Winds of Destruction

About the Book

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.

About the Author

Born in Southern Rhodesia in 1936, Peter Petter-Bowyer (PB) grew up in an idyllic world virtually unaffected by the intense preparation for war of airmen in many Rhodesian Air Training Group stations around the country. The presence of so many aircraft greatly interested him, though his aim in life was to become a medical surgeon. For parental reasons this did not materialise and a switch in interest led PB into a flying career. In 1957 he commenced his pilot training course with the Royal Rhodesian Air Force and was granted a Royal Commission into full time service in 1959.

A regular career path included squadron service on propeller- and jet-driven aircraft as well as helicopters. Married with two children, PB enjoyed a wonderful life both as squadron pilot and flying instructor on piston aircraft and helicopters. Limited operational periods were spent on the Nyasaland Emergency, at RAF Aden and the Congo Emergency. It was only in April 1966 that PB was involved in the first offensive action that marked the start of Rhodesia's Bush War.

Except for a year at the South African Air Staff College in 1971, PB was actively engaged in operations in which air and ground forces were closely associated. Through this, PB established close and vitally important relationships with leading players of Rhodesia's Army and Police forces.

What set PB apart from his fellow pilots was an inventive talent that led him to introduce aircraft improvements and create new-found operational techniques. His objection to conventional warfare air weapons also led him to developing a whole range of air weapon systems that improved strike capability whilst affording Rhodesia considerable savings in foreign currencies.

His final post in the rank of Group Captain was to be the Rhodesian representative on the British-led Cease Fire Commission. Due to Marxist Robert Mugabe ascension to power, PB took an early retirement.