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THE FARMER AT WAR (click to read the book)
By Trevor Grundy and Bernard Miller
http://www.rhodesia.nl/farmera…..oc34366896
“The Farmer at War” tells the story of white farmers in Rhodesia. This is what I mean by learning from REAL EVENTS folks. This on line book is a real gold mine full of gems of reality-based experience you can learn from. Reality may not be as fun as killing raiders or shooting it out with UN goons in a holier than thou chairborne commando wet dream, but it is much more useful for realistic survival.
You want to know how it would really be like for you surviving in a farm or homestead surrounded by people that want to steal from you, rape and kill? Has happened before so read up!!
I don’t say it often but when I do its because of a good reason. Must read link folks. If nothing else at least read the quotes below so as to see what you are missing.
FerFAL
……
After the store attack Don and his wife tightened their security precautions. “Where I go, I carry my FN. My wife always carries a pistol. It’s damned nuisance, but necessary if we’re to stay alive. We used to love riding the motorbike around the farm. But not now. It’s too dangerous. It’s too vulnerable to an ambush.”
…
“We’ve learnt to live with it, we’ve adjusted. God only knows how, or why really. It’s sheer madness in many ways. If you had told me before all this happened that today I would be living like this, armed to the teeth, locked behind fences, chasing terrs(Ferfal edit: terrorists), checking farm roads for landmines, spending half my time in the army, I’d call you a bloody fool… I’d laugh you out. But here I am doing just that… must be sick in the head, or something.
…
“What’s left on the farms? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just some walls. It’s a terrible sight. I don’t even go there now. It makes me depressed just to look on it. A life’s work in ruins.
“Life in town? What can I say. At least we’re safer. She’s safe. Me? I’d sooner run the risk out there on the farm. I don’t think I can settle down to town life. It’s not in me. I was born and bred in the bush, wilderness all round me. I will die in the bush, I know that.”
Kuni’s bitterness is shared by his wife, but she admitted, “At least I can sleep at night now. On the farm I would go to bed, just doze for an hour or so and then wake up and lay there waiting for the dawn. Here we’re safe. We’ve friends and neighbours. But it’s hard living away from the farm. We miss the small things too.. .like having our own meat and eggs, baking our own bread and making our own butter. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to shopping for groceries. But it’s safer for us here.”
…
“Real fear? It was something one experienced every six months. But then you don’t mind, every six months. But when you get a hammering every fortnight and it gets worse — it intensifies — then you’ve got to start thinking. I was only worried really by the heavy stuff. The rockets and the mortars. The small arms fire I could handle. The ambushes are the thing, though. Especially when you’re in an unprotected vehicle. Then the heavy stuff could put paid to your ticket.”
Because of his experiences in the operational areas, especially on border farms, he has plenty of tips for farmers. He suggests that many are “under-dogged” — a word he has invented. “All very well having these little yappy things underfoot,” he says. “True, they make a noise, but what is needed is big, fierce, Alsatian or Labrador-type dogs — I’ve often known terrs running from dogs like that. And they must sleep outside, it’s no good having them indoors.”
….
He’s also horrified at the number of farmers who keep fire-arms locked up during the day. “You’ve got to have them right beside you, readily available, at all times.”
And, while he sympathises tremendously with wives in the sensitive security areas he’d destroy the trees and large shrubs in their carefully tended gardens if he had half a chance. He points out that the value of a security fence is diminished if you have lots of cover within the fence. When there’s a shoot-out, it is all too easy for terrs to reach the house, through garden vegetation.
Join the forum discussion on this post!
By Trevor Grundy and Bernard Miller
http://www.rhodesia.nl/farmera…..oc34366896
“The Farmer at War” tells the story of white farmers in Rhodesia. This is what I mean by learning from REAL EVENTS folks. This on line book is a real gold mine full of gems of reality-based experience you can learn from. Reality may not be as fun as killing raiders or shooting it out with UN goons in a holier than thou chairborne commando wet dream, but it is much more useful for realistic survival.
You want to know how it would really be like for you surviving in a farm or homestead surrounded by people that want to steal from you, rape and kill? Has happened before so read up!!
I don’t say it often but when I do its because of a good reason. Must read link folks. If nothing else at least read the quotes below so as to see what you are missing.
FerFAL
……
After the store attack Don and his wife tightened their security precautions. “Where I go, I carry my FN. My wife always carries a pistol. It’s damned nuisance, but necessary if we’re to stay alive. We used to love riding the motorbike around the farm. But not now. It’s too dangerous. It’s too vulnerable to an ambush.”
…
“We’ve learnt to live with it, we’ve adjusted. God only knows how, or why really. It’s sheer madness in many ways. If you had told me before all this happened that today I would be living like this, armed to the teeth, locked behind fences, chasing terrs(Ferfal edit: terrorists), checking farm roads for landmines, spending half my time in the army, I’d call you a bloody fool… I’d laugh you out. But here I am doing just that… must be sick in the head, or something.
…
“What’s left on the farms? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just some walls. It’s a terrible sight. I don’t even go there now. It makes me depressed just to look on it. A life’s work in ruins.
“Life in town? What can I say. At least we’re safer. She’s safe. Me? I’d sooner run the risk out there on the farm. I don’t think I can settle down to town life. It’s not in me. I was born and bred in the bush, wilderness all round me. I will die in the bush, I know that.”
Kuni’s bitterness is shared by his wife, but she admitted, “At least I can sleep at night now. On the farm I would go to bed, just doze for an hour or so and then wake up and lay there waiting for the dawn. Here we’re safe. We’ve friends and neighbours. But it’s hard living away from the farm. We miss the small things too.. .like having our own meat and eggs, baking our own bread and making our own butter. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to shopping for groceries. But it’s safer for us here.”
…
“Real fear? It was something one experienced every six months. But then you don’t mind, every six months. But when you get a hammering every fortnight and it gets worse — it intensifies — then you’ve got to start thinking. I was only worried really by the heavy stuff. The rockets and the mortars. The small arms fire I could handle. The ambushes are the thing, though. Especially when you’re in an unprotected vehicle. Then the heavy stuff could put paid to your ticket.”
Because of his experiences in the operational areas, especially on border farms, he has plenty of tips for farmers. He suggests that many are “under-dogged” — a word he has invented. “All very well having these little yappy things underfoot,” he says. “True, they make a noise, but what is needed is big, fierce, Alsatian or Labrador-type dogs — I’ve often known terrs running from dogs like that. And they must sleep outside, it’s no good having them indoors.”
….
He’s also horrified at the number of farmers who keep fire-arms locked up during the day. “You’ve got to have them right beside you, readily available, at all times.”
And, while he sympathises tremendously with wives in the sensitive security areas he’d destroy the trees and large shrubs in their carefully tended gardens if he had half a chance. He points out that the value of a security fence is diminished if you have lots of cover within the fence. When there’s a shoot-out, it is all too easy for terrs to reach the house, through garden vegetation.
Join the forum discussion on this post!
2 comments:
"Rhodesia's population today is nearly 10 times what it was at the turn of the century. Since 1960, for example, the population has increased a further 75 per cent. By the end of the century, and assuming the 3,7 per cent per year growth rate continues, Rhodesia's population could probably top 15 million."
This historical account is from 1979, Also it is not South Africa, but Zimbabwe, which was called Rhodesia back then. Both are in Southern Africa. Population dynamics is a large factor in how much crime there is.
I was in Gauteng, South Africa and Maputo, Mozambique back in the winter of 2004. Maputo was and is poorer, but was much safer. I never went out alone at night in Gauteng. I did in Maputo.
Back then in South Africa a new and very strict gun control law was put on the books. I read a news story then that many farmers were buying war dogs and bow and arrows to protect themselves from farm invaders, who tended to be young, uneducated black males from dangerous places in the country.
here are some interesting links.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/South-Africans-switch-from-guns-to-crossbows/2005/03/20/1111253879110.html
http://whatishappeninginsouthafrica.blogspot.jp/search/label/Farm%20Murders
Rhodesia is THE perfect example of what happens to a first world society that is subject to massive terrorism and systemic breakdown in order and security. I can think of no better history to study than what the European descendants of Rhodesia went through. Savagery and in the end they lost it all. Of course, it was politically imposed by the UK and USA but on the ground, it was just raw, bloody survival. I respect the hell out of those Rhodesians. Excellent post!
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