Author: Henrik Ellert

Dennis Malcolm Anderson was born in London in 1930. Having moved to Rhodesia, he attested in the BSAP on 28 October 1956 and initially served in the uniformed branch at Rhodesville, Salisbury, later joining the CID and then Special Branch, where he became closely associated with nationalist leaders during the course of political rallies in the 1960s. For the first time he came into contact with educated black people, not “domestic servants” or “garden boys”, interaction that very few Rhodesians or even his colleagues experienced. He subsequently served in Manicaland province where politically inspired crime became a daily event. In 1967 he was promoted to Detective Inspector and transferred to Salisbury. In the September 1971 he was posted to Marandellas as Member-in-Charge of the CID and Special Branch station. Promoted to Superintendent he was transferred to Salisbury but after a short posting he was transferred to Umtali where he was engaged in counterinsurgency operations with the infiltration of ZANLA into the Chipinga district as the Special Branch JOC officer; he was also the JOC officer on Operation Thrasher. In 1976 he was transferred to Special Branch HQ and posted to the Terrorist desk with Superintendent Pelissier preparing monthly analysis on the war for the Director-General. In 1977 he was transferred to Operation Hurricane as the SB JOC Officer. His final posting prior to retirement in 1979 was to COMOPS.