James and the Duck: Tales of the Rhodesian Bush War (1964 - 1980) - Brossura

Martin, Faan

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1434319733 ISBN 13: 9781434319739

Casa editrice: AuthorHouse, 2007

Riassunto

A very different tongue-in-cheek personal account about a forgottenwar. Between 1964 and 1980 Rhodesian men from all walks of life lefttheir families and jobs to fight for their country. They were farmers,bankers, railwaymen, shopkeepers, miners and even Members ofParliament, who every six weeks, changed their soft civilian life forbattle dress, rifles and grenades.These are their stories.It's not really about war heroes. It's more about bluestone charged,but still lustful troops coping with fighting terrorists, boredom,longing, fear and death. All this set against the background ofAfrica's sweltering heat, annoying insects, dangerous animals andvenomous snakes. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.The reader will meet a long suffering prisoner-of-war, infantrysoldiers, helicopter gunship pilots, tribesmen, pompous army officers,mercenaries and even a duck.Some of the personal incidents will have you laughing and crying at the same time.No matter how you view the Rhodesian Bush War, you will enjoy thehumour and at times satire and even sadness of this true account of howmen coped with the horrors and hardships of war.

Su questo libro

L'autore

Faan Martin, was born in 1947 in thescenic Rhodesian border city of Umtali. He was educated in Rhodesia andSouth Africa. During the war he was a cattlerancher in the Manicaland province of Rhodesia.After completing his national servicewith 1 Independent Company he served as a territorial soldier with the 4th Infantry Battalion. During his time in uniform, he qualified as a marksman and served inthe Operation Hurricane, Thrasher and Repulse areas. He also took partin external operations into neighbouring Mozambique and served with ahelicopter gunship group known as a "Fire Force."In November 1978, Rhodesian Security Forces attacked 200 terrorists ona mountain on the Martins' farm. Three days after the battle in which eight ZANLA insurgents were killedand a Rhodesian helicopter was shot down, the author and two friendssearched the mountain and found a huge arms cache. Not long afterwards Rhodesian Special Branch policemen visited theauthor and his wife Jayne and warned them that theirnames had been found on a ZANLA death list after a highly successfulattack on a massive terrorist base in Mozambique. One night in January 1979, 12 terrorists launched a bazooka attack on the Martins'family. They survived the attack, but it changed theirlives.Concern over the safety of their four small children, the regular theftof their cattle and knowingRobert Mugabe would soon become the new political leader of thecountry, eventually made the Martins immigrate to South Africa. After a short spell of teaching and farming in South Africa, Martinbecame a journalist. He has written 500 published magazine articles andwas the Editor of two weekly newspapers, the Northern Review and ThePietersburger. Later he was the Assistant Editor of the Farmer's Weeklymagazine.He now lives in Scotland.

Product Description

Book by Martin Faan

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: AuthorHouse
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1434319733
• ISBN 13: 9781434319739
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 284
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Germania