolster the RSF the Transitional Government, formed on 3 March 1978 to pave the way to majority rule, had created Security Force Auxiliaries (SFA). This force was comprised of the armed wings of the new partners in the Government, former insurgents, and the general population in the townships. The SFA, which eventually numbered 10,000, were sent into the TTLs to counter ZANLA politically and militarily.

Chief Inspector M. J. (Fred) Pringle, in late 1978, created a new Police Reserve Air Wing (PRAW) flight, Salisbury Operations (SALOPS), which provided crews to support ground forces in the defence of the city. Selected younger PRAW crews were drafted into the SALOPS wing, the only dedicated combat-only wing in PRAW. This group no longer served at FAFs or provided courier or casevac flights. The aircraft were armed with Browning machine guns, or MAGs, and at times anti-personnel bombs.

Pilots used whichever aircraft was available of the four allocated to the unit. There was always one aircraft on active duty and one on standby, which did not leave much leeway when maintenance or repairs from ground fire damage were being carried out on one of the aircraft.

While on operations a PRAW pilot found the PATU patrol he was working with was struggling to remember which ‘Copper’ number to use. He instructed the PATU radio operator to call him ‘Snoopy’. Communications worked after that and the SALOPS flight adopted this term as their call sign. The famous cartoon character Snoopy was drafted in to support the SALOPS Flight. (Photo by Wayne Kennerley)

Virtually outside the company hangar is Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180C VP-WAG owned by Techair. This company’s aircraft were often used for PRAW flights pilots as they were based near to the capital. (Robin D. W. Norton)

‘ZS-ZGZ was one of several Cessna 206 aircraft (both U206 and P206 variants),’ Tony Mann, Copper 282 recorded, ‘allocated to the SALOPS Recce Flight of the Rhodesian armed forces for Forward Air Control (FAC) and reconnaissance purposes and served as such until the conclusion of hostilities during March 1980.’¹ He went on to note that ‘the endurance with the 206, at the specified power settings, was typically 5 hours, which effectively meant that we could operate from dawn to dusk (which did indeed happen on occasions), with only one stop for refuelling, rearmament and whatever refreshment could be found.

This notice shows that one crew are to be standby between 0800 to 1800 daily. The reserve crews were ordered to be available at two hours’ notice. Swapping between crews was allowed if SALOPS and the Flight Commander were advised. (Photo by Alan Murray)

Doug Elliot, G. P. J. Parish and A. J. H. Roberts were members of the Salisbury Gliding Club and were used by SALOPS HQ on a casual and infrequent basis, and were assigned specific reconnaissance duties flying the Gliding Club’s Super Cub and Auster 5 VP YJX. As noted, these pilots did not have operational call signs and unlike the other aircraft in the Flight, the aircraft were not armed. (Photo by Tony Mann)

Inspector Graham McCleland 8577 and his wife 208 Lois McCleland in 1979. Notice the PRAW roster board behind Lois’s shoulder showing Tony Mann and Dave Moss on duty and on standby George Harvey and Richard Seward. (The Outpost Magazine)

Tony Mann, left and Ian Pringle with VP-WFO following an intensive and successful operation during which there were several bullet strikes to the port wing and fuselage of the aircraft. The gunner struggled with wind noise from the open doorway and the standard military headset was inadequate. The air force provided the helmets held by the crew, which had superior headsets that improved communications between the crew and with ground forces. (Photo by Tony Mann)

‘My personal logbook reflects activities with ZS-ZGZ during January 1980 and is typical of the required duties. The gunnery practice conducted on 27 January would have simply been the alignment and harmonisation of the weapon prior to the forthcoming operations while the balance of the entries reflects either ‘Ground Air Control’ (i.e. Forward Air Control) or reconnaissance duties.’

At one time owned by PRP Rupert Hildebrand, Cessna 180 VP-WAV was photographed in February 1971 about to take off from Excelsior airstrip close to Salisbury Airport during flight test from Fields Aircraft Services, conducted by ex-air force pilot Mike Saunders. (Robin D. W. Norton)

Cessna 206 Super Skylane, probably VP-WCK is seen over water on a grey day. Tony Mann wrote that this aircraft was one of the few with the full anti-Strela modification of both matte grey finish and the