Dropzone Africa: Airborne and Airmobile Warfare in Southern Africa: 1961-1994 Review

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(More customer reviews)Pre-ordered this book when it first appeared on Amazon, now it was here and gone. It has been so long Amazon pulled the order. Do not post your publications on Amazon if you do not intend to send them. Thanks 30 Degrees South!

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Much has been written on airborne and airmobile warfare from a First World perspective, but very little has been written from Africa's. The African-and especially southern African-operational theatres posed unique challenges. The lack of infrastructure, the lack of key points to attack, as well as the lack of mobility facing conventionally mounted forces and their subsequent inability to respond rapidly over the types of distances inherent in most African operational theatres, all played a role in the development of a uniquely African approach to this type of warfare. France's experiences in Algeria and the birth of the helicopter ‘gunship' and its associated tactics led the way. Foremost among the forces operating in subsequent theatres were the Portuguese, Rhodesians and South Africans during their various counter-insurgency (COIN) campaigns, with the helicopter playing a pivotal role with its mobility, firepower and shock effect. This book studies the role played by their airborne and airmobile forces during these campaigns as well as their equipment, doctrine and tactics. While it is safe to say that the advent of rotary-winged aircraft had a seminal impact on modern warfare, it had an even greater effect on the COIN battlefield. Combining both the advantages of the glider (concentration of force upon landing) and the parachute (vertical descent) and having none of their disadvantages, it changed the face of vertical envelopment overnight.

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Counter-Strike from the Sky, Second Edition: The Rhodesian All-Arms Fireforce in the War in the Bush 1974-1980 Review

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(More customer reviews)The book Counter-Strike from the Sky by J. R. T. Wood details the use of the Alouette III K-Car and the practices that lead to the counter-insurgency tactics that became Foxfire in Rhodesia. Counter-Strike from the Sky details the concepts of Fireforce and the dates that it was implemented, details the equipment used in the program, as well as the history before, during, and after it that brought it into existence. J. R. T. Wood has also included a DVD with the book that some will find an added benefit. Before starting this book it would be helpful to have some idea of what Fireforce is, but not a requirement. The beginning of the book provides the background needed and the ideas of the concept in the first few pages and chapters. The information and set up is comprehensive. In this book research into the details the years of Fireforce and the phases down to detailed numbers, "894 mines were detonated or recovered a the rate of 2.44 mines a day," and, "From 1972-1980 there were 2,504 detonations by vehicles of landmines ... killing 632 people and injuring 4,410." This shows me the amount of time and energy that has been put into getting both the facts and the story correct in this book. The glossary and prologue are important pieces of the book and are located at the beginning of the book and are very helpful to the reader. If a reader is looking for specific information there is and index that has been included as well. There are three rather large sections in the book, two of photos and one of maps and diagrams that give the reader a visual reference.
This is not a book I would recommend to just any reader of Rhodesian history. It is not a book that can be picked up as light nightly reading and it is certainly not a book that one would pick up thinking that they would escape back to another day and time. It is a book that I would recommend to any historian of this time period. J.R.T. Wood has done a wonderful job of organizing and presenting the data into a all-inclusive unit.

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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 practiced 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 C-47 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. A documentary DVD is also included in the book.

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