Howzit?Originally Posted by Rhodesian
Was in your 2 Cdo in ’73 then after commissioning was in 3 Cdo. Good to see you still have the same fire in your belly which made the RLI what it was.
Of course it hurts bad that even though we killed them as fast as they pushed the cannon fodder over the border we were overtaken by the political events of the time.
When Carter was elected in the US the Brits saw their chance to slap down this little rebel state that had declared UDI and humiliated Britain in the eyes of the world and especially the Afro-Asian block. Back to the war.
As to Hearts and Minds the RLI had very little opportunity to do that stuff from about ’77 onwards as it was either fire force ops or external ops and patrols on Mozambique and Zambia. And of course the kind of troopie who gravitated to the RLI was not the type to hand out sweeties and soccer balls anyway.
The Rhodesian fire force kill rate was magnificent especially when we finally concentrated our helo resources and created the Jumbo fire forces with 2 gunships, 5-6 troopers, a Dak and two Lynxs. While we culled them like it was going out of fashion remember too that we lost 31 of our own in 1979 alone. We took the weapons and left the bodies and probably understated the kills as there was no longer a point to prove. The Selous Scouts pseudos relied on body count as they got a bounty per dead gook. Good luck to them.
Sanctions were a great motivation in that it brought innovation in the military as well in in commerce, manufacturing, mining and agriculture. In the Air Force they were fabulous with what they achieved. The locally made bombs (Golf-bomb, Alpha-bombs and the Frantan (napalm) were outstanding weapons and yes they worked with the South Africans on much of this. We in the army had to make do with what we had and what a victory it was when I managed to get 8 H-frame Bergens issue to the commando so when we did patrols in Mozambique we had a decent pack to carry our stuff. My first set of chest webbing was put together by the cobbler at the QM store based on SKS webbing a gook no longer needed with FN pouches he stitched on. Then before you know it Faraday’s was selling chest webbing and before we knew it we were the only army who bought their own webbing from Camping Supply Shop in downtown Salisbury.
The fire force as a concept is the application of the principles of war; Surprise, Offensive Action, Concentration of Force and Cooperation, all suddenly and violently on one small piece of terrain occupied by the enemy. To achieve this we used helos as a gun-platform and as means of delivery troops into contact. If there were 10, 15, 20 gooks or more sitting in one place the idea was to involve them all instantly in the contact through being engaged by airstrikes while the troops were put on the ground to close with and kill them.
In Rhodesia we used what we had and adapted to our situation in terms of terrain and enemy and went for maximum kills per contact. In another theatre such as Afghanistan there may be other means of achieving the same aim. Sadly it appears that they have more (politically imposed) constraints that hinder many possible tactical application of the fire force concept. Yes there are the faint hearted among them that may even be secretly happy that these constraints are in place. But you can be assured that there are plenty plus US and Brit kids as young as we were back then who would be up for a modern fire force version even more violent due to the weapons and stuff available today. And like in our day there will be plenty of young helo pilots who will take their chances with RPGs as our young pilots did back then.
One assumes that there is a nice reward for RPGs being handed in by the locals and surely masses of booby trapped RPG rockets (explode on firing) are being fed into the Taliban supply chain?
What one needs to sift through at this stage is whether respective militaries are champing at the bit under these political restrictions or are at least some happy and secretly thankful to take cover behind these restrictions?
The Taliban have got this thing sewed up. The ROE are such that there is no possibility of a re-run of the Rhodesian Style fire force in Afghanistan. Not going to happen as long as they have got this hearts and minds thing so ballsed up. And yes its irritating to hear people go on about the RPG as if it is the greatest weapon ever invented. But speare a thought for the US Joe and the Brit squaddie who are probably just as keen as you or I to get stuck in. We could, they can't.
But you are correct in a number of things. Back then in the lates 1970s we were far ahead of the game in terms of many aspects. CAS in those days was C.L.O.S.E. People don't believe it today when you say you called in an 19 gal Frantan (naplam) strike at 20m, then with a 37mm SNEB strike the "twirler" lands safely behind you. The yes then the 5m away 20mm gunship strike puts some shrapnel in the ass of one of your riflemen from a tree burst. So don't expect too much appreciation of how close was close back then. But remember that the guys who put that strike right on the button time after time were youngsters like you and I whose dad had probably flown Spitfires for the Brits during WWII.
We were 20-30 yerars ahead on individual medical training and casevac because we had to be. Did you know that I went through our old 3 Cdo 1977 photo with Chris Cocks the other day and we found that fully 34% of the people in that photo had been either KIA or seriously wounded by the end of the war. We had to get the medical side right. Remember too that the added value in a quick casevac was to get the rest of the callsign back into the contact ASAP. Head wounds, sucking chest wounds and arterial bleeding needed immediate attention on the ground but for the rest, get them on a chopper and out of there. Funny thing about contacts where we took casualties. Seemed we took very few prisoners on those days.
Ken has some wise words on this. I'll try to translate into English for you. Correctly he states that Rhodesians were fighting for the very existance of their country, their way of life and everything they held dear. It was the end game. That is why Rhodesian 18 year olds were able to pull enormous reserves of courage and endurance and innovation from within to achieve such results against seemingly impossible odds. This is not the same for the troopies in Afghanistan.
Oh yes, the monitoring force. In 3 Cdo we knew just how to welcome them to Rhodesia. See below the 3 Cdo welcome at Kotwa airfield 1980.
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