Second Phase (1972–1979) Related incidents On 23 December 1975, an Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopter of the South African Air Force carrying a two-man crew and four Rhodesian Army officers crashed near Cashel in Rhodesia after it collided with a hawser cable mid-flight.

Behind the honour guard and the men's families, the top brass – army commander Lieutenant General Peter Walls, Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs P. K. van der Byl, Commissioner Peter Sherren of the British South Africa Police (BSAP), Air Marshal Mick McLaren of the RhAF and the South African military attaché, Brigadier L. L. Gordon – led this slow march.

[3][4] Sergeant Pieter van Rensburg body was flown to South Africa where he was buried on 28 December, with full military honors in the Voortrekker Heights cemetery in Pretoria.

Robertson was the acting commanding officer of 5 Independent Company the Rhodesia Regiment,[2] and Lamb served in the headquarters of 3 Brigade the RAR.

"[1][5] Likewise, Peter Godwin and Ian Hancock describe Shaw as a "controversial figure within Army circles, disliked—by some—for his drinking and his manners" but nevertheless Walls' "probable successor".