Published by 30 South Publishers (PTY) Ltd, 2008, softcover, 270 pages, illustrated, condition: as new.
Delta Scout was the call sign for Tony Trethowans Ground Coverage stick during the Rhodesian bush war of the late seventies. This is the story of an ordinary policeman, a young man who signed up with the British South Africa Police as a raw 18 year old and who was to serve eight years with that fine force.
As a young Patrol Officer, he was to experience rural life in remote stations in the bush of Matabeleland. He embraced the experience and learned Sindebele within a few months.
The book is richly interspersed with anecdotes of wild frontier lifeof rowdy prospectors, obstreperous farmers, maverick hunters and bizarre eccentrics. He deals with a wide array of crimes and incidents - from murder, tribal suicide, sorcery, robbery and drunkenness to horrific vehicle accidents. But as the bush war intensifies, Tony finds himself more and more involved in paramilitary operations.
Ground Coverage was a BSAP intelligence-gathering unit operating literally on the ground in the rural areas. Known by his enemy, Nkomos ZIPRA guerrillas, as Baleka, or he who runs hither and thither because of his propensity for rapidly covering vast areas, alone in his beaten-up police Land Rover, the second part of the book deals with the authors conversion from civilian policeman to full-blooded counterinsurgency operator in an African guerrilla war.
Told with a sensitivity and pathos that is rare in military memoirs, Delta Scout is a brutally honest, compelling account of innocence lost.
TONY TRETHOWAN was born in England in 1955. His parents immigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1958, where he grew up. He served in the BSA Police from 1974 to 1981 but resigned shortly after Zimbabwean independence. He has had three careerspoliceman, educator & trainer and health & safety professional. He is presently studying for an MSSc in Occupational Safety and Health at Queens University in Belfast. His home is in Northern Ireland, but he is currently working for a large oil and gas company as an HSE consultant in Yemen. Delta Scout is his first book.
