Counter-Strike from the Sky: The Rhodesian All-Arms Fireforce in the War in the Bush 1974-1980 - Hardcover

Wood, Dr J. R. T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1920143335 ISBN 13: 9781920143336

Publisher: 30 Degrees South Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

This title contains a book & DVD. 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.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Wood, BA (Hons) (Rhodes), PhD (Edinburgh), FRHistS was born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He was educated at St George’s College, Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and Edinburgh University, Scotland. He was a Commonwealth scholar and a Fel

Edition details

• Publisher: 30 Degrees South Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1920143335
• ISBN 13: 9781920143336
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308