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Bell , Gerald William Andrew (G W A)

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Identity
Person No.
38928
Service No.
Unknown
Last Name
First Name
Gerald William Andrew
Initials
G W A
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
23
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, vehicle ambush in the Zambezi Valley, Op Hurricane. Gerry was returning from a call-up to Mana Pools via Rukomechi to take up his job with National Parks when they were ambushed by a group of ZIPRA terrorists. A single bullet entered the door-less land Rover striking him in the chest and resulting in his death. A natural leader and highly skilled in bush craft, this ranger with National Parks served his call ups with the RAR
Military Service
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Secondary Unit
3 Commando
Defence Force
RSF 2,789
Rhodesian Security Forces
Unit History
Notes

Son of Jess and Bill Bell. Brother to Lindsay. A Guinea Fowl School old boy. ref. "Rhodesian African Rifles Roll of Honour" by Adrian Haggett and Gerry van Tonder.

Research notes


16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo '76852' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 38927 to 38928 -- 2 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (38927, Becking, Gideon Edward (G E)). A value repeated down an unbroken block of PersonNumbers is a forward-fill import artefact, not men who shared a service number; the pattern holds across 850 such runs on this roll and is independently confirmed by Mike Sandham's research log, which attaches such numbers to the head of the run 167 times against 6 contradictions (all examined). No replacement is guessed: this man's real service number is simply not known, and a blank field says so honestly where another man's number did not.

Citations

***Not yet accepted for War Grave Status by CWGC, need service file

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