[6] After disbandment, selected members of the RNR formed the Askari Platoon of the British South Africa Police (BSAP) at Government House in Salisbury.

From 1944 to 1945, the battalion fought against the Japanese as part of Field Marshall William Slim's 14th Army in Burma, after which the regiment returned to Southern Rhodesia.

After the Central African Federation was dissolved in 1962, to be replaced by the separate nations of Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, the RAR was returned to the sole command of the Rhodesian Army.

Incorporated into the Zimbabwe National Army but retaining its regimental identity, the RAR fought one last decisive battle, at Entumbane near Bulawayo in 1981, when they totally defeated a major ZIPRA uprising.

In July, the 450-strong battalion was sent to Zomba for further training but, because the operational situation had changed, were instead deployed into a German area north of Lake Nyasa.

By the next day, the German force had surrendered and were taken to Njombe en route to captivity (along with 300 head of cattle, the fate of which is predictably unknown).

[20] Encounter battles with the German forces continued through 1917 with the troops marching an average of 31 miles a day in the harshest bush conditions, displaying extraordinary physical endurance.

[21] In September 1917, a newly raised 2nd Battalion RNR entered the field and established a camp at Mbewa on the north-eastern shore of Lake Nyasa.

On 22 May, they intercepted his supply column and captured it, and then continued the hide-and-seek pursuit of the main German force, marching an incredible 2,250 miles, until its eventual surrender in Northern Rhodesia on 25 November 1918, 14 days after the Armistice in Europe.

[22] In December 1918, having lost 159 soldiers of all ranks killed in action or on active service, and 136 wounded, the RNR returned to Salisbury where it was disbanded.

An advertisement was placed for recruits and, soon, two companies were formed and engaged in basic drill and weapons training in the mornings and building their camp in the afternoons.

During World War I, as a CSM, he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for leading a platoon against a German force that had been harassing a British position and driving them off.

He earned the Military Medal when, with a hastily gathered group of 12 men, he attacked a German force (including three machine guns) that was about to seize a rations dump.

After acclimatisation and orientation to living, moving and fighting in the jungle, on 2 December they boarded HMT Aronda for Chittagong, in the Arakan, Burma.

[26] In April 1945, the East Africa Brigade was serving under command the 82nd West African Division which had been tasked with clearing the Taungup area of Japanese.

After the brigade had occupied the town of Palawa, the RAR battalion was given the lead and, on 15 April, they advanced towards an enemy position on a hill beyond Dalet, following the south bank of the Tanlwe Chaung.

They soon closed with the Japanese and, over the next ten days, fought them in series of encounter actions in the jungle that culminated on 26 April with a deliberate attack by A and D companies on two dug-in hill features code-named Bergner and Valerie.

On the morning of 4 May, B and C companies advanced on Powell, beginning an engagement that would last until 7 May, at a cost of six Askari killed, until the brigade was ordered to bypass the feature and move to the Taungup-Prome road.

The RAR soldiers put their tracking skills to good use and earned a reputation for locating the culprits by following their spoor.

[9] When the Suez situation was resolved, the RAR returned to Southern Rhodesia, arriving at Salisbury Railway Station on 10 December 1952.

It was the type of warfare that did not yield many kills for any of the units operating in Malaya but the intensive patrolling maintained constant pressure on the enemy and, together with the granting of Malayan Independence in August 1957, led many MNLA guerrillas to surrender, and the eventual end of the 'Emergency'.

[10] Early in February 1958, the battalion completed its two-year tour of duty and moved to Nee Soon transit camp in Singapore.

They returned via Beira and Umtali to Bulawayo, to find their barracks much-improved in their absence and renamed Methuen Camp after their honorary colonel.

The RAR came under sole command of the Rhodesian Army and its deployments were mostly made along its Zambezi Valley border in response to the first nationalist rumblings emanating from countries to the north.

Beginning in 1966, members of these guerrilla armies, known (as in Malaya) as CTs, began an escalating series of incursions into Rhodesia with the aim of subverting the local population and overthrowing the government.

[31] The seeming paradox that thousands of black soldiers volunteered for and served in the Rhodesian Army during the UDI period has been noted by scholars.

Some have argued that these troops, who fought steadfastly and effectively, were motivated by loyalty to their comrades and regiments, alongside a strong sense of military professionalism.