Pamwe Chete

Rating:
Summary: Africa's finest killing machine
Review: LTC Ron Reid-Daly has written a superb book on the finest killing machine in Africa, the Selous Scouts. LTC Reid-Daly was the founder and commanding officer of this psuedo counter-insurgency force. The author gives us the insight into the bravery, courage, and brutality of his men while performing their operations. This group of highly skilled black and white operators wrecked havoc on the guerilla forces inside and out of Rhodesia. Because of his availability to intelligence Reid-Daly also gives the reader a overview of the conflict and the politics behind the decisions. This is a great read on special operations and Reid-Daly gives a great narrative of the missions and the background for them. This is a great story of an exceptional group of men written by an exceptional soldier and is a must read!

Rating:
Summary: The right side of COIN (Counterinsurgency Operations)
Review: Pamwe Chete is without question one of the most interesting accounts of counter-insurgency operations ever written. LTC Reid-Daly formed the Selous Scouts in the early 1970s' at the behest of the Rhodesian Army Chief of Staff. What follows is the most famous (or infamous) counter-insurgency campaign in recent history. The Selous Scouts were the finest counter-insurgency force ever to take to the field and hunt down guerillas. LTC Reid-Daly has written an honest, detailed account that draws the reader's interest on the first page and never lets go. This book is a must read for any military historian. Reid's engaging book is chocked full of incredible stories about the incredible challenges the Selous Scouts overcame and the unbelievable but true successes they achieved.

Rating:
Summary: The right side of COIN (Counterinsurgency Operations)
Review: Pamwe Chete is without question one of the most interesting accounts of counter-insurgency operations ever written. LTC Reid-Daly formed the Selous Scouts in the early 1970s' at the behest of the Rhodesian Army Chief of Staff. What follows is the most famous (or infamous) counter-insurgency campaign in recent history. The Selous Scouts were the finest counter-insurgency force ever to take to the field and hunt down guerillas. LTC Reid-Daly has written an honest, detailed account that draws the reader's interest on the first page and never lets go. This book is a must read for any military historian. Reid's engaging book is chocked full of incredible stories about the incredible challenges the Selous Scouts overcame and the unbelievable but true successes they achieved.

Rating:
Summary: Selous Scouts of Rhodesia
Review: Pamwe Chete offers the reader information that has never been divulged regarding the legendary special forces teams of the Rhodesian Security Forces.

The author Col. Ron Reid-Daly founded the unit at the request of his superiors during the bloody guerilla bush war taking place in Rhodesia during the 1970's. Rhodesia which had gained its independance from Britain in 1965 was being infiltrated and attacked by numerous communist factions operating from bases in neighboring Mozambique and Zambia.

The Selous Scouts were named after Frederick Courtney Selous, a famous hunter, explorer, and soldier that was killed fighting the Germans in Africa during World War I. The Scouts were such a top secret, anti-insurgancy fighting unit that many of the senior officers in the Rhodesian army were not privy to the details of their tactics and operations.

Col. Reid-Daly details the history of the unit from its formation to its disbandment towards the final days of the war. He includes anecdotes and stories of the major operations the scouts were involved in during the war. The scouts were responsible for over 68% of the total enemy casualties during the war.

This book is interesting reading for anyone that is interested in studying the breakup of colonialism in Southern Africa or highly trained special military units.

Rating:
Summary: ***DECLASSIFIED*** Selous Scouts-Top Secret War
Review: This book should be a mandatory read for Non-commissioned officers and Officers serving in special mission units or special operations the world over. In the counter-insurgency / low-intensity conflict arena there are many valuable lessons to be learned from this text, and for the armchair historian or casual reader the story is still gripping enough to keep you enthralled to the last page. Basically this is story of the birth and death of one of the most feared insurgency units of the time, as told by the founder of this outstanding unit; Ron Reid-Daly. It covers the units training, selection, operations, and personalities of the unit with the war being the tool that propels the story and evolution of the unit. One of the most remarkable aspects of Selous scouts was their employment of pseudo-terrorist techniques, which were used to melt into know terrorist cells, to either eliminate the terrorist themselves or direct other assets to the known cells to be neutralized. While conducting these type operations the Selous Scouts maintained the cover of being a combat tracking (mantracking) unit, as to keep their true purpose under wraps from the rest of the Rhodesian Security Forces. I would also like to point out they were truly all trained tracks and maintained this capability to superb levels of proficiency. This book is a re-release and completely revamped version of "SELOUS SCOUTS - Top Secret War" (original title). If you read the original edition you will enjoy this one much better. Many areas in the book have been rewritten and their many additions and details added to the text. Many of the names of individual have added into this text, originally kept exempt for security and safety reasons. Also there are many new photographs added and the Illustrations are a lot crisper. One of the biggest treats in this edition is the added appendix covering; roll of honor, wing nominal roll, awards and citations. Bottom line is this version truly opens the door to this once 'Top Secret" organization of combat trackers turned pseudo-terrorist specialist.

Rating:
Summary: Pamwe Chete - Selous Scouts of Rhodesia
Review: This is an excellent and comprehensive book on the Selous Scouts - a special forces unit based in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the 1970's. The book covers the history of the unit from the time its founder, Ron Reid-Daly, spent in Malaysia with C Squadron 22 SAS, to the end of the war. What is interesting is the high level of racial integration in the unit, and the use of 'turned' guerillas. In some cases captured guerillas were turned, briefed and back in the field within hours of capture.

While the unit's informal approach to standard military discipline made it shunned by the high command the unit had stunning military successes, especially with cross-border raids to target enemy bases.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the bush wars in Southern Africa in the 70/80's and terrorism in general. Special forces soldiers could learn a lot from this book.