James and the Duck: Tales of the Rhodesian Bush War (1964 - 1980)
Faan Martin, was born in 1947 in thescenic Rhodesian border city of Umtali. He was educated in Rhodesia andSouth Africa. During the war he was a cattlerancher in the Manicaland province of Rhodesia.After completing his national servicewith 1 Independent Company he served as a territorial soldier with the 4th Infantry Battalion. During his time in uniform, he qualified as a marksman and served inthe Operation Hurricane, Thrasher and Repulse areas. He also took partin external operations into neighbouring Mozambique and served with ahelicopter gunship group known as a "Fire Force."In November 1978, Rhodesian Security Forces attacked 200 terrorists ona mountain on the Martins' farm. Three days after the battle in which eight ZANLA insurgents were killedand a Rhodesian helicopter was shot down, the author and two friendssearched the mountain and found a huge arms cache. Not long afterwards Rhodesian Special Branch policemen visited theauthor and his wife Jayne and warned them that theirnames had been found on a ZANLA death list after a highly successfulattack on a massive terrorist base in Mozambique. One night in January 1979, 12 terrorists launched a bazooka attack on the Martins'family. They survived the attack, but it changed theirlives.Concern over the safety of their four small children, the regular theftof their cattle and knowingRobert Mugabe would soon become the new political leader of thecountry, eventually made the Martins immigrate to South Africa. After a short spell of teaching and farming in South Africa, Martinbecame a journalist. He has written 500 published magazine articles andwas the Editor of two weekly newspapers, the Northern Review and ThePietersburger. Later he was the Assistant Editor of the Farmer's Weeklymagazine.He now lives in Scotland.