Operation Midford

Operation Midford was New Zealand's contribution to the Commonwealth Monitoring Force in Rhodesia in late 1979 and early 1980 that eventually led to the Lancaster House Agreement and the independence of Zimbabwe.

By October 1979, a resolution to the conflict appeared possible, and the UK government made contact with various Commonwealth nations to discuss the provision of troops for a special operation.

Upon arrival each plane load of troops was processed through a reception tent, given an initial briefing and issued anti-malaria tablets (Maloprim) which were known locally as the "Tuesday Pill".

During this five-day phase of the operation, more than 60 aircraft sorties landed at Salisbury Airport, delivering more than 1,500 men and a large amount of stores and equipment.

Due to the height of Rhodesia above sea level, every Kiwi soldier was also required to attend a range shoot and re-zero his personal weapon, as the altitude made a difference to sight settings.

During this time the CMF, Major General John Acland personally introduced himself to every member of the Monitoring Force during his initial briefings, usually held at the RLI Barracks at Cranborne.

This was an extremely tense time as no one knew how the communist guerrillas in the operational areas might react, but the large number of reporters in Rhodesia may have prevented further escalation.

During the forward deployment phase the weather was highly unfavourable, and Royal Air Force aircrew flew missions that would never have been authorised under normal circumstances.

There were a number of contacts during this phase of the operation: A Rhodesian Escort AFV (Crocodile) was destroyed by a mine near Bulawayo; an RAF Puma helicopter crashed killing the three-man aircrew; a Hercules aircraft was shot up by small arms fire near Umtali; and an RV Team was ambushed in the Zambezi Valley but escaped without casualties.

There were many breaches in the ceasefire as all three sides attempted to gain a position of strength, and "large numbers of hard-core guerrillas remained outside the camps and continued to intimidate" the electorate.

[citation needed] By 16 March 1980, all of the Monitoring Force had departed from Rhodesia, apart from a small volunteer group (about 40 men) of British infantry instructors who were to train the new Zimbabwe National Army.