One Commando by Dick Gledhill
Picked this one up in a second-hand store a couple of weeks ago. "Fiction based on fact" (to protect the guilty more than anything). Forward by LTCOL Reid-Daly and includes a fair smattering of his pics. Not a bad read if you can find it anywhere.
Publisher is RLI Publishing, Queensland, Australia. 1997. Covos did a second edition which is apperantly still on Amazon
http://www.rhodesianlightinfantry.com/images/ico.jpg
New Book and DVD on the RLI
I just saw this on Amazon today and thought some here may be interested (it won't be released until August but can be pre-ordered now):
Counter-strike from the Sky: The Rhodesian All-arms Fireforce in the War in the Bush, 1974-1980
Quote:
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.
Rhodesian security forces history project
A report on this UK-based oral history project: http://www.britain-zimbabwe.org.uk/RP4onslowbramley.htm
For those who are interested in Rhodesian / Zimbabwean military history follow this link: http://www.britain-zimbabwe.org.uk/RD09papers.htm - the papers from the 2009 BZS Research Day on War and Soldiers.
davidbfpo
RLI closure: comments by ex-CO's & RSMs
Just came across this, via a link from a BSAP History email, a fascinating site itself: http://www.ourstory.com/archive.html...2#recent_y2007 but the comments on the RLI closure in 1980 and the comments in their regimental magazine 'The Cheetah' I'd not heard of or seen: http://www.ourstory.com/thread.html?t=357313
davidbfpo
Yep and my Mom always told me
NEVER to promise anything I couldn't deliver...
OK, so I'm just now getting to something from 3 years ago....
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jcustis
I will be sending two documents to sgmgrumpy. One is a visualization of Fireforce tactics given to me by Chuck Melsom (another Rhodesian military follower) of the History and Museums division. The second is a copy of an external operation OPORD. It is similar to the basic SMEAC format, but the coordinating instructions are a gem because there is insight into how the
Rhodies thought and planned.
I only have them hardcopy now, but intend to scan and build into a .pdf. PM me if you'd like a copy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SWJED
If there are no copyright restrictions I will post the docs to the SWJ Library.
Did these ever make it into the library? I was trying to find them, to no avail...
Zealot - you learnt what?
Moderators note - copied here from another thread for continuity
Zealot66,
I know a few here will interested in the end product of:
Quote:
My question came as a result of studying wars in southern africa and the measures they took to overcome the landmine issue.
I recall some Rhodesian annoyance - after 1980 - to find that the South Africans (SADF) had developed their anti-mining equipment and had not shared this with them. The SADF deployed their kit in Angola and SWAfrica - where I expect ex-Rhodesians, now in the SADF noticed. IIRC Peter Stiff authored a book on the Rhodesian counter-IED programme.
External operations: another view
Zealot66,
Quote:
My primary research over the last 3 years has been the Rhodesian conflict and the Border War of SA.... External operations were the only thing that kept rhodesia alive as long as it did ....
I am aware that some Rhodesians after 1980 concluded 'external operations' did not help in their war.(A bigger topic so I shall stop there).
"Boots on the ground" raids and drone attacks across the Durand Line have also been criticised, IIRC David Kilcullen is one critic and Bruce Hoffman has commented at the peak of drone attacks in one part of the FATA the training of Zavi, the alleged NYC bomber, was not affected.
'External operations' appear to be an easy option, with a limited, short-term impact and meet IMHO the agenda of domestic political needs.
In the Pakistani context this is made even more complex, if not confusing by US drone attacks coming from bases within Pakistan, with an apparent official, if denied, Pakistani input to targeting.