The Hippo is a South African

armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

. Specially designed to be mine resistant, it can carry ten infantrymen and a crew of two. The vehicle's remote-operated turret mounts dual 7.62mm machine guns, but like other improvised fighting vehicles, it is only lightly protected against ballistic threats.

Development history

An interim solution adopted to deal with the threat of

land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

s deployed by the

South West African People's Organization The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO ; , SWAVO; , SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia (formerly South West Africa). Founded in 1960, it has been ...

(SWAPO) in northern

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia). The apartheid government stat ...

, the Hippo was simply a blastproof hull fitted to a

Bedford RL The Bedford RL was the British military's main medium lorry, built by Bedford from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s. The lorry was based on the civilian Bedford S type, first introduced in 1950. They superseded the Bedford QL, and were in t ...

chassis. Similar to the

BTR-152 The BTR-152 is a six-wheeled Soviet armoured personnel carrier (APC) built on the chassis and drive train of a ZIS-151 utility truck. It entered service with a number of Warsaw Pact member states beginning in 1950, and formed the mainstay of Sovi ...

, it offered a staggered troop compartment with seating facing inwards. Vision was restricted to narrow plate glass windows. This layout was universally unpopular and later corrected with the

Buffel The Buffel (English: ''Buffalo'') is an infantry mobility vehicle used by the South African Defence Force during the South African Border War. The Buffel was also used as an armoured fighting vehicle and proved itself in this role. It replaced ...

. There were firing ports for the occupants and a powered machine gun turret could be braced on the open top, though these were seldom fitted. Passengers and crew debussed from a rear deck. The Hippo Mk1-R was based on a M1961

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

truck chassis, which was being phased from South African service in 1974. The Mk1-R was manufactured using

mild steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...

and RB390 armour steel. Some 150 Mk1-R were ordered and shipped to the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

in 1974, another 5 being donated to the

South-West Africa South West Africa was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990. Renamed ''Namibia'' by the United Nations in 1968, it became independent under this name on 21 March 1990. South West Africa bordered Angola ( a Portu ...

n authorities. Police units left behind several when they withdrew from

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

in 1976; these were retained by the

Rhodesian Security Forces The Rhodesian Security Forces were the military forces of the Rhodesian government. The Rhodesian Security Forces consisted of a ground force (the Rhodesian Army), the Rhodesian Air Force, the British South Africa Police, and various personnel ...

Abbott, Botham & Chappell, ''Modern African Wars (1): Rhodesia 1965–80'' (1986), p. 39.Locke & Cooke, ''Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80'' (1995), p. 99. and later passed on to the

Zimbabwe National Army The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is the primary branch of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces responsible for land-oriented military operations. It is the largest service branch under the Zimbabwean Joint Operations Command (JOC). The modern army h ...

.Nelson, ''Zimbabwe: A Country Study'' (1983), pp. 237–317. In 1978, 120 Hippo Mk1-R conversions of M1970 Bedfords was undertaken for the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

, which had assumed responsibility for patrols along the

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

n border and needed a new mine protected vehicle. The Hippo Mk1-M used ROQ TUFF steel instead of mild steel. The South African Army ordered 402 Mk1-M. The Hippo served its purpose for the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n Army but it was heavy, and lacked true off-road capability. A new mine-protected vehicle had been designed in April 1976 although it would be another two years before the

would eventually replace the Hippo as the Army's premier troop-carrying mine-protected vehicle.

Variants

*''Hippo Mk1-R'' - 1974 model, built on the 1961 Bedford chassis. *''Hippo Mk1-M'' - 1978 model, built on the 1970 Bedford chassis.

Operators

* :

and

South West African Police The South West African Police (SWAPOL) was the national police force of South West Africa (now Namibia), responsible for law enforcement and public safety in South West Africa when the territory was administered by South Africa. It was organised ...

* :

Moorcraft & McLaughlin, ''The Rhodesian War: A Military History'' (2008), p. 104. * :

(ZNA)

In popular culture

The Hippo made some appearances in television and film productions shot in Zimbabwe and set in the

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era of the 1970s-1980s. In one such production, the British 1987

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film ''

Cry Freedom ''Cry Freedom'' is a 1987 epic biographical drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid-era South Africa. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. ...

'', ZNA Hippos appear on several scenes portraying

(SADF) and

(SAP) armoured vehicles.

Notes

References

*Harold D. Nelson, ''Zimbabwe: A Country Study'' (DA PAM 550-171), United States Govt Printing Office, Washington D.C., 2nd edition (January 1, 1983). *Helmoed-Römer Heitman, ''South African Armed Forces'', Buffalo Publications, Cape Town (South Africa) 1990. *Paul L. Moorcraft & Peter McLaughlin, ''The Rhodesian War: A Military History'', Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley, South Yorkshire 1983 (2008 ed.). *Peter Abbott, Philip Botham and Mike Chappell, ''Modern African Wars (1): Rhodesia 1965–80'', Men-at-arms series 183, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1986. *Peter Gerard Locke & Peter David Farquharson Cooke, ''Fighting Vehicles and Weapons of Rhodesia 1965-80'', P&P Publishing, Wellington 1995. *Peter Stiff, ''Taming the Landmine'', Galago Publishing Pty Ltd., Alberton (South Africa) 1986. *Steve Camp & Helmoed-Römer Heitman, ''Surviving the Ride – A Pictorial History of South African-Manufactured Armoured Vehicles'', 30 Degrees South Publishers, Johannesburg (South Africa) 2014. �

External links

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Hippo
{{Modern IFV and APC Armoured personnel carriers of the Cold War Armoured personnel carriers of South Africa Bedford vehicles Cold War military equipment of South Africa Internal security vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 1970s Police vehicles Wheeled armoured personnel carriers