Layout Table~~~~11312~11312~~

Military History~Zambia / Mozambique~~~11312~11313~Military History (Rhodesia/Zimbabwe)%3CBR%3E%3CBR%3EBooks covering the Rhodesian bush war - a low intensity terrorist guerrila conflict. Also on the elite Rhodesian special forces, the Rhodesian Special Air Service SAS Paratroopers, Rhodesia%27s elite parachute battalion, and the elite Selous Scouts psuedo-terrorists special forces unit. Rhodesian Light Infantry RLI famous for quick reaction Fireforce operations, British South Africa Police, COIN BSAP ZANLA ZIPRA PATU CIO, Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation, rhodesian helicopter pilots, insurgency counterinsurgency, guerrilla warfare counter-guerrilla warfare tactics. Colonization & independence, terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle . Popular titles include%3A LRDG Rhodesia%3A Rhodesians in the Long Range Desert Group - J Pittaway & C Fourie, SAS Rhodesia%3A Rhodesians and the Special Air Service - J Pittaway & C Fourie, See You in November - The Story of an SAS Assassin - Peter Stiff , The Elite - The Story of the Rhodesian SAS - Barbara Cole, Selous Scouts%3A Top Secret War - Lt-Col Ron Reid Daly, as told to Peter Stiff, Dead Leaves%3A Two Years in the Rhodesian War - Dan Wylie, anti police rhodesian terorriorist unit, 1 commando infantry light rhodesian, militaria rhodesian,~

Acabou: It's Finished - Tim Green~An extraordinary true life documentary of imprisionment and survival. Imprisoned against his will and without trial for "attempting to destroy the Mozambican economy". A Rhodesian born South African commercial pilot is on his last lap of a business trip, delivering communications equipment to Mozambique when he is captured. This book details his time (3 years) as the only white prisoner in a degenerate Mozambican prison, how his fellow inmates rallied around him and his wife's struggle, miles away, to have her husband freed. In one particular spine-chilling section of the book, Tim is marched out into the prison grounds at dawn to be executed...
ISBN 1 919874 08 9. Softback. Size - 222x252mm, 164 pages .~Covos Day
ISBN 1-919874-08-9. Softcover
Size 225 x 150mm.
Re-printed Aug 2003.

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Acabou started as a journal Tim Green kept for himself during his imprisonment in Mozambique. Scribbled with the stub of a pencil on a children's notebook, smuggled into the cell by inmates, the notes were intended as letters to his family should he not survive. On his release the notes were turned into a full length gripping story. It tells of how he was working as a commercial pilot, flying communications equipment to Mozambique. On completion of this job he was paid in American dollars, which he tried to exchange for local currency to pay for a meal. The currency was allegedly counterfeit and he was imprisoned for trying to ruin the Mozambican economy. He tells of how he was marched in front of a firing squad and almost put to death and how it was the inmates, rallying around him and his wife's pressure on the South African government that saved his life.

Tim Green was born in 1950 on a farm in the then Rhodesia, he spoke Shona until the age of five, in fact his first letter home to his parents from primary school was written in Shona. His father died when he was 16 and he ran away from boarding school to help his mother run the farm. Tim Green was the youngest commissioned officer in the Rhodesian Army at the age of 18, in his free time he qualified as a commercial pilot. ~Acabou|ISBN 1919874089|~11312~1495~~

Barrel of a Gun: Misspent Moments in Combat - Al J Venter~Sequel to 'War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars - The Modern Mercenary in Combat - Al J Venter' (Listed below)
Al Venter has spent most of his adult life covering wars. From these 40 years has emerged his latest book which, for want of something better, he has called Barrel of a Gun. This book covers many of Venter's exploits, starting with his first real experience of conflict after he'd landed in Nigeria following the Ibo-led putsch that eventually led to the Biafran Civil War. From there he went on to cover the wars that the Portuguese were then fighting in a desperate rear-guard series of guerrilla conflicts to retain their African colonies in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (today Guiné-Bissau). Then came Beirut, Rhodesia, the Congo, huge dollops of the Middle East, South Africa's border wars in Angola and the consequential overflow into Zambia, Uganda, Liberia, El Salvador, the Balkans - where he went in twice - once with the United States Air Force over Kosovo and afterwards with mine-clearing teams in Croatia, Executive Outcomes (twice into Angola and once in Sierra Leone) as well five weeks with mercenary South African helicopter pilot Neall Ellis in the subsequent Sierra Leone war against the RUF rebels. There he flew combat in an antiquated M-24 Russian gunship that leaked when it rained. Since then, Al Venter spent a lot of time covering some of South Africa's security problems, including more than a month with para-military units active against drug elements along the Tugela River in KwaZulu/Natal. One recent phase in South Africa involved a brief spell in the mountains on horseback, and not the first time either. He was attached to a mounted unit along the Angolan Border in earlier days, not long before one of the soldiers was blown up by a Soviet TM-57 anti-tank mine. Venter has been twice injured in combat, once when a TM-57 detonated under his APC while with a long-range penetration group deep behind enemy lines in Angola and another time, through his own stupidity, that destroyed all hearing in his left ear ......
Planned release date: - July 2010

(ITEM CODE - BOAG)~"Anybody who believes that the pen is mightier than the sword hasn't spent time in Somalia, or in Beirut in its bloody heyday." So begins this fascinating memoir of a journalist, filmmaker and raconteur who has made a career of examining warfare, on the ground, at sea and in the air, at the Sharp End. While the average citizen is aware of violent conflicts broiling all around the globe, Al J. Venter-from some strange compulsion unexplainable even by him-has felt the need to see them all in person, preferably from the centre of the action.

Born in South Africa, Venter has found no shortage of horrific battles on his own continent, from Rhodesia to Biafra, and Angola to Somalia. He has ridden with the legendary mercenary group Executive Outcomes, jumped into combat with South Africa's crack Parachute Battalion - the Parabats - at Cuamoto during the Angolan War, where he and several others became casualties, and traipsed the jungles with both guerrillas and national troops under whichever strongman in the country then held power.

During Sierra Leone's civil war he flew in the government's lone Mi-24 Hind gunship as it blasted apart rebel villages and convoys, his main complaint being that the Soviet-made craft leaked when it rained. In the Middle East he went into southern Lebanon with the invading Israeli army, and spent weeks at a time in war-torn Beirut. Through all this, Venter never lost his lust for action, even though he sometimes had to put down his camera or notebook to pick up an AK-47.

In his journeys, Venter associated with an array of similarly daring soldiers and journalists, from "Mad Mike" Hoare to Frederick Forsyth, as well as elite soldiers from around the world, many of whom, he sadly relates, never emerged from the war zones they entered. The creator of many documentaries and books, on such diverse subjects as warfare, shark diving and nuclear proliferation, Al Venter has here offered the reader his own personal combat experiences in all their multifaceted fascination.

Planned release date: - July 2010
ITEM CODE - BOAG~~11312~12915~~

Guerrilla Wars in Africa: Lisbon's Conflicts in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea - Al J Venter~ ('Cover' on left is not the book, just a picture we have selected pending the official cover design from the publisher)
This is not a definitive history of campaigns in Portugal's former colonies - Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, but rather one of a military correspondent's own impressions after many visits to the three theatres of conflict in Africa. A well illustrated, major work (140,000+ words) with over 1000 photos from that period.
Planned Release Date: TBA (2010)
ITEM CODE - GWIA~~~11312~12892~~

Mzee Ali - Bror MacDonell~‘Mzee’ is the Swahili word for an ‘old timer’, a respected elder. Mzee Ali Kalikilima was born in western Tanzania in the 1870s to black Muslim parents of noble birth. Aged 14, Mzee Ali led his first slaving safari to the shores of Lake Tanganyika and thence, with his caravan of captured slaves and ivory, through the malaria, tsetse fly and lion-infested wilds, to the Arab markets of Dar es Salaam, some 1,200 kilometres away on the Indian Ocean.With the arrival of the German colonizers, Mzee Ali joined the German East African forces as an askari. He worked on the new railway line that was being laid from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma and finally to Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria - a monumental feat. With the outbreak of World War I, he found himself attached to the forces of the legendary German commander, General von Lettow-Vorbeck. He saw action at the Battle of Salaita Hill near Mombasa and was with the General to the end, fighting a guerrilla campaign through southern Tanganyika, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and to final surrender. After the war, he joined the British Colonial Service as a game scout.
ISBN 0-9584890-5-X, Softback with gatefolds. 210 x 148mm, 224pp, illustrated~ISBN 0-9584890-5-X
Softback with gatefolds
210 x 148mm
224pp, illustrated

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‘Mzee’ is the Swahili word for an ‘old timer’, a respected elder. Mzee Ali Kalikilima was born near the present-day town of Tabora in western Tanzania, probably in the 1870s (there is mention of ‘The Doctor’ - Dr David Livingstone) to black Muslim parents of noble birth. Aged 14, Mzee Ali led his first slaving safari to the shores of Lake Tanganyika and thence, with his caravan of captured slaves and ivory, through the malaria-, tsetse fly- and lion-infested wilds, to the Arab markets of Dar es Salaam, some 1,200 kilometres away on the Indian Ocean.
With the arrival of the German colonizers, Mzee Ali joined the German East African forces as an askari. He worked on the new railway line that was being laid from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma and finally to Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria - a monumental feat. With the outbreak of World War I, he found himself attached to the forces of the legendary German commander, General von Lettow-Vorbeck. He saw action at the Battle of Salaita Hill near Mombasa and was with the General to the end, fighting a guerrilla campaign through southern Tanganyika, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and to final surrender. After the war, he joined the British Colonial Service as a game scout.

Bror Urme MacDonell was born in 1921 in Elizabethville, the Belgian Congo. For the first twenty years of his life he was known as Bror Örne-Glieman (his father’s Scandinavian surname) but discovered that the Belgian authorities had erroneously registered his surname as MacDonell (his mother’s previous surname). He was educated in France and later at Eton in England. He became fluent in over a dozen languages including French, Swahili, chiShona and several other African languages.
Aged nineteen, he was drafted into service during World War II. He served as Regimental Sergeant-Major with the African Light Infantry in East Africa and India and later transferred to Army Intelligence with the Northern Rhodesia Regiment. After the war he took up a varied career in hunting, locust control, farming, African administration and local government, working in the remotest bush of Northern Rhodesia and Tanganyika. He moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the sixties and began writing Mzee Ali in 1963, from his campfire ‘bush notes’ of the forties. (Several UK publishers rejected the manuscript as being "too politically incorrect" - presumably because of the references to the black-on-black slave-trading.)
He retired to the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, where he died in 1998. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie, and four children.~Mzee Ali|X ISBN 095848905X|~11312~11092~Mzee Ali Kalikilima,slave trade,asakri, General von Lettow-Vorbeck~

The Story of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment - Edited by WV Brelsford~This is the first full-sized history of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment whose history dates back to the earliest days of the European occupation of this territory, and whose members have since then fought gallantly in both World War I and World War II. It gives a fascinating account of the origin, growth and traditions of the Regiment and of its active service in many widely scattered countries.
Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) was one of the few British dependencies in East and Central Africa that had an African regiment with its own territorial title - the military forces of Nyasaland, Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda being known collectively as The King's African Rifles. The regiment's origins go back to the Barotse police of the early 1900s. In World War I the Regiment campaigned in East Africa, and in World War II in Italian Somaliland, Madagascar against the Vichy French forces, and Burma against the Japanese.
This book tells of the early beginnings of the Regiment, in the time of Cecil Rhodes, when the Chartered Company tackled the uneconomical task of establishing law and order in the vast tracts of land north of the Zambezi. It tells the story of the gallantry of Europeans and Africans in the Great War when the Regiment's forebears fought in the relentless campaign against General von Lettow-Vorbeck's forces, culminating in the post-armistice surrender of the German Commander in Northern Rhodesia. In the last war the Regiment mustered eight battalions and ancillary units, and fought from the grim defeat, against overwhelming odds, at Tug Argan in 1940, through Abyssinia and Madagascar, through the Chindwin Valley and Arakan, to the final triumph at Mandaly in 1945.
ISBN 0946995834. Reprinted facsimilie edition Galago 1990 (original printed 1954). Hardcover. 134 pages. Includes lists of commandants, honours and awards, maps, B&W photographs, battle plans.~~The Story of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment|ISBN 0946995834|~11312~11314~~

War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars - The Modern Mercenary in Combat - Al J Venter~War Dog deals with mercenary action in a score of wars: Angola, Sierra Leone, El Salvador, the Congo Republic, Ethiopia, Lebanon and others. One of a handful of correspondents that saw action with the South African 'guns for hire' group Executive Outcomes, Al Venter's revelations about this organisation are remarkable. So are many of the 150 photos in this book. Having personally visited every locale he describes throughout Africa and the Middle East, Venter is the rare correspondent who had to carry an AK-47 in his research along with his notebook and camera. To him, covering mercenary actions meant accompanying the men into the thick of combat. In this book you get up close and personal with hardened pro's on the ground, joining them for missions where quick thinking and a will of steel are the only things separating them from success or failure, life or death.
664 pages. 32 pages color photos, maps.

ISBN-13: 978-1932033908, Apr 2008. Softback. With Introduction by Frederick Forsyth
ISBN-13: 978-1932033090, Jul 2003. 1st Edition Hardback, autographed. (Now out of Print, few copies remain)
NB - see sequel of this book Barrel of a Gun: Misspent Moments in Combat - Al J Venter above on this page~Casemate Books, USA

ISBN-13: 978-1932033090
Jul 2003
Hardback
Cover photo on this page.

ISBN-13: 978-1932033908
Apr 2008
Softback
With Introduction by Frederick Forsyth
Cover photo on Catalogue page

644 pages. 32 pages color photos, maps.

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Mercenaries have been with us since the dawn of civilization, yet in the modern world they are little understood. While many of today’s freelance fighters provide support for larger military establishments, others wage war where the great powers refuse to tread. In War Dog, Al Venter examines the latter world of mercenary fighters effecting decisions by themselves. In the process he unveils a remarkable array of close-quarters combat action.

Having personally visited every locale he describes throughout Africa and the Middle East, Venter is the rare correspondent who had to carry an AK-47 in his research along with his notebook and camera. To him, covering mercenary actions meant accompanying the men into the thick of combat. During Sierra Leone’s civil war, he flew in the front bubble of the government’s lone Hind Mi-24 gunship—piloted by the heroic South African chopper ace “Nellis”—as it flew daily missions to blast apart rebel positions. In this book the author not only describes the battles of the legendary South African mercenary company Executive Outcomes, he knew the founders personally and joined them on a number of actions. After stemming the tide of Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA army in Angola (an outfit many of the SA operators had previously trained), Executive Outcomes headed north to hold back vicious rebels in West Africa.

This book is not only about triumph against adversity but also losses, as Venter relates the death and subsequent cannibalistic fate of his American friend, Bob MacKenzie, in Sierra Leone. Here we see the plight of thousands of civilians fleeing from homicidal jungle warriors, as well as the professionalism of the mercenaries who fought back with one hand and attempted to train government troops with the other, in hopes that they would someday be able to stand on their own.

The American public, as well as its military, largely sidestepped the horrific conflicts that embroiled Africa during the past two decades. But as Venter informs us, there were indeed small numbers of professional fighters on the ground, defending civilians and attempting to conjure order from chaos. In the process their heroism went unrecorded and their combat skill became known only to each other.

In this book we gain an intimate glimpse of this modern breed of warrior in combat. Not laden with medals, ribbons, civic parades, or even guaranteed income, they have nevertheless fought some of the toughest battles in the post- Cold War era. They simply are, and perhaps always will be, “War Dogs.”

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The Author

Al J. Venter has made a career of covering other peoples' conflicts. As a long serving Africa and Middle East correspondent for Jane's International Defense Review his reports over the past thirty years have spanned four continents. Twice wounded and now well into his sixties, he recently flew combat in Sierra Leone alongside Neall Ellis in an aging Russian Mi-24 gunship (that leaked when it rained) . He has also produced documentary television films on subjects from the wars in Africa and Afghanistan to sharkhunting off the Cape of Good Hope.

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Reviews

"A disturbing insight into the ever growing world of unconventional private armies. Like it or not, Venter tells it to us the way it is." - John Le Carre

"In this work, Al Venter has delved into the real-life exploits of the War Dogs... to illuminate how the privateers have continued to conduct battle in the wake of the Colonial Age. The true stories in this work are more impressive than fiction, and in terms of Africa, this book should be on the must read list for the U.S. State Department and British Foreign Office." Frederick Forsyth

"…a gripping and hugely informative read. …highly recommended. …impressive and enlightening." - The Herald, 07/2008 ~Select version||War Dog (Softback)|ISBN-13 9781932033908|War Dog (Hardback, autographed)|ISBN-13 9781932033090|~11312~12955~~

War Stories - Al J Venter~Al J. Venter's new book 'War Stories', due out towards year end, has strong South African links, but includes forays into other countries. Comprising of 35 chapters, most of which were written by well-known people who were there in various operational theatres. The book starts off with Neall Ellis's chapter on his flying the Russian Mi-8s on supply missions in Afghanistan. Some excellent Rhodesian material is covered by SAS Colonel Brian Robinson, RLI troopie Hannes Wessels, Selous Scouts Lt Col Ron Reid-Daly. Former Selous Scout Aubrey Brooks, a section leader in Colonel Mike Hoare's invasion force that tried to take the Seychelles by force, covers that aborted operation including his own arrest and subsequent sentencing to death. South Africa's Border Wars are covered, to list a few, a chapter written by Paul Els on the first battles that started it all, Graham Gillmore on the 44 Parachute Brigade, Al Venter's experiences during Parabat's Charlie Company's attack on Cuamato where their Pumas were ambushed by RPG-7's. Combat correspondent Willem Steenkamp writes on what it was like to report on wars in those days. There are chapters on Portugal's African campaigns which today's generation know very little about. Venter aims to put the record straight since Lisbon was fighting guerrillas in Africa twice as long as America remained active in Vietnam. Other pieces include a story on experiences with a private military company in Iraq, Myke (Hawkeye) Hawke own exploits fighting drug gangs, US Colonel Lester (Les) Grau compares Soviet 1980 efforts with whats going on in Afghanistan today...... and many more. A very interesting compendium of military writing that will be thoroughly well-illustrated throughout, with plently of photos.

Target release date : Late 2010
ITEM CODE - WSAJV~Al J. Venter's new book 'War Stories' is due out towards the end of the year. It has strong South African links, but includes forays into the Balkans, Chad, the Sudan, two Somali episodes (including a secret US Marine chopper rescue of American Embassy staff from Mogadishu immediately prior to Gulf War 1). Aditionally, there's also a bit of history on the Zanzibar Revolution by former Newsweek correspondent Peter Younghusband, some excellent Rhodesian material (including an SAS backgrounder by that unit's last-but-one comander Colonel Brian Robinson) as well as a chapter on the RLI by former troopie Hannes Wessels. Venter's old pal Ron Reid-Daly also gets a look in.

Former Selous Scout Aubrey Brooks was a section leader in Colonel Mike Hoare's invasion force that tried to take the Seychelles by force (and ended up with most of the mercenaries hijacking an Air India passenger jet back to Durban. Aubrey's exploits make for one of the most interesting chapters, including his arrest and subsequent sentencing to death...

South Africa's Border Wars are there in force and include an extremely instructive section on the battle that initiated those campaigns by veteran militaruy author Paul Els as well as a great vignette by Graham Gilmore on 44 Parachute Brigade. Also included is Parabat's Charlie Company (89/91) attack on Cuamato where Venter almost bought the farm when he went in with the the initial strike force onboard Puma choppers when a bunch of gooks were waiting for them on the ground with RPG-7s. His group was headed by former British SAS operative Peter MacAleese (then serving as an NCO in the SADF).

Combat correspondent Willem Steenkamp has a contribution on what it was like to report wars in the days before cell phones, faxes and the web. As he says, it was tough work and a scoop really was a scoop that waited until you returned to civilization, unless you were prepared to lose exclusivity by using party lines with half the country listening.

There are four chapters on Portugal's African campaigns which today's generation know very little about. Venter aims to put the record straight since Lisbon was fighting guerrillas in Africa twice as long as America remained active in Vietnam and proportionate to population (9 million to 220 million) the Portuguese Army suffered far worse casualties. Cumulatively, Lisbon deployed less choppers in their three theatres of African military activity - Angola, Mocambique and Portuguese Guinea - than you would find today in any big city in the United States. That tells tells you a lot...

He also has a strong chapter from an American pal who served with a private military company in Iraq and is hoping that Myke (Hawkeye) Hawke will come up with his exploits fighting the drug people in time to be included. If he can manage it, he intends to include a chapter on professional hunting in an African war zone by his mate Giorgio Grasselli who remained active in the Matetsi area almost until the end.

One of the highlights is a strong piece on comparing Soviet efforts in Afghanistan in the 1980s with what is going on there today. That's something that involves Colonel Lester (Les) Grau, who is still serving in the US Forces and wrote what is arguably the most instructive book on the subject. He was able to work closely with his Russian counterparts following Perestroika and comes up with some astonishing figues (Moscow lost something like 300 helicopters to enemy action during the course of the war in that harsh land)

Other chapters include several of Venter's experiences in the Middle East, including a brush or two with Hizbollah, two chapters on clearing landmines (one of which takes place in the Balkans and involves rthe dreaded Yugoslav PROM-1 anti-personnel 'bouncing' mine) as well as time spent with Congo mercenary chopper pilot Dave Artkinson now training pilots in the mountains of Lesotho.

The work kicks off with Neall Ellis's contribution flying Mi-8s on supply missions in Afghanistan, which he is doing right now.

There is much more, but there is not the space to mention it all including some of the choicier bits, except that this is going to be a rather interesting compendium of military writing that will be thoroughly well-illustrated throughout.

'War Stories' is a working title and comprises 35 chapters. It will include scores of on-site action pix.


Target release date : Late 2010
ITEM CODE - WSAJV~~11312~13013~~