Sunday Bloody Sunday

 

 

Media Reviews:

An amazing coverage of Special Forces Service in Rhodesia, Northern Ireland, Mozambique and Iraq.

 

It is not often that we get TWO superb offerings from Galago Publishing at the same time......as is the case here. Jake Harper-Ronald wanted to be a soldier from childhood. In 1966 his ambition was fulfilled when he was conscripted as a National Serviceman into the Royal Rhodesia Regiment. He later moved to the U.K. to the Paras. The Book is named for Sunday the 30th of January 1972 when he was deployed as the official photographer for 1-Para in Londonderry to combat an IRA inspired 'Peace' march. Elements in the crowd fired on the Paras who returned fire killing 13 marchers. That day lives on in infamy as "Bloody Sunday".

"Quartermaster's Comment":- And that is just the beginning. What follows is a wealth of modern history. The S.A.S. and Selous Scouts follow. Unlike most books which stop at the end of the Rhodesian conflict Jake went on to serve with M I 6 to run militia's to combat Renamo guerrillas in Mozambique . He worked with 'Private' Security in Iraq and sadly died of cancer aged only 59 on the 5th of August 2007.This book is a MUST and a very 'Up-to-Date' report on recent history.

Bruce Waters

 

Jake Harper-Ronald had no quiet life, and as the title of this autobiography suggests, he was indeed present in Derry on Sunday, January 30, 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on a pro-Republican protest march, killing at least 13.

 

Lance Corporal Harper-Ronald was at the time an intelligence clerk and photographer with the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and was deployed there that morning to photograph events – and photograph them he did – many of the shots are reproduced here.

 

Harper-Ronald was born in Potchefstroom into a military family that later migrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he later did his national service. He then migrated to Britain, joined the “Paras” and “enjoyed” several years of strife and trouble in Northern Ireland – including the events later immortalised by the rock group U2.

 

He returned to Rhodesia in 1974 in order to join the Special Air Service (SAS), serving there for several years before barracks politics pushed him towards the Selous Scouts, the British South Africa Police's Special Branch and the counter-intelligence division of Robert Mugabe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). After being accused of being a South African spy, mainly on the basis of his race and former Selous Scouts affiliation, indeed became a double agent for SA's National Intelligence Service. He also moonlighted for the British and the US, who in the early 1980s seemed to have had a very close relationship with the CIO, so much so that the latter helped British intelligence bug the new Libyan embassy and assisted their American cousins in acquiring photos of Cuban intelligence operatives posted to Harare. This was an exciting time for Harper-Ronald and an eye-opener for the reader.

 

In 1989 Harper-Ronald left the CIO and went to Mozambique to work as a security contractor for Lomaco, on a British SIS pay cheque. There he ran a company militia fighting RENAMO and other unidentified “bandits”. Among the farms he protected was that of Graça Machel.

 

In 1993 he started a new business with a new wife in Zimbabwe, but this died in 2002 as Mugabe's thugs destroyed the country's agrarian and tourist economy. This led to the last dramatic episode in is life, two stints as a private military contractor in Iraq.

 

By then he had suffered and recovered from an initial bout of cancer. It returned in 2006 and Harper-Ronald lost the fight in August the next year. He was 59 and had just completed a draft of this book.

 

Harper-Ronald was no Eisenhower or even a Ron Reid-Daly. He did not loom large in history. But he has told a story, the story of his life, with pathos and a great sense of humour – and that makes for an easy and great read.

Leon Engelbrecht - Defence Web - www.defenceweb.co.za