Selous Scouts - Top Secret War

by Peter Stiff and R.F. Reid-Daly

Book Overview

1983 Galago Soft cover. Very slight tanning . Well bound. Good square copy with sharp edges. Inside front cover (not on face page) - small - Estate name that has been scratched out with a black... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0620066741
• ISBN13: 9780620066747
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Alberton, South Africa : Galag
• Length: 752 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

***DECLASSIFIED*** Selous Scouts-Top Secret War

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 trackers and maintained this capability to superb levels of proficiency. This book has been re-release as "Pamwe Chete - The Legend of the Selous Scouts" by Reid-Daly and is a completely revamped version of "SELOUS SCOUTS - Top Secret War" (original title). If you have read the original edition you will enjoy this one much better. Many areas in the book have been rewritten and their are many additions and details added to the text. Many of the names of individual have been added into this text, originally kept exempt for security and safety reasons in this version. Also there are many new photographs added and the Illustrations are a lot crisper. One of the biggest treats in the new edition is the added appendix covering; roll of honor, wing nominal roll, awards and citations. This version truly opens the door to this once `Top Secret" organization of combat trackers turned pseudo-terrorist specialist. Bottom line BOTH versions are GREAT reads!

Few Against Many - The WAy of the Warrior

Great stuff, pretty spell-binding. I normally am reading 3 or 4 books a tone time, but have not been able to put this one down. One "contact" after another keeps the history of the Scouts and the Rhodesian war moving on the edge of your thinking. This is about first-class innovation in warfare on shoe-string budget up against a classic military N.I.H. bureaucracy. Written by the creator of the SElous Scouts, Lt Colonel Ron Daly continually pings the story back and forth between his thinking and the thinking behind his thinking as he is pitted agains the Rhodesian military and then pongs back to action-packed vignettes of the Scouts in contact. A book that belongs on every soldier's bookshelf.

To the daring and the brazen.

To be so daring, so bold. To do what no would expect and to succeed at it. Having grown up in that part of the earth during the Chimurenga War, this book brought back a lot of memories, not all good. But among them was the feeling of awe that surrounded the Selous Scouts. Different, effecient, successful. This book is a must read for not only those interested in the Rhodesian bush war, but students of strategy, students of tactics and military might, students of history, students of management & students of psychology. This book confirms what a lot of us know, but when faced with it wilt. To be commited and prepared is only a small part of success, the rest is to be daring. For me, it was a journey back to a football field a long time ago under a blue african sky with little boys, being as little boys are, playing "war". And everyone wanted to be the Selous Scout.

An incredible but true story

The Selous Scouts were a Rhodesian counter-insurgency regiment commanded by Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly. Their greatest specialty was in the area of pseudo-operations; disguising themselves as terrorists in order to infiltrate and actually live amongst the terrorists, sometimes for periods of several weeks. As part of their pseudo-operations, the Selous Scouts would regularly conceal themselves as member of both the major terrorist armies - ZANLA and ZIRPA - and also as soldiers of Rhodesia's neighbors - FRELIMO, the Zambian Army and the Botswana Defense Force.The dangers of such operations are obvious. ZANLA and ZIRPA would not hesitate to instantly execute anyone that they suspected to be a Selous Scout. However, even more hair raising was the Selous Scout policy of "encouraging" recently captured terrorists ("tame" terrorists) to work for the Selous Scouts and betray their former comrades - somtimes within hours of their capture!The methods of the Selous Scouts entailed enormous risks for the Selous Scouts operators but they also reaped enormous benefits. During the 7 years of their existence, the Selous Scouts exterminated several thousands of terrorists while losing only about 40 Selous Scouts killed in action. Intelligence gained by the Selous Scouts was also used by other units of the Rhodesian security forces, such as the Rhodesian Light Infantry, to locate and kill several thousand more terrorists.The book is written in a humorous, lucid and almost chatty style, which contrasts sharply to most memoirs written by military men.

An account of incredible daring and devotion to duty.

The authors succeed in involving the reader in the often hair raising exploits of the Selous Scouts, an elite unit comprising both native and white troops fighting a brutal guerilla war. Recommend "commando" by Denys Reitz as a follow on.