Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80

Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80
Author :
Publisher : Helion and Company
Total Pages : 73
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781910294055
ISBN-13 : 1910294055
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80 by : Kerrin Cocks

Download or read book Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80 written by Kerrin Cocks and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 11 November 1965, Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared his country independent of Britain. International sanctions were immediately instituted against the minority white regime as Robert Mugabe's ZANLA and Joshua Nkomo's ZIPRA armies commenced their armed struggle, the Chimurenga, the war of liberation. As Communist-trained guerrillas flooded the country, the beleaguered Rhodesians, hard-pressed for manpower and military resources, were forced to devise new and innovative methods to combat the insurgency. Fire Force was their answer. Fire Force as a military concept dates from 1974 when the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) acquired the French MG151 20mm cannon from the Portuguese. Visionary RhAF and Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) officers expanded on the idea of a 'vertical envelopment' of the enemy, with the 20mm cannon being the principal weapon of attack, mounted in an Alouette III K-Car ('Killer car'), supported by ground troops deployed from G-Cars (Alouette III troop-carrying gunships and latterly Bell 'Hueys') 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. In spite of the overwhelming number of enemy pitted against them, Rhodesian Fire Forces accounted for thousands of enemy guerrillas, with a kill ratio exceeding 80:1. At the end of the war, ZANLA generals admitted their army could not have survived another year in the field-in no small part due to the ruthless efficiency of the Fire Forces, described by Charles D. Melson, the Chief Historian of the U.S. Marine Corps, as the ultimate "killing machine".


Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80 Related Books

Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80
Language: en
Pages: 73
Authors: Kerrin Cocks
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-02-19 - Publisher: Helion and Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On 11 November 1965, Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared his country independent of Britain. International sanctions were immediately insti
Bush War Rhodesia 1966-1980
Language: en
Pages: 74
Authors: Peter Baxter
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-07-19 - Publisher: Helion and Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It has been over three decades since the Union Jack was lowered on the colony of Rhodesia, but the bitter and divisive civil war that preceded it has continued
Rhodesian Light Infantryman 1961–80
Language: en
Pages: 161
Authors: Neil Grant
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-11-20 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, was one of the most innovative and successful counter-insurgency units in modern history. Formed as a commando
Operation Dingo
Language: en
Pages:
Authors: J. r. t. Wood
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-09-19 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Startling in its innovation and daringly suicidal, Operation Dingo was not only the Fireforce concept writ large but the prototype for all the major Rhodesian a
Saaf's Border War
Language: en
Pages:
Authors: Peter Baxter
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-01-19 - Publisher: Helion

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the SAAF was South Africa's first line of defence against Soviet expansionism in southern Africa. In this account, Pet