Woman in the Rhodesian Army, 15 October 1978

Woman in the Rhodesian Army, 15 October 1978. A pretty girl learns to shoot under the experienced eye of a Rhodesian Army instructor. Increased guerrilla attacks have meant that women are taking over many military jobs to release men for operational roles. Because of the terrorist threat, girls from the Rhodesian Women Services have volunteered for the same basic training that an infantryman goes through before he joins the fighters in the bush. The girls, average age 25, live in barracks during their instruction and go on assault courses and are taught to cope with barbed wire. Contemporary newspaper account describing 25-year-old women as girls. Rhodesia, a former British colony, became officially independent in 1979 and was re-named Zimbabwe. ©SSPL/Manchester Daily Express