[1][2] The organisation was formed by the BSAC in 1889 as a paramilitary, mounted infantry force in order to provide protection for the Pioneer Column of settlers which moved into Mashonaland in 1890.

[6] During the period of the Rhodesian Bush War in the late 1960s and 1970s, the BSAP formed an important part of the white minority government's fight against Communist guerrillas.

At independence, the force had a strength of approximately 11,000 regulars (about 60% black) and almost 35,000 reservists, of whom the overwhelming majority were white.

Prior to the use of motor vehicles, extended rural patrols were carried out on horseback, and right up until the Force was renamed all white male officers were taught equitation as part of their basic traíning.

Selected officers were retained in Morris Depot after "passing out" and tasked with training remount horses for future use by recruits and on ceremonial duties.

Police of all ranks to chief inspector, were obliged to perform PATU secondment on a regular rotation basis, and deployed to operational areas.

That function was performed by an embedded element of the BSAP's Special Branch (SB), commanded by Chief Superintendent Michael "Mac" McGuinness; the SB liaison team conducted interrogations of captured guerrillas, reviewed captured documents, and collated and disseminated intelligence.

[12] The SB team also oversaw the production and insertion of poisoned clothing, food, beverages, and medicines into the guerrilla supply chain.

There was also a training depot rank designation of Staff Lance Section Officer (also denoted by three gold bars).

The batmen were skilled at presenting and maintaining several police uniform 'dress orders' worn throughout any given day, all of which were expected to be immaculate at all times.

Black "ground coverage" officers acted as undercover plainclothes intelligence gatherers in both rural and urban areas.

A district (rural) police station with a strength of anything from a dozen to forty personnel was often required to 'fly the flag' over an area comprising several hundred sq.

On 18 December 1978, Equitation Squad 14/78–the first multi-racial recruit squad-began training at Morris Depot in Salisbury (now Harare).

Due to the Support Unit Troops being independent with their own vehicles, stores, ammunition, medical supplies, tents etc., they could deploy anywhere at a moment's notice all over Zimbabwe.

During the Bush War, the Support Unit's primary task was to patrol the long distances in the Tribal Trust Lands and to maintain and reinstate order in the kraals (native villages).