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Winds of Destruction
The author was born in the highly successful self-governing British colony, Southern Rhodesia. His love of his country and its people is as clear in this book as his disbelief and anger over British and South African policies of political expendiency that forced Rhodesia out of the western camp into one clearly forseen to become a one-party Marxist dictatorship. Winds of Destruction is the story of the author's life before and after joining the Royal Rhodesian Air Force. The book centres on the writer's involvement with air and ground operations in Rhodesia's thirteen-year war against the communist forces of Marxist Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo who sought to gain power by force.
600 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 8, 2021
He has a clear easy style that is a pleasure to follow.
I would split this book into two parts. 1. Is an autobiography. 2. Is a first hand account of rhodesian air force and development of tactics, and equipment. Interesting to me because it was all done on a shoe string budget, for very unique problems.
#2 is the prominent theme of the book, but I like #1 too. I guess I just like people telling their life stories. If tactics and equipment don't interest you, you should probably pass.
He does comment on the politics of Rhodesia. Britain comes off looking like a villian, constantly intervening to insure the worst possible outcomes for everybody (except Mugabe). It pays to be skeptical for this sort of thing, but on the other hand its hard to imagine a worst outcome for the country than Mugabe.
I would split this book into two parts. 1. Is an autobiography. 2. Is a first hand account of rhodesian air force and development of tactics, and equipment. Interesting to me because it was all done on a shoe string budget, for very unique problems.
#2 is the prominent theme of the book, but I like #1 too. I guess I just like people telling their life stories. If tactics and equipment don't interest you, you should probably pass.
He does comment on the politics of Rhodesia. Britain comes off looking like a villian, constantly intervening to insure the worst possible outcomes for everybody (except Mugabe). It pays to be skeptical for this sort of thing, but on the other hand its hard to imagine a worst outcome for the country than Mugabe.
May 5, 2013
An interesting read, if a little heavy going in places. I was expecting tales from the author's flying career and those are delivered; but there are also many stories of the flying exploits of others. Beyond this, which I did not expect, is background of the political machinations that brought about the downfall of Rhodesia that the author delivers from his perspective.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews