page_title: History of the Rhodesian Light Infantry (1961–1972)
section_title: UDI: Rhodesia goes it alone
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Rhodesian Light Infantry (1961–1972) / UDI: Rhodesia goes it alone
caption_attribution_description: English: Kariba Dam, Zimbabwe. Photo converted from 35mm slide film to digital.
context_page_description: The 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, commonly the Rhodesian Light Infantry, was originally formed in 1961 as a regiment of the army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Raised as a light infantry unit at Brady Barracks, Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia, the Regiment served in the Rhodesian Bush War as part of the Rhodesian Security Forces between 1964 and 1979, from 1965 under the unrecognised governments of Rhodesia and latterly, during the second half of 1979, Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The RLI remained active during an interim period under British control and then, from April 1980, within the armed forces of Zimbabwe, before disbanding on 31 October 1980.
  The RLI was formed in February 1961 as a light infantry battalion made up exclusively of white recruits. After first seeing action in September 1961 on the Northern Rhodesian border with Katanga, it relocated to Cranborne Barracks, Salisbury the following year and remained there as part of the Southern Rhodesian Army after the Federation dissolved on 31 December 1963.
context_section_description: On instructions from Gibbs, Putterill ordered all military personnel to remain at their posts and go about their normal duties. These instructions were followed but Gibbs's forbidding of any army or police servicemen to "assist the illegal régime ... in its rebellion against the Crown" was roundly ignored. Although the declaration had clearly stated that Rhodesia's loyalty to the monarchy was unaffected, the sympathy of Rhodesian soldiers and officers was quickly revealed to lie firmly with country, not Queen: when Rhodesian officers training in Britain were given an ultimatum to this effect, all but one returned home. Smith predicted confidently that despite the sabre-rattling of Kaunda and the UK's politicians, the British armed forces would never agree to engage in what he said would be a "fratricidal war" against Rhodesia. Nevertheless the Rhodesian Security Forces prepared Operation Wizard, a secret contingency plan to counter an invasion by British or UN forces. Smith was proven correct when a British Ministry of Defence council, headed by Denis Healey, determined such intervention "impossible", leading Wilson to rule out the use of military force.
  When Putterill visited the RLI garrison at the Kariba Dam early in the morning the day following UDI, he found the troopers there in fine spirits and described them as "perfectly cheerful". On the opposite side of the dam the Zambian defences were being inspected by British Major-General Willoughby, who had just flown in from his station at Aden where he had entertained Putterill only six weeks before. When Willoughby led a party of British and Zambian officers to the border at the centre of the dam, the RLI troopers heckled the group from their sandbagged bunkers on the southern side. "Great offence was taken at this insult to Willoughby's dignity," Wood writes. Despite the initial fears of an invasion the Battalion's activities over the following months consisted merely of routine training and patrolling.
caption: The Kariba Dam, seen in 1994 from above the southern side where 1 Commando was garrisoned when UDI was declared on 11 November 1965[25]
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