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Sold by Order of the Recipient’s Direct Descendants Robert Mugabe: “Why are your men trying to kill me?” Li

Dix, Noonan, Webb

Lot 845

Sold by Order of the Recipient’s Direct Descendants Robert Mugabe: “Why are your men trying to kill me?” Lieutenant-General Peter Walls: “If they were my men you would be dead.” The highly important Malaya Emergency and Rhodesia “Bush War” group of eleven awarded to Lieutenant-General Peter Walls, G.L.M., D.C.D., M.B.E., arguably one of the greatest counter-insurgency leaders of modern times, who, having commanded ‘C’ Squadron, 22 Special Air Service Regiment in Malaya, rose to the command of the Rhodesian Army under Ian Smith during the U.D.I. and briefly of the Zimbabwe Armed Forces under Robert Mugabe on independence in 1980 - at one time he had 45,000 men under his command and his protracted defence of Rhodesia must surely rank as one of the finest military achievements of all time Zimbabwe Independence Medal 1980, in silver, officially numbered ‘0110’, with its case of issue; Rhodesian Grand Officer of the Legion of Merit (G.L.M.), neck badge and breast star, in silver, gilt and enamel, the latter fitted with four loops to reverse for wearing and in its case of issue; Rhodesian Officer of the Legion of Merit (O.L.M.), breast badge, gilt and enamel, in its case of issue; Rhodesian Defence Cross for Distinguished Service (D.C.D.) (Lt. Gen. G. P. Walls), with its case of issue; Rhodesian General Service Medal (Brig. G. P. Walls); Rhodesian Exemplary Service Medal, with Bar (Brig. G. P. Walls); The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge; War Medal 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (Major C. P. Walls, S. Rhod. Mil. F.), note first initial; Coronation 1953, mounted as worn where applicable, together with a set of uniform tunic ribands, minor official correction to unit on the G.S.M., otherwise generally good very fine (11) £30000-40000 M.B.E. London Gazette 1 May 1953. The original recommendation states: ‘Major Walls has commanded the Rhodesian Squadron in the 22 S.A.S. since its arrival in Malaya in 1951. Although he is young and has no previous experience of commanding a unit of this size, his work had been quite outstanding; the Squadron has been absorbed into a British Army unit most successfully. The success of the scheme initiated by the Southern Rhodesian Government, whereby Southern Rhodesians were made available to fight against the communists in the Far East, is, in the case of the present Squadron, due to a great extent to the untiring efforts of Major Walls. He has set a very high standard of conduct, determination and courage throughout his tour with the Regiment, and his qualities of leadership are such that the Squadron has developed into a first rate fighting unit.’ George Peter Walls was born in Southern Rhodesia in July 1926, the son of one of the colony’s pioneer pilots, George Walls, who had served in the Royal Naval Air Service in the Great War. Educated at Plumtree School, Peter, as he was known, entered Sandhurst towards the end of the 1939-45 War, and was commissioned in the Black Watch, but, on learning that he was to be transferred to another regiment, chose to resign and ‘return to my beloved Rhodesia rather than serve in any regiment other than the Black Watch.’ With the S.A.S. in Malaya 1951-53 Commissioned into the Northern Rhodesia Regiment on his return, he was just 24 years of age when in early 1951 he was given command the Southern Rhodesia Far East Volunteer Unit (S.R.F.E.V.U.), afterwards designated ‘C’ Squadron, Malayan Scouts (S.A.S.), an unusual appointment for one so young, as recalled by Trooper Geoff Turner-Dauncey in S.A.S. Rhodesia, by Jonathan Pittaway and Craig Fourie: ‘S.R.F.E.V.U. was placed under the command of Lieutenant Peter Walls, a young Staff Corps officer who had served in the British Army with the Black Watch. He was appointed Temporary Captain to signify his position as the senior officer in the unit. As a Squadron Commander’s rank is that of Major, he was then appointed Acting Major. The intention was that on arrival in Malaya, a British Major would be appointed Squadron Commander of ‘C’ Squadron, and Major Walls would revert to the rank of Temporary Captain. This never happened, so the young Lieutenant, Temporary Captain, Acting Major Walls still in his twenties had the responsibility of being an operational commander for the complete duration of his Far East tour. I have no doubt that this experience stood him in good stead during the years that followed and in due course enabled him to become the supreme commander of the Rhodesian Forces.’ ‘C’ (Rhodesia) Squadron, Malayan Scouts (S.A.S.), arrived in the Far East in March 1951, where it was once more re-designated, this time as ‘C’ (Rhodesia) Squadron, 22 S.A.S. Regiment, and Walls quickly set to work in training his men in readiness for the jungle warfare ahead, himself being an early member of the team which carried out experimental “tree-jumping” as a means of entry into the deep jungle terrain. Mick Coetzee, another contributor to S.A.S. Rhodesia, takes up the story: ‘The answer was to drop directly into the jungle and since clearings were almost non-existent, dropping into trees was the only way. A member of ‘C’ Squadron was tasked with studying tree-jumping. The first experiment was conducted in a rubber plantation. Another experiment was to drop from a helicopter and this was actually tried over water. The difficulty was that there was no slipstream to assist in the development of the chute. Using helicopters was also expensive. The biggest helicopter in service was the S55 which had a ten-man capacity. Getting down to the ground from the tree was a problem. A hand-over-hand descent using knotted rope was successful but the physical effort required left the soldier almost exhausted on the reaching the ground. The hobby of the Regiment’s Medical Officer at the time was climbing in the Swiss Alps and he came up with the idea of the abseiling technique for making the tree-to-ground descent. For training purposes a scaffold was erected in camp and individuals were taught the technique. An experiment with the technique in the jungle proved successful. Unfortunately Peter Walls was wounded in the lower jaw at the moment the helicopter touched down on the helipad. It was speculated that the pieces of metal extracted from his jaw and lower face had come from the helicopter rotor which broke on touchdown.’ By January 1952, Walls - recovered from his injuries - was ready to take ‘C’ Squadron into action from a new base at Sungei Besi camp in Kuala Lumpur. In fact, the Rhodesians mounted no less than four operations in the months ahead, namely “Helsby” in Perak, “League” in Pahang, “Copley” in Kelantan and “Hive” in Negri Sembilan. In Rhodesia S.A.S., Trooper Geoff Turner-Dauncey describes the type of conditions the Squadron faced on such operations: ‘From the moment we stepped into the jungle until we returned to base we got soaked, and stayed wet, from the humidity, crossing rivers and swamps, and the soaking vegetation caused by monsoon rains. In that humidity, one has to learn to cope with impetigo skin diseases including ringworm, leeches and other ailments. Insect and leech bites began to fester, and ringworm, many forms of eczema, and athlete’s foot resulted in widespread ulceration of the skin. Ointments only aggravated rotting fleah, so where possible penicillin wound powder was applied to open sores. With our operational dress torn and rotting, and stinking of sweat, rifle oil and decaying vegetation, it was common practice to burn our clothes on returning to base. For a while troops returning to base from operations looked rather like clowns: wearing just P.T. shorts, sandal

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