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The Rhodesian Light Infantry would work
in four-man teams, trading off the high concentration job of being lead tracker every half hour or so. Although the lead tracker took primary responsibility for following the spoor, the flank trackers were invaluable as they would help widen the search if the lead tracker lost the spoor as it crossed stony ground. They also provided flank security for the lead tracker while he concentrated on the spoor; wily guerrillas were likely to circle around and set an ambush on their own tracks if they thought they were being followed.
The lead tracker (1) is bending low to make the very small shadows cast by the edges of the boot prints more obvious. A good tracker could estimate not only how many men he was following (by counting the number of separate prints in a yard of the tracks, and dividing by two), but also how heavily they were loaded (by depth of prints and shortened stride length), how tired or thirsty they were (by signs of feet dragging and irregular strides) and even whether they were ZaNla or ZiPra (based on characteristic boot prints). Perhaps most importantly, he could estimate the age of the tracks, based on how weathered they were, and thus how far ahead the guerrillas were. Dress was very informal during this phase of the war, with many men choosing to operate in shorts, T-shirts and Veldtschoen. Foot patrols had to carry rations and water for several days in their packs, though weight was kept to a minimum so the patrol could move as fast as possible and gain on their quarry.
One of the flank trackers (2) carries the heavy barrel version of the FN, to provide some fire support without the weight of a MAG.
The lead tracker carries a Browning semi-automatic shotgun (3); a few of these were issued experimentally, but most men preferred the standard FN rifle.
