Southern Rhodesia in World War I

, highlighted in red on a map of Africa in 1914; other British possessions in pink|alt=A map. See description At the time of World War I (also known as the First World War or the Great War), Southern Rhodesia was administered by the British South Africa Company, which had controlled it and Northern Rhodesia since acquiring them through diplomacy and conquest during the 1890s. The white population in Southern Rhodesia stood at 23,606 in 1911 (a minority of 3%), while Northern Rhodesia had about 3,000 white settlers (less than half of 1%). With the company's charter expiring in late 1914, most Southern Rhodesian public attention was focused on this issue before the outbreak of war. The settlers were split between those who backed continued administration by the Chartered Company and those who advocated responsible government, which would make Southern Rhodesia a self-governing colony within the British Empire. Still, others favored the integration of Southern Rhodesia into the Union of South Africa, which had been formed in 1910. Following the intervention of the war, the charter was renewed for 10 years in early 1915. Before 1914, Southern Rhodesia's police force was the British South Africa Police (BSAP), first raised in 1889 and reconstituted into a more permanent form in 1896. This paramilitary, mounted infantry force was theoretically also the country's standing army. it served in the First and Second Matabele Wars of the 1890s, operated on Britain's side in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902 (alongside the specially-raised Rhodesia Regiment), and by 1914, it comprised about 1,150 men (including officers). Reserves existed in the form of the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers, an all-white amateur force with a paper strength of 2,000, intended for mobilization against local uprisings. Few doubted the Volunteers' enthusiasm, but they were not extensively trained or equipped; though perhaps useful in a Rhodesian bush skirmish, most observers agreed they would be no match for professional soldiers in a conventional war. In any case, the Volunteers' enlistment contracts bound them for domestic service only. ==Outbreak of war==

Announcement and reception in Cape Town, December 1914|alt=Soldiers in colonial-style military uniforms march past the camera, smiling When Britain declared war on Germany at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time on 4 August 1914, the British Empire's dominions and colonies automatically became involved as well. Word of this reached the Southern Rhodesian capital city Salisbury during the night. Early on 5 August, the Company administrator Sir William Milton wired Whitehall: "All Rhodesia united in devoted loyalty to King and Empire and ready to do its duty." The Rhodesia Herald and Bulawayo Chronicle newspapers published special editions the same day to spread the news; so it was to the frustration of many of them that the Company did not immediately commit to any martial action. While it sent supportive messages to Whitehall, the Company felt it could not raise any kind of expeditionary force without first considering the implications for its administrative operations; as a commercial concern, it was possible for the company to go bankrupt. Who would foot the bill for war expenditure, its hierarchy pondered: the Company itself, the Rhodesian taxpayers or the British government? the administration limited its initial contribution to posting a section of BSAP troopers to the Victoria Falls Bridge to guard against possible German attack from South-West Africa though the Caprivi Strip. The Company suggested to the UK government that it might dispatch 500 troopers from the Rhodesian Reserves to Europe to act as an all-Southern Rhodesian unit on the Western Front (in Belgium and France), but the War Office in London replied that such an expeditionary force would be more practically deployed in Africa, within the South African forces. When the Company relayed this idea south, the South Africans said they were happy to take the Southern Rhodesians, but only if they enlisted independently in existing Union regiments. The Company found itself in the unusual position of having a prospective expeditionary force that nobody wanted. Unwilling to wait, some Southern Rhodesian would-be soldiers made their own way to Britain to join the British Army directly, as individuals or in groups. By the end of October 1914, about 300 were on their way. ==Europe==

Western Front , a British Army cavalry regiment|alt=Soldiers in British uniforms of First World War vintage pose for a formative shot In terms of fighting manpower, Southern Rhodesia's main contribution to World War I was in the trenches of the Western Front. During the war's opening months, Southern Rhodesian volunteers who could not afford to travel to England were assisted by a private fund set up by Ernest Lucas Guest, a Salisbury lawyer and Anglo-Boer War veteran who also organized an accompanying recruitment campaign for European service. Guest stopped recruiting at the company's request after it created the 1st Rhodesia Regiment, an expeditionary force to South and South-West Africa, in October 1914. A link developed during the war with the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC), whose Southern Rhodesian contingent—numbering a few hundred, chiefly in its 2nd and 3rd Battalions—was the largest on the Western Front. The connection with this particular corps began as the result of a chance conversation aboard the ship that took the first batch of Southern Rhodesians from Cape Town to Southampton in late 1914. The 16th Marquess of Winchester, who had links with Rhodesia dating back to the 1890s, was also aboard the ship, returning from a visit to the colony. Encountering Captain John Banks Brady, the officer of Irish origin who led the volunteers, the Marquess asked where his party was headed. Brady enthusiastically replied that they were going to war together in France. The Marquess suggested to Brady that since it might be difficult to prevent his men from being split up during the enlistment process, it might be a good idea for the Rhodesians to join the KRRC, where he could keep an eye on them through his connections with the Winchester-based regiment. The Southern Rhodesian contingent duly mustered into the KRRC. A designated Rhodesian platoon, widely referred to thereafter as "the Rhodesian Platoon", was formed under Brady at the KRRC training camp at Sheerness, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. As a rule, the white Rhodesians overseas combined stridently pro-British attitudes with an even stronger pride in Rhodesia. The existence of an explicitly Rhodesian Platoon in the KRRC endeared the regiment to the Southern Rhodesian public, and attracted many of the colony's volunteers who arrived in England later in the war; in time, the KRRC formed further Rhodesian platoons from additional personnel. While the average Rhodesian colonial, living on the frontier of the Empire, was at least casually acquainted with rifles, most Englishmen had never held one. At Sheerness, Brady's Rhodesian Platoon won a reputation for fine sharpshooting, and set a regimental record score at the shooting range. Once posted to France in December 1914, the Rhodesian Platoon almost immediately began suffering regular heavy casualties. Southern Rhodesian volunteers continued to arrive piecemeal in England throughout the conflict, so Rhodesian formations on the Western Front received regular reinforcements in small batches, but because casualties were usually concentrated in far larger groups it often took a few months for a depleted Southern Rhodesian unit to return to full numerical strength. A cycle developed whereby Rhodesian platoons in Belgium and France were abruptly decimated and then gradually built up again only to suffer the same fate on returning to action. Trench warfare was a dreadful ordeal for soldiers, and the Southern Rhodesians, coming from the open veld of southern Africa, had a particularly difficult time getting used to the cold and the mud. Brady reported that some of his men had contracted frostbite within 48 hours of reaching the trenches. Southern Rhodesians became especially valuable to the KRRC as designated snipers, grenadiers, Lewis Gunners and other specialists. |alt=A black-and-white sketch of a savage battle scene, where the two sides are fighting hand-to-hand and with bayonets So many Southern Rhodesians were withdrawn from the trenches for officer training that in mid-1915, Brady appealed through the Salisbury and Bulawayo presses for more volunteers to replace those who had been commissioned. A platoon of Southern Rhodesians with the 2nd Battalion, KRRC took part in the "big push" of 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, charging German positions elsewhere on the line early that morning. There were 90 Rhodesians on the eve of the attack and only 10 alive and unwounded afterwards. Despite suffering casualties of catastrophic proportions—about 80% of the brigade's personnel were killed, wounded, or captured—they took the Wood and held it as ordered until they were relieved on 20 July. By the time of its withdrawal, the South African Brigade, originally numbering 3,155 (123 officers and 3,032 other ranks), had been reduced to 19 officers and 600 men. Delville Wood was later described by Sir B H Liddell Hart as "the bloodiest battle hell of 1916". German gas attacks were among the most traumatic experiences for the Southern Rhodesians in Europe. One Rhodesian survivor of a gas attack described the sensation as like "suffocation, [or] slow drowning". In July 1917, a KRRC Rhodesian platoon received lofty praise from a senior British officer, who described the colonials as "absolutely first-class soldiers and great gentlemen, every bit as good as soldiers… as our old Expeditionary Force". Around the same time, a platoon of Southern Rhodesians in the KRRC took part in an engagement near Nieuwpoort in Flanders, where it and the Northamptonshire Regiment manned positions on the eastern banks of the river Yser. After a heavy artillery bombardment, German infantry and marines charged the British positions and surrounded the Rhodesian platoon. Brutal hand-to-hand fighting ensued in which most of the Southern Rhodesians were killed and some were taken prisoner. The Bulawayo Chronicle ran a eulogy for them soon after, comparing their last stand to that of Allan Wilson's Shangani Patrol in 1893. Later in 1917, a Rhodesian platoon in the KRRC fought in the Battle of Passchendaele, near Ypres in western Flanders. The Western Front continued to receive Southern Rhodesian troops right up to the end of the war, including veterans of the 2nd Rhodesia Regiment's campaign in East Africa. During the conflict's latter stages, the British Army sent some of its Southern Rhodesian officers to the Western Front to promote the colony's benefits, hoping to encourage emigration there by British servicemen after the war. Salonika The KRRC's 3rd Battalion, including a platoon of 70 Rhodesians, was transferred from France to the Salonika front in 1915. On this comparatively quiet front, they were slowly whittled down over the course of the war: 26 of them remained in January 1917, and by the end of the war so few were left that the platoon no longer existed. Most of the men had been killed in action, while others were prisoners of the Bulgarians. Aviators Some Southern Rhodesians mustered into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), which merged with the Royal Naval Air Service in April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. Towards the end of the war, the service of airmen from the dominions and colonies was observed by the issuing of shoulder patches denoting the wearer's country of origin: from October 1918, Southern Rhodesians received labels marked "". One of the territory's first military aviators was Lieutenant Arthur R H Browne, a fighter pilot from Umvuma in the Southern Rhodesian Midlands, who was attached to No. 13 Squadron, RFC. He was killed in action in a dogfight on 5 December 1915; his aircraft, donated by the people of Gatooma in western Mashonaland, was Gatooma No. 2, one of five airplanes purchased by Southern Rhodesian public donations. From Dryden Farm, near the south-western border town of Plumtree, came Lieutenant Frank W H Thomas, an RFC combat pilot who won the Military Cross, as well as the French Croix de Guerre (with palms), before he died on 5 January 1918 from wounds attained on operational service. Lieutenant Daniel S "Pat" Judson, born in Bulawayo in 1898, became the first Rhodesia-born airman in history when he joined the RFC in April 1916. He was severely wounded while bombing enemy positions in March 1918, but recovered and remained in the unit until April 1919. The first flying ace born in Rhodesia was Major George Lloyd, nicknamed "Zulu", who joined No. 60 Squadron in April 1917, and won four aerial victories before transferring to No. 40 Squadron in July 1917, where he won four more. and also won the Air Force Cross later that year. Second Lieutenant David "Tommy" Greswolde-Lewis, a born and bred Bulawayan, was the 80th and final pilot defeated by Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace widely known as the Red Baron. Richthofen downed Lewis just north-east of Villers-Bretonneux on 20 April 1918; the Rhodesian's aircraft caught fire in mid-air, and when it crashed he was thrown from the wreckage. The Baron's bullets had hit Lewis' compass, goggles, coat and trouser leg, but he was practically unhurt, having suffered only minor burns. He spent the rest of the war a German prisoner. The Great War airman associated with Southern Rhodesia who ultimately earned the most distinction was Arthur Harris, originally from England, who joined the Royal Flying Corps in late 1915 after serving as a bugler with the 1st Rhodesia Regiment in South-West Africa. Harris alternated between Britain and France during the latter part of the war. He led No. 45 Squadron over the Western Front in 1917, destroying five German aircraft and winning the Air Force Cross, and afterwards commanded No. 44 Squadron in Britain. Intending to return to Southern Rhodesia after the war, he wore a "" flash on his uniform during the hostilities, but ended up staying with the RAF as a career officer. He finished the war a major, rose through the ranks during the interwar period and became famous during World War II as "Bomber Harris", the head of RAF Bomber Command. ==Southern Africa==

Maritz Rebellion; formation of 1st Rhodesia Regiment parades in Bulawayo on its way south, 1914|alt=A military unit stands on parade, rifles shouldered, in the middle of a town. Large crowds are gathered around. Apart from the capture of Schuckmannsburg in the Caprivi Strip by a combined force of BSAP and Northern Rhodesia Police on 21 September 1914, the British South Africa Company's own armed forces and police remained almost totally uninvolved in the war until the following month. The South African Prime Minister, the former Boer general Louis Botha, had told Britain that the Union could both handle its own security during the hostilities and defeat German South-West Africa without help, so the Imperial garrison had been sent to the Western Front. Lieutenant-Colonel Manie Maritz—an ex-Boer commander who now headed a column of Afrikaans-speaking Union troops—defected to the Germans in mid-September, hoping to spark an uprising that would overthrow British supremacy in South Africa and restore the old Boer Republics. Botha requested the 500-man column that the Chartered Company had raised, hoping to reduce the possibility of further defections by interspersing his own forces with firmly pro-British Rhodesians. The expeditionary force was promptly formed in Salisbury, and named the 1st Rhodesia Regiment after the unit of Southern Rhodesian volunteers that had fought in the Anglo-Boer War. The Rhodesians garrisoned Bloemfontein for about a month, then redeployed to Cape Town, where they underwent further training for the South-West Africa Campaign as part of South Africa's Northern Force, which Botha personally commanded. Northern Force made up the northern prong of a pincer movement designed by Botha to encircle the German forces in South-West Africa. Two smaller South African columns came from the Cape and the Orange Free State (the latter coming over the deserts of Bechuanaland). The principal target was Windhoek, the capital of South-West Africa. The field of operations was arid and barren in the extreme; water was a precious commodity, so the South Africans and Southern Rhodesians brought thousands of tons of it with them. In the of desert between Walvis Bay and Windhoek, temperatures could rise to above in the daytime, then drop below freezing at night, all while desert winds blew sand and dust into every bodily and mechanical orifice. Germany based much of its defensive strategy in South-West Africa around the assumption that no enemy commander could feasibly attempt to advance across the desert from Walvis Bay to Windhoek, but Botha resolved to do exactly that. The South African offensive from Walvis Bay began in February 1915, when Northern Force took Swakopmund—the nearest German coastal settlement, about north—without facing major resistance. The Germans almost immediately retreated, leaving behind explosive booby traps and other improvised weapons. The 1st Rhodesia Regiment first engaged the Germans while Northern Force moved east across the desert, taking part in a number of minor skirmishes and suffering its first two fatalities in a German ambush. To overcome the natural difficulties of the desert terrain, Botha used fast-moving mounted or mechanised troops rather than regular infantry, so the Southern Rhodesian contingent played little part in the main advance on Windhoek. The Rhodesians guarded the construction of a railway inland for much of the campaign, but participated in Northern Force's victory over the Germans at Trekkopjes, losing Lieutenant Hollingsworth (killed in action) and five enlisted men (wounded). Windhoek surrendered to Botha in July 1915, effectively ending the South-West African front of the war. The local German population did not embark on a guerrilla campaign after Windhoek's fall. ==East Africa==

, highlighted in dark green on a map of Africa. Other German territories in light green|alt=A map. See description German East Africa, acquired by Germany during the 1880s, covered roughly , and by 1914 was home to about 5,000 white settlers, most of whom were of German origin. Because of the British Royal Navy's domination of the Indian Ocean, German East Africa was largely isolated from outside help. It therefore fought a war of improvisation, judicious resource management and unorthodox strategy. During the conflict, its military strength grew to a peak of 3,300 whites and anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 askaris, all commanded by Generalmajor Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. 2nd Rhodesia Regiment Based around the overflow of volunteers for the 1st Rhodesia Regiment, a core of personnel for a second Southern Rhodesian expeditionary unit was in place by November 1914. This was made into the 2nd Rhodesia Regiment (2RR) during December 1914 and January 1915. The 1st Rhodesia Regiment's lack of combat experience thus far influenced those men in Southern Rhodesia who were yet to enlist; many Rhodesian colonials were keen to fight on the front lines, and some resolved that they might have to travel to Europe to be sure of doing so. Aware of this competition with the Western Front for the colony's manpower, recruiters for the 2RR took great care to assure potential inductees that they would definitely see combat, in Africa, if they signed up for the new unit. The 2RR ultimately had a paper strength of 500 men, the same as the 1st. Thirty black scouts, recruited in Southern Rhodesia, were also attached to the regiment. Because it was raised with less urgency, the 2RR received better training than the 1st. The course lasted eight weeks, a fortnight longer than the original regiment's training period, and focused heavily on route marching, parade drill, and, in particular, marksmanship—recruits were trained to shoot accurately at ranges of up to . The 2RR left Salisbury on 8 March 1915, moving east to the port of Beira in Portuguese Mozambique, from where they sailed to Mombasa in British Kenya, on German East Africa's north-eastern flank. Travelling aboard the SS Umzumbi, the battalion disembarked in Kenya less than a week after leaving Salisbury. It was immediately sent inland to the operational area around Mount Kilimanjaro, within sight of which it set up camp. On 20 March, the regiment was inspected by General J M Stewart of the Indian Army. "I had expected to see a regiment that would require some training," Stewart said; "I will pay you the highest compliment by sending you to the front today." So began the 2RR's contribution to the East African Campaign. Tropical disease killed or rendered ineffective far more 2RR men than the Germans did; at times the regiment was reduced to an effective strength of under 100 by the vast myriad of potential ailments, including trench fever, blackwater fever, dysentery, pneumonia, sleeping sickness and many others. The 1,038 personnel who served with 2RR in East Africa collectively went into hospital 2,272 times, and there were 10,626 incidences of illness—in other words, the average 2RR soldier was hospitalized twice and reported sick 10 times. it was no longer an effective fighting force, and the white Southern Rhodesian manpower did not exist to continue reinforcing it. It was therefore withdrawn from East Africa that month. Those men who were healthy enough to return home arrived back in Salisbury on 14 April 1917, receiving a tumultuous welcome, but the majority of 2RR remained in medical care overseas for some time afterwards. The Company briefly considered sending a revived 2RR to the Western Front, but the British Army promptly rejected this idea, saying that the unit would be impractical for trench warfare because of its small size. The battalion was thereupon dissolved, but most of its remaining men went to war in Europe anyway, generally with South African units. This was changed to the more inclusive "Rhodesia Native Regiment" (RNR) on 15 May 1916, as the ranks proved to be more diverse than expected, and included large numbers of Mashonas and other ethnicities. The RNR was organized largely along linguistic and cultural lines, with companies and platoons of Matabele, Mashona, Wayao and others. White officers attached to the unit were often recruited because they knew an African language, or could give orders in Chilapalapa, a pidgin of English and several African tongues often referred to by whites of the time as "kitchen kaffir". The ranks' diversity sometimes led to confusion when messages or directives were not properly understood. It became common for black troopers accused of disobeying or ignoring commands to claim ignorance of the language in which they had been ordered. Commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel A J Tomlinson, the RNR, comprising 426 askaris and about 30 white officers, left Salisbury in July 1916 for Beira. They continued on to Zomba, in Nyasaland, where they were to receive further training closer to the field of operations. When they arrived, the local situation had shifted significantly, so the RNR instead went to New Langenberg, in German East Africa, just north of Lake Nyasa. At New Langenberg the regiment went through a short training course, and was issued with six machine guns. When the unit's training period ended in October 1916 it was divided; one company of RNR men went to Buhora, about north-east, while the rest went south to Weidhaven, on the north banks of Lake Nyasa, from where they moved east to Songea, which they were ordered to "hold ... until reinforced". Apart from a company of men sent to patrol the road back to Weidhaven, the RNR proceeded to garrison Songea. The Germans, who had left Songea only a few weeks before, sent two columns to retake it during early November 1916–250 askaris marched from Likuyu, and 180 more (with two machine guns) set off from Kitanda. The latter German column spotted the RNR company that was patrolling the road, and at Mabogoro attacked the advance guard, which was commanded by Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Frederick Charles Booth. The Rhodesians were caught by surprise, and many panicked, running about and firing randomly. Booth restored discipline and led the defense until reinforcements arrived. The Germans then retreated and continued towards Songea. During this contact, Booth advanced towards enemy fire to rescue a wounded scout who was lying in the open, and brought him back alive; for this and subsequent actions, Booth received the Victoria Cross in June 1917. In Southern Rhodesia, Company officials judged the RNR to have been a success so far, and so decided in January 1917 to raise a second battalion. The unit already in the field was at this time designated 1st Battalion, abbreviated to "1RNR", while the new formation was called 2nd Battalion, or "2RNR". Nyasalanders eventually made up nearly half of the regiment. By the start of March, about 1,000 recruits were training in Salisbury. Meanwhile, 1RNR was instructed to guard the Igali Pass, near the border with Northern Rhodesia, to prevent a column of Germans from threatening the settlements of Abercorn and Fife. When the Germans slipped through, the Rhodesians were pulled back to a position between the two towns and instructed to defend either one as circumstances dictated. The Germans did not launch an attack, however, instead setting up camp in their own territory at Galula. On 5 April 1917, 1RNR crossed the Songwe River into German East Africa and advanced south-east towards Kitanda. It moved up the winding Lupa River, crossing it at each turn, for 53 days, and by mid-June was north of its target. When it was then ordered to backtrack north to Rungwe, it covered the in 16 days. McLaughlin contrasts the RNR's black troopers with the white soldiers of the 2nd Rhodesia Regiment, commenting that the former proved far more resilient to tropical diseases (though not immune), and amazed white observers by not just adapting to the difficult East African conditions, but often marching in a day. In June 1917, Sergeant Rita (or Lita), a black non-commissioned officer later described by Tomlinson as "a splendid soldier", received the highest award ever given to an RNR askari, the Distinguished Conduct Medal, "for conspicuous gallantry in action on many occasions. His example and influence with his men is incalculable". The 1st Battalion harassed the constantly moving German flying column during August and September 1917. Two Military Medals were won by RNR soldiers during this time: Sergeant Northcote rescued a wounded askari under German fire in late August, and a few days later Corporal Suga, himself lightly injured, dragged his wounded commanding officer Lieutenant Booth out of the open and into cover. After 1RNR spent two months garrisoning Wiedhaven and 2RNR underwent further training, the two forces joined on 28 January 1918 (becoming known as the 2nd Rhodesia Native Regiment), and immediately made their way south in pursuit of Lettow-Vorbeck's Germans, who were by now down to an effective strength of less than 2,000, In the capital, the RNR men were met at the railway station by thousands of people, including a number of prominent government, military and religious figures. Chaplin, the territorial administrator, gave a speech in which he applauded the troops for "upholding the good name of Rhodesia" and for having played "no insignificant part in depriving the Germans of their power in Africa". In Mozambique, the RNR encountered Lettow-Vorbeck's supply column near Mtarika on 22 May 1918. It wiped it out (capturing two German officers, two German askaris, 34 Portuguese askaris and 252 carriers), but as the supply column had been marching between the main German column and its rearguard, Lettow-Vorbeck was then able to attack the RNR from both sides. The contact lasted until darkness fell, and the RNR held its position. Lettow-Vorbeck then moved further south, with the RNR following. ==Home front==

Home service and conscription debate members of the Rhodesian Reserves, pictured in 1916|alt=A formative photograph of white soldiers in African colonial-style uniforms, arranged in four rows; two standing, one sitting on chairs and one sitting on the floor Southern Rhodesian troops during World War I were all volunteers. Particularly during the war's early stages, not all male settlers of fighting age were expected to abandon their civilian lives for service abroad. Many of them were in vital industries like mining, and the Company administration did not grant financial allowances to support the families of married soldiers, so at least at first, only bachelors in non-essential positions were generally considered to have any moral obligation to sign up. The 2nd Rhodesia Regiment, raised in early 1915, explicitly barred married men from its ranks to pre-empt the tribulations that might befall their families while they were gone. Men of service age who remained at home were pressured by the national and local press to contribute to local security by joining the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers or the Rhodesian Reserves; editorials told readers that men who failed to do so were not fulfilling their patriotic duty, and warned that conscription might be required if not enough joined up. The idea of conscription ran contrary to British political tradition, but the sheer scale of the Western Front led to its institution in Britain in January 1916. The Rhodesia Herald and Bulawayo Chronicle newspapers broadcast the news in special editions. While some settlers supported the extension of the same system to white Southern Rhodesians, it was also opposed in many quarters. The British South Africa Company feared that the loss of skilled white workers might jeopardize its mining operations, crucial to the colonial economy, while the Rhodesian Agricultural Union contended that white farmers had to stay on the land for similar reasons. Some, mindful of John Chilembwe's anticolonial uprising in Nyasaland in early 1915, felt that it was necessary to keep a core of male settlers in the colony to guard against a repeat of the Mashona and Matabele rebellions of the 1890s. Southern Rhodesia's other main economic arm, farming, performed less strongly during the war, partly because the Chartered Company prioritized the strategically important mines at the behest of British officials. Southern Rhodesian farmers were optimistic at the outbreak of war, surmising that the Empire would become desperate for food and that they would be essentially immune to inflation because they grew their own crops. While these conclusions were on the whole accurate, logistical complications made it difficult for Rhodesian food to be exported, and as in mining there was often a shortage of labor. There were a number of drives to increase agricultural yield with the hope of feeding more people in Britain, but because Southern Rhodesia was so far away it was difficult for the colony to make much of an impact. One of the main culinary contributions the territory made to the British wartime marketplace was Rhodesian butter, which first reached England in February 1917. During the initial peak of Germanophobia, which lasted the first few months of the conflict, many German and Austrian men of military age who lived in Rhodesia were arrested (officially as "prisoners of war") and sent to internment camps in South Africa. Gertrude Page, one of the colony's most famous novelists, wrote an open letter in response, vouching for the loyalty of a young German in her employ, and received a number of replies accusing her of being unpatriotic. The second period of intensification began following the sinking of the British passenger liner by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915. The Rhodesia Herald ran an editorial soon after calling on the Company administration to intern all remaining German and Austrian residents and to close their businesses. A town assembly in Umtali sent the administrator a resolution asking him to confiscate all property in the colony owned by subjects of Germany and Austria within 48 hours "in view of German barbarity". Most of Southern Rhodesia's remaining German and Austrian residents were soon sent to the camps in South Africa. although the vast majority of black people in the colony retained their traditional tribal lifestyles of rural subsistence farming, Some felt obliged to "fight for their country", seeing the travails of Rhodesia and the Empire as their own also, but the great bulk of tribal public opinion was detached, seeing the conflict as a "white man's war" that did not concern them. Those who favored the latter line of thinking cared not so much about the conflict itself but more about how its course might affect them specifically. For example, widespread interest was aroused soon after the outbreak of war when rumors began to fly between the rural black communities that the Company planned to conscript them. News of the Maritz Rebellion prompted a fresh rumor among the Matabele that Company officials might confiscate tribal livestock to feed the white troops going south. None of this actually occurred. The Chartered Company's native commissioners began to fear a possible tribal rebellion during early 1915. Herbert Taylor, the chief native commissioner, believed that foreign missionaries were secretly encouraging rural black people to emulate the Chilembwe revolt in Nyasaland, and telling them (falsely) that the British were exterminating the natives there. There were few actual attempts to topple the administration in Southern Rhodesia, but the Company still took precautions. Aware that Mashona svikiro (spirit mediums) had been instrumental in inciting and leading insurgencies against Company rule during the late 1890s, the native commissioners enacted new legislation designed to imprison any svikiro who gained significant popularity.—but rumours spread in some quarters that black men were going to be involuntarily conscripted wholesale into the unit. Chief Maduna, in Insiza district, briefly threatened insurrection, issuing rifles to 100 men, but he backed down after a few weeks after it became self-evident that conscription was not happening. Some attempted to dissuade potential RNR recruits from signing up, including a black man in Bulawayo who was fined £4 in July 1915 for spreading a false rumor around the city that the British East Africa Transport Corps' black Southern Rhodesian drivers had had their throats cut by the Germans. Matthew Zwimba, founder of the syncretist Church of the White Bird in Mashonaland, received six months' hard labor the following year for advising black men not to join the RNR on the grounds that the British had, he said, committed crimes against God in 1913. The colony's small Afrikaner community was split on the issue of war. Some supported the United Kingdom out of loyalty to Rhodesia, but others were still bitter about the Anglo-Boer War and showed little interest in fighting the Germans. In the rural areas, where Afrikaner nationalism was strongest, the Germans were perceived by some Boer farmers as potential liberators from British domination. Southern Rhodesian Afrikaners were often accused of undermining the British war effort. While some leaders of the community publicly came out in support of the war and offered to provide troops, others put pressure on Afrikaans-speakers not to volunteer. When recruitment for the Rhodesia Native Regiment began in 1916, there were reports of potential black recruits being urged not to join up by their Afrikaans-speaking employers. The contribution to the war made by Southern Rhodesia's white female population generally comprised organising and running donation drives, comforts committees and other similar enterprises. They sent the troops "comforts parcels", which contained balaclavas, mittens and scarves that they had knitted, as well as newspapers, soap, food (including cakes and sweets), and minor luxuries. These packages did much to raise the morale of the men, particularly those who were in German captivity. Women were also largely responsible for handling mail between Rhodesian soldiers and their relatives and friends back home. After the armistice, they organized financial assistance for those discharged Southern Rhodesian men in England who could not afford to come home, and arranged visits for those convalescing in English hospitals. As in Britain, some Southern Rhodesian women during the war presented men not wearing military uniform with white feathers (symbolising cowardice). This campaign often went awry, as many of the men presented with the feathers were not in fact shirking from service. In 1916, hoping to save them further harassment, the Rhodesia Herald and other newspapers began publishing lists of men who had volunteered only to be deemed medically unfit by the army doctors. Black women played a minor role in units such as the Rhodesia Native Regiment, accompanying the black soldiers into the operational area and performing domestic tasks like washing and cooking. Many of these were local East African women who had formed attachments with RNR soldiers. Officers tolerated the presence of these women in the interest of morale, aware that attempting to take them away from the men would probably lead to mutiny. Donations and funds Southern Rhodesian settlers set up a number of wartime funds, including funds to aid war victims, funds to provide the troops with tobacco and other supplies, funds to assist orphans and widows, funds to buy aeroplanes, and others. These raised about £200,000 in all. Much of this went to the Prince of Wales National Relief Fund in Britain, which was founded when the war started; Southern Rhodesian branches of the fund were promptly organized in several towns and ultimately consolidated into the Rhodesian War Relief Fund. This body donated 25% of its receipts to the Prince of Wales Fund and 75% to local concerns. The Kalanga, a small community in the south-west that provided a disproportionately large number of volunteers for the Rhodesia Native Regiment, also proved conspicuous for their extremely generous financial donations; in June 1915, they collectively donated £183, "a staggering sum", the historian Timothy Stapleton comments, to the Prince of Wales Fund. By the time the pandemic had ended in Southern Rhodesia around mid-November 1918, thousands had been killed. ==End of the war, aftermath and statistics==

News of the armistice on 11 November 1918 reached Southern Rhodesia the same day, and was announced to the town of Salisbury by the repeated blowing of the klaxon at the Castle Brewery. Hysterical street parties started almost immediately, and in the evening the people let off fireworks and lit a huge bonfire on Salisbury kopje. Bulawayo celebrated with a street party that continued uninterrupted for over 48 hours. Smaller towns marked the armistice with their own celebratory functions and events. Once the frivolities had ended, minds turned to post-war policy, and particularly how soldiers returning from Europe would be reintegrated into society. In early 1919 it set up a government department to help returning men find work. Many former soldiers failed to find jobs, and some remained unemployed for years after they returned home. Some of the more seriously wounded from the European theatre never came back at all, instead remaining in England because of the better medical facilities and public benefits. Demobilized Western Front veterans began to arrive back in Rhodesia in January 1919, and continued to do so for nearly a year afterwards. On 30 May 1919, the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council passed a resolution thanking the territory's veterans. Proportional to white population, Southern Rhodesia had contributed more personnel to the British armed forces in World War I than any of the Empire's dominions or colonies, and more than Britain itself. About 40% of white males in the colony, 5,716 men, put on uniform, Black Southern Rhodesians were represented by the 2,507 soldiers who made up the Rhodesia Native Regiment, the roughly 350 who joined the British East Africa Transport Corps, British South Africa Police Mobile Column and South African Native Labour Corps, and the few dozen black scouts who served with the 1st and 2nd Rhodesia Regiments in South-West and East Africa. Southern Rhodesians killed in action or on operational duty numbered over 800, counting all races together—more than 700 of the colony's white servicemen died, while the Rhodesia Native Regiment's black soldiers suffered 146 fatalities. ==Legacy==

Accounts of white Southern Rhodesian soldiers' wartime experiences started to be published in the 1920s. The conflict became a key entry in many national histories, though the role played by black troops was often minimised in these accounts. The colony's wartime contributions became a source of great pride for much of the Southern Rhodesian white community, whites were particularly proud that they had had the highest enlistment rate in the British Empire during the war. Five years later, Lieutenant-Colonel J A Methuen organized the erection on a kopje near Umtali of a stone cross, tall, to memorialise the country's fallen black soldiers. This monument remains to this day, as does the bronze plaque at its foot, which reads "To the Glory of God and in Memory of Africans Who Fell. 1914–1918." Southern Rhodesia's contributions to the Imperial war effort helped it to become regarded by Britain as more mature and deserving of responsible government, which Whitehall granted in 1923. The territory was made a self-governing colony, just short of full dominion status. Charged with its own defense, Salisbury introduced the selective conscription of white males in 1926, The new Rhodesia Regiment was granted the original's World War I battle honors and colors by George V in 1929. In World War II, Southern Rhodesia again enthusiastically stood behind the UK, symbolically declaring war on Germany in support of Britain before any other colony or dominion. Over 26,000 Southern Rhodesians served in the Second World War, making the colony once more the largest contributor of manpower, proportional to white population, in all of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Dedicated Rhodesian platoons again served in the KRRC, became a great Southern Rhodesian tradition during the Second, with the colony providing No. 44, No. 237 and No. 266 Squadrons and other personnel to the Royal Air Force, as well as training in Southern Rhodesia for 8,235 Allied airmen. By the 1960s, Southern Rhodesians' service on Britain's behalf in the World Wars, particularly the Second, was an integral part of the colony's national psyche. The territory had also latterly contributed to British counter-insurgency operations in Malaya, Aden and Cyprus, as well as Operation Vantage in Kuwait. The colonial government's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 was deliberately made on 11 November, Armistice Day, in an attempt to emphasize the territory's prior war record on Britain's behalf. The proclamation was signed at 11:00 local time, during the customary two-minute silence to remember the fallen. After the country's reconstitution and recognized independence as Zimbabwe in 1980, Robert Mugabe's administration pulled down many monuments and plaques making reference to the fallen of the First and Second World Wars, perceiving them as reminders of white minority rule and colonialism that went against what the modern state stood for. This view was partly rooted in the association of these memorials with those commemorating the British South Africa Company's dead of the Matabele Wars, as well as those memorializing members of the Rhodesian Security Forces killed during the Bush War of the 1970s. The Cenotaph in Bulawayo, unveiled in 1925 by Edward, Prince of Wales, commemorates Southern Rhodesians who served in the First World War and later conflicts, including the Bush War. A number of memorials in Zimbabwe are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. ==Notes==