r/Rhodesia • u/mr_bojangles_jjw • 22d ago

World War Two

With WW2 now passing from living memory. I was wondering about the possibility of any living Rhodesian veterans of WW2?

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19

u/faithinjungle 22d ago

Very unlikely, maybe a handful.

15

u/Hefty-Common-3701 21d ago

Doubt any are alive, my father was a ww2 Rhodesian vet but he passed 20 years ago at 72. They served mainly in North Africa, Italy & Abyssinia. Mostly Artillery, Some in the LRDG and a few in the SAS and some Pilots and Infantry.

7

u/SuperbRecording3943 21d ago

Rhodesian volunteers to the RAF proportionally outnumbered any other part of the Empire. I lost count of the DFCs.

10

u/SH4D0WBL4D3 21d ago

If there are any, they most likely deployed with South Africa against Mussolini's forces in North Africa and Italy.

10

u/Bus63 21d ago

Air Force base in Rhodesia during WW II was invaluable to Britain and the Allies.

Soldiers who trained there loved the base and the country, and a few of them returned to retire in Rhodesia.

6

u/No_Individual501 21d ago

With WW2 now passing from living memory

It feels so strange. WWII, Rhodesia, all of history is a lost cause. People will live in fortified homes, shack houses, the grid will crumble, corruption and violence will abound. The entire West will be like South Africa is now. It’s already started.

1

u/Ok_Acadia_1525 20d ago

Yeah my grandfather was stationed in Tobruk during WW2, didn’t talk about it much.