COUNTER-STRIKE FROM THE SKY

The Rhodesian All-Arms Fire Force in the War in the Bush 1974–1980
J.R.T. Wood with Chris Cocks

ISBN: 9781920143336
Paperback+DVD& slipcase
£32.50 delivered
approx 256 pages & 45-minute DVD 192 x 135mm 5 x 7¾
>100 colour & b/w photos, maps, diagrams

The militarily acclaimed Fireforce concept

Fireforce as a military concept dates from 1974 when the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) acquired the French MG151 20mm cannon from the Portuguese. Coupled with this, the traditional counter-insurgency tactics (against Mugabe’s ZANLA and Nkomo’s ZIPRA) of follow-ups, tracking and ambushing simply weren’t producing satisfactory results. Visionary RhAF and Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) officers thus expanded on the idea of a ‘vertical envelopment’ of the enemy (first practised by SAS paratroopers in Mozambique in 1973), with the 20mm cannon being the principle weapon of attack, mounted in an Alouette III K-Car (‘Killer car’), flown by the air force commander, with the army commander on board directing his ground troops deployed from G-Cars (Alouette III troop-carrying gunships and latterly Bell ‘Hueys’ in 1979) and parachuted from DC-3 Dakotas. In support would be a propeller-driven ground-attack aircraft armed with front guns, pods of napalm, white phosphorus rockets and a variety of Rhodesian-designed bombs; on call would be Canberra bombers, Hawker Hunter and Vampire jets.

Military historian, wargamer, military modeller? This one’s for you – keep checking in to see when this scholarly work will arrive in the UK.