Chapter 43

Tanzanian Ranger Battalion/Training and Ops

Mac and the other men were now successfully out of the Arab desert sands, and as with any military officer, after a round of rest and leave, they were on to other deployments.  Jumping ahead in time, we will find Africa as the backdrop for this part of the story.

‘Mac's Bastard Bush Bandits,’ or the 3-Bs as his Ranger battalion became known, had been formed to deal with the increase in Ugandan insurgency raiding across the Tanzanian border in the mid 1970s, before the full war footing between the two countries had been declared. These raids were causing considerable damage to the small farms bordering the ‘Great Lakes’ by crop burning, cattle and livestock theft, and murder of civilians.

The unit was divided into four groups. Support Group for Fielding a Mortar Troupe, a Heavy Machine Gun Troupe, a Signals and Communication group, and Ground Infantry Companies with Attached Medical Support. The combat strength of the Rangers continually fluctuated, and, at anytime, could number up to a maximum of 800 troops. It was estimated that approximately 10% of the Ranger battalion personnel were foreign volunteers; these men had served with the experienced professionals of some of the world's finest forces. Many brought with them invaluable experiences of fighting African wars in countries that were supported by Soviet and Chinese weapons, supply, money, and instructors, and on some occasions, as in Angola, front line troops.

These ‘Bush Bandits’, as they were nicknamed, came from the disbanded ‘Selous Scouts’, Rhodesian Light Infantry, and South African Defense Forces with reconnaissance and fire fight incursions into Mozambique, Zambia, and Mau Mau in Kenya operations under their belts. No unit commanded by Mac Hudson would be complete without the British Royal Marines, 9 Commando, Paras, SAS, United States Special Forces, and a number of German ‘mercenaries’ (who had worked in the Congo with Mike Hoare and John Peters plus the ‘boiling pots’ of trouble in Zaire and South Sudan).

Although the Rangers were a small unit, they packed a powerful punch, with their collection of captured weapons, and they possessed a tough, aggressive spirit that counted for a high percentage of enemy casualties during the war. One prime example of this was an ambush staged during the early stages of the Ugandan aggression when a forward OP in Uganda gave warning of a Company strength movement toward the southern infiltration route of the ‘Great Lake,’ near Bongo.

A three, ten-man section ambush was rapidly deployed, and in the ensuing firefight, the whole infiltration force was eliminated. Ugandan Army Company strength is usually 270 men and with attached supporting elements normally numbers 308 men, as in this case. The ambush party was free of any casualties, and total ammunition expenditure was 3 Claymore mines, 6x 3.5 inch ‘Bazooka’ rockets, 36 HE grenades, 36 Phosphorous grenades, and 608 rounds of small arm ammunition, giving an average of 1 Claymore, 2 ‘Bazooka’ 12 HE, 12 Phosphorous grenades and 200 rounds of small arms per section. This was fantastically low ammunition expenditure for such devastating results. There were no survivors, because the African members of the ambush party exercised their right to disembowel the enemy to release their ‘warrior spirit’ to their ‘Gods.’ 

Every morning when the ‘Stand To’ was called, normally a whistle or siren, its effect was instantaneous. Men burst into action, clutching rifles and machine guns. All the men were clad in a variety of clothing. Many wore T-shirts, shorts, and ‘trainers.’ A few were even barefooted after walking like that for years in the bush. Some sported weird mixtures of poor conditioned, faded camouflage suits. What bit of cash Mac had available was needed for weaponry. His men didn’t need to look the part or to play the part; they were the part, for real. He wouldn’t let them wear captured clothing, except footwear, in case his own men didn’t recognize them. This would mean their instant death, because the teams worked under a strict ‘shoot to kill’ policy.

NCOs rushed around signaling communications with their hands but saying nothing. They did this in combat situations, so they did it all the time, even off duty. They were like an order of silent Monks that had vowed never to speak.

Approaching the group of huts, which was the headquarters area, the men slowed to walk and began to disperse to their respective places.

NCOs hurried away to the briefing on the opposite side of the chopper pens. The men relaxed, sitting or sprawling around while they waited for their squad ‘Boss’ to come back and ‘Gen Spew,’ which is what imparting information was called. It was not at all unusual at this stage for any operations or training to be cancelled. When this happened, a yell sign of ‘Five finger widow time’ echoed around the bush.

Most of the men carried whatever weapons came to hand. The shortage of weaponry was due to a serious lack of money in the coffers of the Tanzanian treasury, however, the Rangers could keep the weapons they ‘won’ from a Ugandan terrorist. This gave the men a tremendous incentive to fight and kill. Some men carried many weapons back for their teammates who had not been included in a certain operation. What’s more, their webbing equipments were a strange mixture from different countries of origin, and years of manufacture. All ranged from standard British 44 pattern on to all sorts of bastardized stitched up leather or webbing. Civilian jackets with numerous pockets but no webbing were also in vogue. Long shining belts of ammunition for the machine guns, and a further store of ammunition bulged out of a variety of packs. Pistols, machetes, and knives dangled from belts and from shoulder straps. The NCOs came out of the briefing buildings and ordered that the men ‘Kit Up,’ in sign language, of course.

This was a typical pattern of events on a counter insurgency operations morning for the Rangers in the early stages of the war. One of the eight man patrols had just turned up at the base camp after five days out in the bush, bringing back nine AK47 Kalashnikovs and a number of land mines and ammunition. This haul marked the success of the foray out in to the ‘badlands’ and meant nine more dead terrorists. One man had been shot in the thigh, the bullet passing straight through, so the wound had been left open and exposed to the flies and was crawling with maggots. This was a good thing, because the maggots kept the wound clean. They ate up any decomposing flesh and prevented gangrene setting in before the casualty can receive skilled attention at base camp.

In the makeshift base hospital tent, two British medical orderlies and a German doctor dealt with all manner of casualties and illnesses often performing surgery under Tilley Lamps.

Chapter 44

The Enemy

The guerrillas came from operating bases in Uganda across the ‘Great Lake’, making hit-and-run raids against units in isolated areas. Such small incursions however, proved ineffective and costly. The Tanzania security forces were normally able to contain the problem.

During the mid to late 1970s, the picture changed quite drastically. Guerrilla activity in the combat zone became more organized, with direct support from units outside Uganda, mainly from Eastern block countries. Arms shipments and military advisors greatly contributed to the guerrillas fighting capability and training standards, and this increased their moral. Initially, the skirmishing had been concentrated on the Tanzanians side of the ‘Great Lake,’ but eventually spread to the South and then the North of the country.

Mac knew that the Ugandans were being supported by Libya and by Robert "Piano Teeth" Mugabe, part of the ZANU organization from Zambia.

When the conflict escalated, Mac persuaded the Tanzanian forces to adopt an aggressive and preemptive approach to counter insurgency, taking the war to the bastards who infiltrated their territory, as opposed to the passive strategy of sitting and waiting for attacks. This later tactic was the Tanzanian way. They were too nice to be in any war and frustrated the hell out of ‘killing minded’ professionals. Mac positioned a greater intelligence-gathering network in Uganda, (mainly ex Selous Scouts and ex SAS) and developed ‘Immediate Reaction’ forces to deal aggressively with information gained from the new sources. Their job was simply to root out and destroy enemy units in the bush. Forces had to move very fast if they were to succeed in engaging enemy terrorists before they could melt away from the scene of any sightings. High mobility, operational flexibility, combined with heavy firepower were the keys to success. Mac Hudson always preached to his patrol leaders, "It is quicker to Act then React."

Chapter 46

Tanzanian Intervention Force

If Mac's Rangers were his punch to knock out the Uganda terrorists, his Intervention Force was his straight left to keep harassing and upsetting the guerrilla activity, and his powerful ‘Left Hook’ if he could catch them when they infiltrated over the Great Lake and into Tanzania in their attempt to create havoc and cause morale failure among the Tanzanian populace. The Intervention Force led a very dangerous existence as opposed to the Rangers ‘Go get them’ system. The IF had to find an enemy infiltration by standard patrolling, an enemy who had the advantage of surprise and were expert at ambush. On one such standard ‘Seek and Destroy’ patrol, Corporal Pete Higgins, a Mac-trained patrol commander and ex Para Regiment was riding in the back of a Unicom truck, a heavy machine gun in the turret above him, and his standard-issue G3 assault rifle within easy reach. Although it was broad daylight, visibility was consequently dreadfully poor in the sweltering teeming rain.

His driver shouted to him through the turret, "Can we put the fucking headlamps on, Corp? I can’t see were we’re going.”

“Do it if necessary.”

As the Unicom skirted around an area of swampy water, a whipping burst of fire from the right – a trap always feared by the Tanzanians by its surprise and ferocity, killed both Higgins’s companions in the rear of the truck. Simultaneously, an explosion underneath the wheels at the front of the cab brought the truck to a halt and lying at a crazy angle, the upward blast severely wounded the two men in the cab and blew off the roof. Instinctively, Higgins started to use his rifle.

A grenade exploded at the rear of the truck, a fragment searing his back, neck, and upper thighs, while his face was creased by another fragment from one of the bullets sprayed into the back of the truck. Higgins went into automatic destruct mode. He grabbed his own satchel of grenades, a good mix of HE, Smoke, Impact, and Phosphorous and jumped down to take the fire fight to the enemy and try to gain some initiative that is always momentarily lost when you have to react to an enemy first move. He stormed the suspect firing position, firing all the way and lobbing grenades. When he suddenly burst out of the tall twitch grass, right before his eyes was the mortar position, which had obviously blown up the front of the truck. A phosphorous grenade instantly followed by an HE, and then a quick burst of fire over the parapet soon silenced this position. He could hear firing from back in the direction of the truck; obviously some of his men were still at work.

Retracing his steps, he came across two more enemies firing at the truck and killed them both by shooting in the back. They were looking the other way, and he definitely wasn’t going to invite them to turn around the same as some idiots one sees in the movies. Higgins’s ammunition was expended and the pain from his wounds was becoming intense. He still remembered the machine gun and had to drag himself up to the bulletproof turret and began to swing the gun on its mounting. He had fired the first belt, when he finally realized there was nothing left of the enemy at which to shoot.

Four hours later, another patrol found Higgins, and the two from the back of the truck lying dead on the bush fringe, along with eight dead guerrillas. These types of infiltration patrols by the Ugandans were regular, and as the Tanzania patrols moved out to try to intercept them, they often came into this type of ambush themselves.

 Chapter 47

Terrain and Weather Problems

The landscape of mainland Tanzania is generally flat and low along the coast; a plateau at an average elevation of about 1,220 m (4,000,03 ft) constitutes the greater part of the country. Isolated mountain groups rise in the Northeast and Southwest. The volcanic Kilimanjaro (5,089 m/19,003ft), the highest mountain in Africa, is located near the Northeastern border.

Zanzibar is the largest coral island off the coast of Africa. Pemba, a second coral island, is some 40km (25 miles) northwest of Zanzibar. Both Pemba and Zanzibar are mostly low-lying, and are only mentioned in this narrative because Uganda was attempting to cause civil unrest through past religious hatred to assist in undermining mainland Tanzania.

Three of the great lakes of Africa lie on the borders of Tanzania or partially within it. Lake Tanganyika is located on the Western border, Lake Victoria in the Northwest, and the Lake Malawi in the Southwest. Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika lie in the Great Rift Valley, a tremendous geological fault system extending from the Middle East to Mozambique.

The climate of mainland Tanzania is more tropical on the coastal strip along the Indian Ocean, with temperatures averaging 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees F) and rainfall varying from 1,016 to 1,930mm (40 to 76 inches). The inland plateau is hot and dry, with rainfall averaging 20 to 30 inches. The climate on the islands is generally tropical, but the heat is tempered by a sea-breeze throughout the year.

Deforestation has been a prime theme for foreign exchange in Tanzania, and this, of course, affected the patrol capabilities and sometimes caused patrol limitations in many areas. Because of this deforestation, many places suffered from soil loss and desertification. In addition, vast regions were infested with the Tsetse fly, which transmits sleeping sickness, and the control programmes in force were controversial because they used pesticides that harmed wild life.

The terrain in the various patrol areas remained a serious problem, especially because of poachers looking specifically for elephants ivory and rhinoceros horn. This, in itself, led to problems for patrol activity, because one would often find oneself in a firefight with poachers, rather than with the insurgents from Uganda the Rangers were looking for. These poachers were always well-armed with automatic weapons and intent on using them against any threat. They knew if they were caught, they would die therefore they reacted accordingly.

Open and relatively dry forests and woodlands cover about a third of Tanzania. Wetlands, including coastal mangrove swamps, as well as inland systems, such as lakeshores, flood plains, and swamps cover about 6% of the land.

Tanzania has a comparatively well-organised, protected land system, and it has received substantial foreign support and aid. The main elements are forest reserves, game reserves, and national parks, including Serengeti National Park. Two ‘Biosphere’ reserves have been declared under the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Because of these many variations of terrain, patrol activity fluctuated accordingly and sometimes meant moving into the heavily wooded mountains of the northern borders.

Precise tactics were determined by the nature of the terrain in each sector, which varied from the mountain woodlands, flooded lakeside borders running many kilometres inland, to the open Savannas of the plains. One of the tasks against the growing infiltration was to seal off the border routes. To do this, the Tanzanian Intervention Groups usually divided geographic areas into sectors, and then they could operate in them as immediate reinforcements, specific task units, and escorts. All were similar mobile roles.

Much of the unit's effectiveness depended on the season. Some of the area was tropical and difficult to work with the poor observation limits set by the undergrowth and heavy mud underfoot. Everything was really governed by the climatic cycle of cold nights and sweltering days of the dry seasons, and heavy ‘Mango Rains’, and then the very heavy ‘Monsoon’ rains in which the enemy preferred to operate. Rainy months designed thick vegetation and limited activity from the air; the Tanzanians had air superiority, until the Soviets introduced Surface to Air (SAMs) missiles in the mid-1970s, via Gadhafi in Libya. Air power opened up many windows of opportunity, such as attacking guerrilla infiltration routes, and providing a quick reaction to Intervention Unit’s call for assistance. It also gave the units the extra aggressive capability to ‘go for the enemy’ similar to the Rangers type of war.

 Chapter 48

Alouette Tactics

Introduction of the Alouette helicopters in the late 1970s (The South African's Pumas were being used in Angola) changed the Tanzanian strategy; all teams now had far greater mobility, and could fly low and behind cover to defeat the enemy’s use of SAMs. The arrival of the helicopters gave them that greater flexibility they needed. Each carried five men and was able to mount machine guns or a 20mm grenade launcher. The parties could now be dropped on guerrilla escape routes and in 1977-78 large scale operations against the infiltration of guerrillas became limited because of this essential new tactic.

Airborne operations were only part of the response to guerrilla activity. In other respects, technology was not of paramount importance to the Tanzanian counter insurgency units. This may sound hard to believe, but in the late 1970s, they used ‘Cavalry’ very effectively, with three squadrons of mounted cavalry under the pay of the Tanzanian Peoples Defence Forces. The cavalry was used to protect the flanks of advancing troops in difficult terrain and, when supplied by helicopter, could mount extended patrols. It might be added that the horses acted as a good shock absorbers when the troops wandered into a minefield.

CHAPTER 49

Land Mines

The mine was by far the most effective weapon of the guerrillas. In the mid too late 1970s, over 50% of the Tanzanian casualties were caused by mines. The newer and more sophisticated mines could not be located by mine detectors, (few of which were even available), and so the troops resorted to the ‘Pica,’ or sharpened stick.

Depending on the width of the track to be cleared, one or two men would lie on their stomachs and carefully poke at the ground to find soft areas that might indicate recent digging. If one was found, the ‘Picadors’ would then probe the area for the unmistakable hollow ‘Clonk’ of a mine. Other members of the patrol would remain vigilant, because this was often a setup for an ambush.

Having located a mine, the ‘Picadors’ would then ensure that no second mine was placed alongside it to trap the unwary.

The Tanzanians had improvised the use of special trucks with sandbagged floors and tyres half filled with water to lead convoys and deflect mine blast, but in the long term, an extensive programme of road tarring was implemented to make it more difficult for the guerrillas to lay mines undetected. As stated earlier, there were not the many hard surfaced roads in Tanzania, but a real hard surfacing programme in Uganda had been completed at a distance of some 1,000 kilometres. Now, of course, the Tanzanians were invading Uganda and could utilize their roads. The road building in Uganda far exceeded that by the British over twelve years in Malaya or the United States of America in over six years in Vietnam.

Quite rightly, the Ugandan government was proud of their achievements, and it was commented in their government house that 'Revolt starts where the road ends’.

The VC10 slowly banked to the left, lining up for its final approach. 'Fasten Seat Belts' and 'No Smoking' lights came on the console above the row of seats in front of Mac. Out of the window, he could see dusty spirals of sand making small whirlwinds, or wind devils as they were commonly called. These natural rotavators were breaking up the arid, reddish looking ground, stirring up the local terrain and spiraling high into the air, thousands of feet, carrying with them razor sharpe grains of sand, and causing turbulance that made landing an aircraft at Dar-es-Salaam a tricky business.

Sometimes these genie columns hid the few scattered roundavals (local houses) that could normally be seen on the landing aproach. Small matchstick sized men and boys made a perfect Loury scene, while they tended the cattle herds that seem to wander aimlessly about, yet, as one knew, they were purposely heading toward water and the sparse overnight growth of grass.

There were not any permanent buildings in evidence, nor anything else to suggest in any shape or form the hustle and bustle of the sprawling Tanzanian capital city five miles away.

Dar-es-Salaam, here we come again.

Mac stretched to ease cramped muscles. An uneventful trip, this one, compared to some others. Just a small hiccup at Rome airport when the service crew found a panel missing from the plane’s fuselage. Not having a spare one in stock at Rome, plus a pilot who refused to fly without it, gave all passengers and crew a 24-hour delay while the missing piece was flown from British Airway’s base at Heathrow.

Now, when a man with the willpower of a louse, like Mac, finds himself with an unexpected stay in Italy, with plenty of money in his pocket, and placed in the famous Nova hotel in the centre of the City of Rome itself, one is going to have a ball, especially when a war between Tanzania and Idi Amin’s Uganda is waiting for him at the other end of the journey. So, ball was the name of the game, all night and most of the morning.

The resultant hangover was crippling, hate filling his heart for everybody, especially Idi Dada Bloody Amin, self appointed VC and Macar, George Medal, 5 DSOs and 32 Mentioned in dispaches, American Legion of Honour and more. Hate for him was easy to find. Now, Mac was in a good frame of mind to pick up his duties as Field Operations Advisor to President Nierere and General Twalipo in Tanzania.

A rolling, weaving approach and a tremendous banging and bumping indicated the big plane had touched down, played havoc with Mac's hangovered thick head. As usual, the tannoy anouncement requesting that people remain seated until the plane had stopped moving signified most people jump to their feet to fight to be first out, whilst rescuing their baggage out of the overhead lockers. Some of the passengers would have shit in their trousers had they known what merchandise had been carried in the hold of the plane for the Tanzanian war effort, especialy after that terrible landing.

Labelled in boxes, addressed to Mark Hudson, described as a mining Engineer/Surveyor, were a number of cases containing items described as underground surveying equipment supplied by Rank Pullin Instruments of Stepney, London. These containers held SSE 707 Night Surveillance Artillary Ranging Equipment, one per box. Packed in with them were five 66mm LAWs, (Light Anti tank Weapons), disposable single-man operated rockets, held in place by an assortment of rather dubious anti personnel grenades of different origins, ages, and stability. Twenty boxes in all. The Tanzanians would be very worried themselves knowing that these goodies were on a plane with wrong descriptions and false end user certificates, plus a 24-hour delay in arriving.

Mac's head was still crippling him. He would need all of his patience and resolve to be kind and friendly with Major Awouley waiting for him on the tarmac with his army working party to secret the stuff out of the airport. Such was the return of Mac to Tanzania.

TPDF HQ or Tanzania’s People’s Defence Forces Headquarters was a dirty stinking hole of a military camp. It consisted of derelict buildings, litter, rusty equipment, and a wide variety of evil smells, signs hanging off posts and structures and fallen huts. It was hard to believe this filthy place could be so important. The place stood right in the middle of DAR, surrounded by the embassies of about thirty countries.

According to Colonel Ricky Lakongo, the camp’s Commanding Officer, the condition of the garrison was in that disgusting state on purpose. The aim being to mislead spies on the ground in knowing it‘s true function and importance, therefore avoiding sabotage attempts and preventing the enemy, Uganda, from acquiring information to supply aircraft with a bombing target.

African bullshit.

After a while, one got used to hearing the most amazing stories from the Africans, all of them said with very sincere facial expressions and in a serious manner. It was very hard to tell if they were taking the mickey out of you, or deadly serious. Mac had learned to use a half-sincere and studious, bemused, yet attentive look and said very little when these yarns unfolded. His method seemed to be more than acceptable to them, and they seemed to make a beeline for him if they had heard something new or had a rumour to pass on.

Mac's services were often requested by unit commanders through TPDF to train their troops. It’s hard to believe some of the crazy things that happened during this phase of his work, so daft in fact, many people would think he was teasing.

He was not.

The Tanzanians always showed the greatest respect to him, sometimes far more than was ever expected or wanted. Mac had to be careful that they were informed their dependence on him was not the complete answer to all their problems, because many of their actions deserved to fail, and when this happened, the blame would have fallen on him. Teaching meant talking a lot, making up for his previous reticence to speak. He also made his verbal output related to the ‘Bushman’ Swahili method of description, using native wild animals behaviour as examples of what he expected students to know and understand the purpose behind it.

The funny outcome from this was the mimicking that followed. When he arrived at a confirmation stage of a lecture or lesson and especially in question and answer phase, the student’s return observation was often said in a very good imitation of his own voice, and sharing his own mannerisms. Good fun really, but it did not make them good soldiers. Only lots of patience and hard work helped in that outcome.

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Major Pasco Awouley was waiting on the tarmac when Mac finally de-bussed after letting the crowd disperse. Pasco walked over, arms outstretched in a very positive gesture of welcome, his giant grin spreading from ear to ear. This action caused a large number of fellow passengers to look and whisper amongst themselves. This was the last reaction Pasco should have wanted from people, considering the covert munitions in the hold of the aircraft. Anyway, not to mind, Mac knew it was the Tanzanian way of doing things. They were paying him very well for his part in their little war, so why worry? He would create waves about most things if military protocol was not followed, but thought it would be taking things too far to chastize the Major on exuding a very genuine welcome on his return to the country.

Arrangements had been made for the customs at DAR to pay a lot of attention to the passengers on the aircraft, and to ignore Mac and Pascoe’s troops unloading and moving equipment straight off the aircraft into army lorries and away. Pascoe himself was driving Mac in his Land Rover, specialy armoured with extra steel plating on the floor and sides up to shoulder height and triangular barbed wiring stakes, welded as upright wire cutters on the forward edges of the windscreen. All the vehicles in Dar were fitted with this local produced armour, but they never managed to modify the vehicles involved in the fighting in Uganda. Mac always believed this balls up was deliberate to impress the Tanzanian people how good and well equipped they were, typical African propaganda. This vehicle, was fitted with a TCS 13 radio unit, complete from command down to small unit communication level channel selection boxes. Well done to the British Government, the only known source of supply, legally. Who else may be doing things out here illegally?

Get to know, Mac thought, in this game one needs to know all the niggers in the woodpile.

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The act of driving in Tanzania was supposed to adhere to English rules.

No way.

Africa was a novel experience when it came to driving any type of vehicle, because no rules of any sort were in existance. The African always sat sideways in the vehicle, with his arm hanging outside, in a nonchalant manner as he once saw on a film somewhere. He knows how to press on an accelerator. The brake and clutch were normally out of order, therefore surplus to requirement. Gear boxes were ruined daily and repaired with old tins, aluminium dinner plates, and any other form of metal that could be moulded with the so-called 'stupid' black man's dextrous hands.

Fortunately, 95% of the vehicles on the road were knackered in some way, many in more ways than one. Few had any suspension. With the exception of a few miles, there were no hard surfaced roads, and the earth scrapes, the Tanzanians called roads, were always in different states of repair, depending on the season- the amount of rain fall, or severity of a drought.

Travel was very slow, many breakdowns were in evidence, and if a vehicle was left by the road unguarded for many minutes, it was stripped down to its shell for spare parts. All types of vehicle parts were in desperatly short supply throughout the country, not just DAR itself. In a good Land Rover, the journey from the Airport to TPDF would take about fifteen minutes with no problems.

At the TPDF Ricky afforded him the same sort of welcome as had Pasco. This time, without the presence of civilians, his reserve fell away, and allowed him to respond more openly to Ricky and his theatricals. Both Ricky and Pascoe were full time, regular soldiers, which meant a far higher training standard than the normal short-term and voluntary reserve officers that formed the bulk of TPDF, and of course with most African armies.

The British Officer Training School at Sandhurst was the ultimate course for which to be selected. Any student passing the grades in all their various shapes and form, became the backbone of the nation’s Army and held in high respect among the people. Sandhurst also meant they were assured of a good future on returning to their own country.

Ricky and Pasco were both Sandhurst men, and with that qualification, held very high military appointments, with far more decision making power than their rank suggested. Pasco was Director of Arms Procurement. Ricky was Commander of TPDF HQ, and Director of All Arms Training. In their own spheres, they were both the top men within TPDF and therefore, the two men with whom his work was most closely linked, although he could report directly to the President, Minister of Defence, and Joint Services Chief Of Staff.

Ricky greeted Mac in his usual fashion. "Hello and welcome back you English bastard! We thought you’d deserted us. Where have you been?"

"Hi, Ricky, you black bastard, mind your own business."

These insults about colour were used only in a retaliatory form. After they threw some sort of slang at him, they expected it. He was sure if they didn’t hear this sort of reply, they would think he was upset in some way.

"Screwing about in Italy, I suppose, you jammy bastard." Ricky’s English carried a strong Yorkshire accent, a result of his long relationship with a sweet Yorkshire belle, whom he met when he was a student in England.

Instantly, the most lurid story you could imagine came out, invented by Mac, spontaneously, about his stay in the Nova, and the three (imagined) young, nubile Italian girls with which he’d had to perform.

This imagined tale took about half an hour to recount while drinking a bottle of White Cap Brandy, and six Kalkadi soft drinks, made in Tanzania and similar to Coca Cola.

With this hair of the dog, Mac's hangover started to fade away. Should anyone have attempted that type of bullshit with British troops, they would have been booed out of the room in twenty seconds. Ricky, Pasco, and Augustin’s eyes reflected their belief in his fantastic mental creation. Strangely, they always believed him. They sometimes frightened Mac with their trust.

Augustine, a Sudanese Lt attached to TPDF was Ricky’s adjudant, six foot three inches tall, and as thin as a latt. His one wish in life was to make love to a white woman who loved him.

"It would not be good to rape. I want some womarn like de Maraline Monroe for to love me as I need to love."

Quite novel thoughts coming from a Sudanese. After about one hour of loose talk, and questions to and fro to bring everyone up to date on each other’s activities, they finally settled down to decide a plan of immediate action. Mac was accommodated in Government rooms in the Kilimanjaro Hotel, his usual quarters when in Dar, which was not very often. He spent most of his time out in the bush, where good authentic training was achieved.

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