Originally Posted by arty8
Chris Cocks also wrote another book called "Survival Course" that details his time as a reservist the PATU - Police Anti Terrorist Unit. It's another very good read.
I actually met Chris at a book signing in Pietermaritzburg South Africa and he is truly a gentleman
Rhodesian lessons for Afghanistan?
The UK comment blogsite: http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com has an article today on the UK's military role in Afghanistan and cites the lessons learnt by Rhodesia. Refers to a RAND report from 1991, which I'd not seen before, although my interest in that COIN war abated many years ago: http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/2005/R3998.pdf . The authors include Bruce Hoffman (who I respect as an analyst).
I am sure Jon Custis will comment (if he can).
davidbfpo
Continent Ablaze
Apart from the books already mentioned I've found Continent Ablaze: The insurgency wars in Africa 1960 to the present by John W. Turner to be pretty useful as a first port of call. There's a chapter on Rhodesia and then some of the nearby similar actions (Mozambique, Southern Africa etc).
There's also a fascinating thread over at militaryphotos.net that has a range of personal accounts/images (intersperesed with the normal train spotters) to help visualise the whole thing
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...d.php?t=134312
Rhodesian COIN Manual
Can any one point in the direction of a Rhodesian COIN manual available for download?
I believe this should help.
http://members.tripod.com/selousscou...oin_manual.htm
I'll try again. If this doesn't work, here is the external link to the book. Need Adobe Acrobat reader.
http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Books/rhodesia/Contents.htm - Cached
Last edited by Jedburgh; 08-25-2006 at 08:19 PM.
Two different documents
To clarify, those links are to two different documents. The Cilliers book is a recap of sorts, while the material from the Selous Scouts page is the Anti-Terrorist Operations (ATOPS) manual. Two different documents altogether.
As a child during this very war I read with interest the comments and viewpoints. I find myself wondering if the learned gentlemen here posting know whether information from sites such as this is ever used or considered when the bigger decissions are made by the politicians. As a species we do not appear to be learning much from history yet the views on here show that a problem has been recognised.
Rhodesian COIN (consolidated thread, inc original RLI)
Tomorrow is the birthday of the RLI. Also known as The Saints and The Incredibles, 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry was formed on February 1, 1961.
www.therli.com
Moderator's Note
In April 2010 this thread was re-titled and became the current "catch all" for posts on Rhodesian COIN, including the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) and in Post No.78 is a list of other Rhodesian threads.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 04-13-2010 at 07:25 PM. Reason: Add Moderator's Note
Rifleman, you rule!!!
Great post! where you come about this link? There hasn't been much web-based RLI stuff to come along in a while. Many have tried, but several of those sites are dead links now.
Even more interesting is the notification of a book launch:
This will almost certainly be a must-have. Heck, even Charles Melson gets a nod http://www.therli.com/images/Saintsflyersmall.pdf (which reminds me that he would be a nice addition to the SWC):30° South Publishers is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of The Saints – The Rhodesian Light Infanrty by author Alex Binda and compiled and edited by Chris Cocks. The book will be launched in London on 14 June 2007.
The Saints
Alex Binda
The Saints contains a wealth of previously unpublished, material, significant anecdotal and historical contributions, personal writings and over 5,000 photographs.
I will be eargerly waiting the arrival of June.An ‘international’ regiment in the truest sense—with foreign volunteers from North America, UK, Europe, Australasia and South Africa—and nicknamed ‘The Saints’ or ‘The Incredibles’, The 1st Battalion The Rhodesian Light Infantry was formed on 1 February 1961. In its short 19-year existence, this airborne commando unit carved a reputation for itself as one of the world’s foremost proponents of counter-insurgency warfare. This was achieved through their innovative ‘Fireforce’ operations and daring pre-emptive strikes against the overwhelming tide of the communist-backed ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, based in Mozambique and Zambia. For these reasons, Charles D. Melson of the USMC has described the RLI as “The Killing Machine”.
I just found the site googling/surfing. I recently ordered Fireforce by Chris Cocks from Amazon (it hasn't arrived yet) and that sort of got me to looking for RLI information on the internet.
Most people on this site are probably aware of T.A.L. Dozer's Selous Scouts site. Although mainly about the Selous Scouts it also gives a nod to the RLI, Grey's Scouts, and the Rhodesian SAS. For those who haven't seen it here's a link.
http://selousscouts.tripod.com/
It's a great site. If you print out all the notes and articles on combat tracking and put them in a binder you've got a little tracking book that's as good as anything you can buy in the nature section of Barnes and Noble.....if not better.
JC I second that about Charles Melson and the website! Did you see the pictures of the obstacle course? Man
Last edited by slapout9; 02-01-2007 at 03:17 AM. Reason: spelling
O courses
Didn't look any worse than the Darby Queen!Not that I could do either one now....
Other titles
If you find that you like Fire Force, you will enjoy The Elite: Rhodesian SAS. It is a great book...pricey on Ebay, but you may get lucky and find an auction for less that $30.00
Rhodesian Light Infantry
I served with the RLI, Support Commando Recce troop from April 1979-to Sept-1980. The RLI was one of the professional soldiers I have served with in Africa along with the 44 Para Bde Pathfinder CO SADF.
As a Vietnam combat paratrooper it was a great to be a soldier and be able to to our job.....engage & destroy the enemy. If the Army was not betrayed the country would have continued to be a diamond in Africa.
Primary source info on RLI "boots on the ground"
I had the occasion to correspond with an RLI veteran (who shall remain anonymous), and asked him a few questions to round out my fairly broad understanding of Fire Force Ops in Rhodesia.
I'm always curious as to how the various Rhodesian security forces performed on the ground, as some of their lessons may be important as the Marine Corps looks to refine its Distributed Operations concept.
My questions, and the very in-depth reply, are posted below in 2 parts:
As a "troopie", you definitely operated at the level I am interested in. I understand the flushing fire used in Drake shoots, and I've never been able to find any good references to how you guys did it. I mean, geometry of fires is an important thing to consider in any offensive action, and the current military tactic is to use a 90 degree offset as much as possible between the covering force and maneuvering force.
You gentlemen had stop groups all over the place, blocking likely avenues of escape once the terrs went to ground. I can only imagine that deconflicting the location of the stops and sweep line must have been difficult.
Did most of the deconfliction come from amongst the NCOs leading the sticks, from the FF commander in the K-car, or a combination of both? I imagine each contact was different and you were sometimes undermanned, but with even three stops on the ground and a sweep line, I'm thinking crossfire!
How much did the NCO's appreciation of the terrain come into play, and did stop groups attempt to find cover behind a decent piece of terrain? Or did you often find yourselves simply going prone and waiting to see what appeared?
As for your stick radios, what sort of range did you get with them, and did you ever find it lacking on a FF op? I'm assuming that with the K-car aloft, or a ParaDak overhead as a radio relay, the various elements could communicate, even it took some time.
A final question for now...What did you think of the anti-aircraft threat against the Alouettes when you were inbound to the contact zone? Were RPGs, SAMs, and ground fire just a routine part of the fight, or not often encountered? I ask because I am a firm believer that we are not employing our helicopter assests in Iraq to the fullest extent, because we fear the threat is too high. In a way, I feel it is almost shameful, because we are fighting the insurgents on their terms. the Rhodesian air force certainly had fewer airframes and precious spares, but had the helos on top of the bad guys all the time.I joined the RLI at the beginning of 1980, and so I am no expert on Fire Force. However to answer your questions I can add the following, with an apology for making statements that you have already covered, and repeating the obvious:
Other than Fire Force ops, RLI also carried out the usual patrol, ambush, O.P. operations expected of infantry units. Our use of fire and movement, snap and drake shooting etc, was basically the same regardless of the operation type, the difference being the immediate helicopter assistance available in Fire Force. As far as 90 degree offsets for covering sweep lines are concerned, we generally didn`t use them, although they were certainly part of anti-vehicular ambush drills, and L-shaped ambushes etc.
Obviously, when sweeping, everyone moved forward (reasonably slowly), keeping the line as straight as feasible (a wry smile as I write this). When contact is made the action would depend largely on the distance of the terrs from the troops, immediate action drills dictating the response - together with the nature of the terrain and bush (I don`t actually think you can ever train enough to cover all the possibilities) A very close contact would result in an immediate run through (the thickness of the bush could prevent that), while longer distances would result in drake shooting - emptying 2 magazines each as quickly as accuracy makes possible into likely cover, together with K-car shells etc etc. We would not waste time trying to identify the exact position of the individual terrs (ie looking for muzzle flash etc), although obvious targets would be dispatched immediately. Observation of the target was generally carried out while drake shooting. At some appropriate point the sweep became a skirmish line, ie splitting the sweep into two, the left section (called a flank) goes forward say 20 feet, while the right flank covers. When the left flank goes down, the right flank then moves forward while the left now covers, each troopie Drake shooting when he is part of the covering flank, or firing from the shoulder on the run if he is part of the flank moving forward. At some point both flanks combine to finally run through the terrs position firing from the shoulder. The other skirmish option was called a Pepper-pot, where individuals moved forward in random, each troopie on the ground covering those going forward - NCO`s or junior officers decided the skirmish method, while coordinating with the FFC for the timing of the assault. Pepper-pot (or something that resembled it) was the usual for 4 man sticks.
The overall point of the exercise was for the sweep line to locate the position of hidden terrs, at which point the K-car or Lynx gave them their attention. If an air strike was called for, then our job was to keep their heads down until the strike craft ordered us to stop firing just at the end of his run in (so we didn`t hit him!) The stops, or Stop Groups, were set in place to ambush points of escape, usually dry river beds, obvious paths through thick bush, the saddles in small hills etc, but their overall position was dictated by the FFC, while how the stops ambush was laid out, by their NCO. Stops would not be placed in the immediate front of any sweep line (!) and could often be quite far from the center of attention - A man can run a kilometer in a few minutes when he is frightened. At some point, decided by the FF commander, the stop groups could then be picked up and set elsewhere, or be required to sweep down said saddle, dry river bed etc etc to locate stragglers. When terrs were sited by either sweep or stops groups, or the shooting simply started, a call to the K-car would bring him over, or one or more of the G-cars. When a definite sighting in close proximity was made by troops, we would snap-shoot the target (double tap, or single tap, or a controlled 2-3 round squeeze on fully auto), and then drake shoot as normal. To again state the obvious, the idea was for the sweeps never to walk into each other, or into the stop groups, and all overall movement on the ground is dictated to by the Fire Force Commander. To move around unbidden in the overall combat zone was a definite no no, and would invite unwelcome attention from above - I am aware of at least one occasion when a stick from 1 Commando was attacked by a K-car. Unfortunately I never listened in on the chit chat between FFC and NCO, so cant comment further.
The A76 radios were ok at line of site communication, but they really went to hell in hilly terrain. For example while I had no problem speaking with a helicopter some kilometers away (5-7 km in this instance), the chopper couldn`t raise the other half of my callsign at the foot of the hill I was on - I was a few hundred feet up the side. The Allouette I was talking in onto their location was flying down a river valley at roughly the same altitude as my stick.
Part 2
This exchange reminded me of an important fact, and that was the degree of independent action expected from the troops on the ground. Because Fire Force operations required a very detailed synchronized ballet of air assault support, close air support, observations posts, paratroopers, and sweep and stop groups, independent action was not expected. In fact, it was more likely frowned upon. Much of the coordination was accomplished through the Mk. 1 eyeball, and restricting movement was a simple means of deconflicting the ever so dangerous geometry of fires.The A76 ate batteries, and they had no means of indicating the power level left in the battery, other than a terse "change your battery you are breaking up," or something ruder, you were never sure if it was fully ok other than a radio check with friends etc. They were also large by todays standards, for what they did - but we are talking about seventies technology. They worked just fine with overhead callsigns, although sometimes they received "flutter" from the helicopters as they turned. I should add that A76`s came with an attachment to plug into the aerial socket called a Sputnik (it looked like one). This basically consisted of a coax cable connected to a small hub with 3 or 4 inverted and flexible aerial blades screwed into it. The idea was to fix the sputnik up a tree, and this increased our comms range by quite a bit. I remember sending sitreps to a relay stick sat on top a large hill about 15 KM`s from my position, where the terrain between us was very hilly and broken up. The relay was placed there to allow a number of sticks to communicate with our base camp some 30 km`s away.
For much longer distance comms we had another beast of a machine that would fill a back pack by our usual light weight standards. I think this was called a B52, if memory serves me correct, and I don`t think any pun on the bomber was intended. I can only remember our stick carrying one of these on one occasion, and that after the war while our Commando was exercising in the Inyanga Mountains by doing the SAS selection course for a laugh (!) The B52 had an elaborate aerial arrangement that had to be laid out in a certain pattern, and were really meant for a base site, rather than a patrol. They were great at picking up Radio 5 in South Africa though, a popular music channel (strictly forbidden of course, just mentioned in passing
Rhodesian Allouettes were all modified to try combat Strelas (SAM7). Basically the airforce engineers designed a shroud that directed the hot air leaving the turbine up into the blades of the chopper, instead of straight out the back as was standard. If you look at pics of Rhodesian Allouettes you will see the mod. For reasons unknown the South Africans didn`t take the design up and it was absent on their Allouettes. Thankfully troopies were generally unaware of the strela threat, but of course we were aware of the danger from RPG7 rockets (etc). Our training had us out of the choppers pretty smartly after the wheels contacted the earth - bump and go. G-cars hugged the tree tops especially on run in, and they used ground features to good effect. I was frequently surprised by Allouettes suddenly appearing as they rose from over behind a small hill very near to our position, and their overall "quietness" when watched on approach was frankly astonishing. The Bells on the other hand could be heard many miles away when inbound, and of course they deafened the hell out of us by the time we got out of them. While they carried 8 troops instead of 4, the noise would have made them awful in the "surprise" department. Dont underestimate the effect of the comparative quietness of the Allouettes on approach, this will have played a huge part in Fire Force`s success.
Why didn`t more K-Cars, Daks, or Lynxs get shot down by Strelas given their relatively higher flying altitude? I have absolutely no idea. It seems to me the terrs could have caused mayhem with our FF if they had applied a few clever traps with those things. They certainly knocked a few Trojans down, and a Canberra went down in Mozambique apparently shot down, and of course we lost two civilian airliners, but to my knowledge we never lost a chopper to a strela. Strange, perhaps they kept the fact quiet? We certainly had choppers shot down by ground fire, a few of which crash landed and were recovered, and we had a South African Puma helicopter and a Dak take RPG7 hits in Mozambique, the former causing the greatest single loss of RLI troops.
As an aside, I always found pictures of the troops on FF ops interesting. Certainly by the end of 1979/1980, the use of short trousers was no longer, and we all wore normal camo long trousers, or one piece camo jumpsuits. This was because a number of troops had taken hits in the legs, so a dress change was instituted, but I don`t know what year this occurred - sounds all rather casual I know, but the use of shorts and light running shoes was originally designed to help increase speed and mobility. People are sometimes surprised by our dress in the bush, however while spit and polish and identical kit was expected in the barracks, out in the bush we were free to make our own choice in webbing, light weight boots or running shoes, etc etc. We wore face veils as bandanas to keep the sweat out of our eyes (who the hell is Rambo anyway?), and no helmets (unless jumping from a Dak) because of their weight (I`m sure you know this anyway). I used to wear a pair of shoes called Veld Skoens, a popular, soft, tan coloured leather shoe sported by officers, but not allowed as normal dress when in barracks for the other ranks (boots only for us). I modified my "Vellies" (pronounced Fellies, or Felt Skoons, an Afrikaans word) by having our cobbler replace the sole with car tyre tread, as car tyres were used by the locals out in the villages to make sandles. It made the shoe a bit heavier, but the tread spoor blended in well when in a TTL. And those vellies gave me 30 000 miles . . .
Thanks for posting the Q&A! Very interesting. I need to dust off my old books, I got the Elite and the first version of the Selous Scouts book but have not got the revised edition. I better get back on my old book seller and start ordering from them again. They have a better selection than amazon.com when it comes to Rhodesian and SADF books.
Rhodesian Fire Force
How "independent" is independent? Yes the Fire Force battle field was generally well choreographed by the Fire Force Commander (FF Cmd). When contact was made it was often at very close ranges where even the use of the 20mm canon from the K-Car would have been potentially dangerous to that particular stick (4-man callsign). These short range contacts were also normally short and sharp. In this 'corporals war' it was the stick commander's skill and aggression which was the critical success factor. By the time he had a chance to call in on the radio the local contact was all but over. Quite often an adjacent or nearby stick would report the contact to the FF Cmd who would then come overhead and at 800 ft and could see what was happening on the ground subject of course to the local tree cover. Over time we got better and better at what and how we did things on Fire Force and integral to the overall success was the ability of the generally 19-20 year old L/Cpls to deal with their local contact situations together with the aggression and skill of the gunner in the stick (armed with a FN- MAG).
Initialy we wore shorts, T shirts and clandestine footwear (Black joggers with a plain sole) during our operations, including our para jumps. In 1978 the late Brigadeer Parker who was also a former CO of the RLI visited us at Mtoko where we were based as fire force. (1 Commando) He decided that he would like to do a training para jump with us wearing the standard dress as stated above. There was a fairly strong breeze blowing during the jump and he got a bit banged up hitting the ground. He then gave the instructions that we will not be allowed to jump in the same attire ever again. This was an order that we could not disobey. The camoflage jump suit was then issued to all para troopers.
During the earlier part of Fire Force we very seldom took cover, but preferred to walk or run straight at the enemy whilst firing at any target that presented itself. This worked well against the Zanu terrorists as they were not as aggressive as the Zapu terrorists. The Zapu were recruited mainly from the Matabele tribe which were of Zulu descent. During these attacks we were fortunate to have the K-Car armed with a 20mm cannon firing explosive rounds as air cover. Sometimes we also had prop driven earoplanes (Similar to the Vampire jet, I forgot the name) who dropped Frantan bombs (Rhodesian equavelent of Napalm bombs) and 37mm Sneb rockets.
The K-Car commander would orchestrate and co-ordinate the complete attack from the air. The sweep line would be informed if they were near any stop group. The stop groups were normally dropped off by helicopter, and would try and get into the best defensive and protected position they could without decreasing there fighting ability.
For any members who served in the RLI, I have a nagging question, and it's about the quality of the maps that were used.
I haven't been able to put my hands on a map from that era, but considering the degree of dismounted movement that had to be choreographed from the K-Car, I imagine accurate maps must have been critical.
I actually have a second question as well. How frequently did sticks use map grid references to control movement? Was it for those occasions when a pace count and a compass came into play, with the rest of the time spent utilizing terrain association? I've read several accounts of movements across the borders that required long legs which I assume were accomplished through dead-reckoning.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks