Tony Ballinger - A Walk Against the Stream: A Rhodesian National Service Officers Story of the Bush War

A Walk Against The Stream takes a look at the experiences of a young national service officer in the Rhodesian Army. This is a true story encompassing all 18 months the author spent at Victoria Falls, Rhodesia facing enemy territory just across the Zambezi River in Zambia.

Initially allocated to 4th Platoon, 4 Independent Company Rhodesia Regiment (RR) as a subaltern and later on as a 1st Lieutenant in Support Company 2RR the story starts with the authors training and subsequent deployment to the operational area. The events that unfold contain interesting military encounters, with battles against the Zambian Army and local terrorists clearly depicted. The style of writing flows easily and graphically drawing the reader into a half-forgotten world.

But there is also another aspect to the story: the human side of it. It is an examination of the authors love of a country falling apart and the relationship that he forms with a local woman in the village; their love, hope and dreams snatched away by unfolding events. This is a riveting personal tale interspersed with interesting facts and dozens of photographs. All the names and places are real including the battle scenes with ZIPRA and the Zambian Army.

Tony Ballinger (born 13 April 1955) was raised in a modest, but happy home in Salisbury, Rhodesia. He attended Admiral Tait Junior School followed by Churchill High School, where he enjoyed athletics, rugby and swimming. Preferring travel to tertiary education, he set off on a three-year working holiday around the world undertaking varied roles such as a clerk, carpenters assistant, lifeguard and assistant train driver (the latter being in Sydney, Australia).

Within two weeks of returning to Rhodesia, the author received call-up papers to do his compulsory 18 months national service. While at Llewellin Barracks in Bulawayo, an offer was put out for any candidate with an O level education and above to apply for a trainee officer selection course to be run at the School of Infantry in Gwelo. The author underwent a very stiff five-day pre-selection course and out of 300 eligible men, only 13 were selected to go to the School of Infantry. One of the successful 13, he found awaiting him a very stiff and demanding course at the end of which only three men were commissioned; the author being one of them.

Initially transferred to command 4th Platoon 4 Independent Company RR, he went on to serve in 1 Independent Company RR, Support Company 2RR and then finally, he became a weapons and tactics instructor in PATU (the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit) based at Morris Depot, Salisbury.

Tony has an avid interest in studying current geopolitical events linking them to prophecies in the Bible and is currently writing a book on the subject matter. He is married with two children and currently lives in Salisbury in the UK something he finds ironic as he was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

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Published by Helion & Company 2015

Designed and typeset by Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire

Cover designed by Euan Carter, Leicester (www.euancarter.com)

Printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

Text Tony Ballinger 2015

Photographs as individually credited

Cover: A soldier patrolling against the backdrop of Victoria Falls Craig Bone.

ISBN: 978 1 910294 43 7

DIGITAL ISBN: 978 1 910777 49 7

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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I dedicate this book to my wife, Coral. Thanks honey for putting up with my mood-swings and long absences while writing this story.

To Roy Orchard, Dave Kruger and Tom Shipley. You paid the ultimate sacrifice and we will never forget you.

This is a true story based on my personal experiences in the Rhodesian Army. All of the character names, places and events are real although one or two scenes are narrated in the third-person to allow continuity.

I do not claim to have achieved anything spectacular during my experiences in the Rhodesian bush war, but I continue to have a deep love for that country and felt I should put my story forward to complement the tapestry of other fine works on this subject.

Whether you see one corpse or a hundred, you are forever changed and the innocent youth that you once were is gone for good.

So this is a story of lost youth, lost love and the loss of a country loved more deeply than the other two.

I would like to thank Craig Bone very much indeed for painting the picture on the cover; I cannot express my thanks enough Craig, that an artist of your calibre would do this for me. Thank you.

I eyed the seething mass with barely-disguised hatred and my mind began to float and wobble as if I was imprisoned in a horrible nightmare and as Prince Charless speech dragged on, so my eyes latched onto the Union Jack and I realised 90 years of white rule had begun with the raising of that flag and was now ending with the lowering of it. Fifteen years of rule under the green and white flag of Rhodesia was forgotten already and as I stared at the flag with floodlit, phosphorescent grass blocking out most of my teary vision, so images of people formed in my mind.

They were images of dead people people like Dave Kruger, Roy Orchard and Tom Shipley spirits of people who were now only memories or names on a gravestone. And as they formed before me like a developing photograph, so the tears ran freely down my cheeks to mingle with the dust that held their bones and I knew the country I loved was no more.

I didnt really hear the roar of the people or the rush of the jets, or the explosions of the cannons as the hour of midnight heralded in Zimbabwe. I could only feel a breeze and see a bright horizon of swaying fields of corn their heads proud in the bright sunshine. I couldnt hear the noise, for the sound of half-forgotten voices and laughter echoed and rolled down the halls of my mind; and as I stood there, seeing but not seeing the perpetrators of Rhodesias downfall, so I knew that it was time to go; that we would have to seek another land as beautiful as her if that was indeed possible.

1 This scene depicts the night I stood in Rufaro Stadium watching the Union Jack come down on the night of 18 April 1980. I was extremely angry and emotional that night angered by the fact that it wasnt the Rhodesian flag being lowered. It was like our nation never existed; emotional because the memory of my dead friends were still fresh in my mind.