Fireforce: One Man's War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great book, written by a guy who has more combat jumps than ANYONE in the US or UK military (well, that's unsubstanitated...but I'm pretty sure.) The book's about a conscript who signs on to become a regular in the Rhodesian Security Forces, Rhodesian Light Infantry. These guys jumped in combat several times a week. The American Paratroopers who had the most jumps in WW2 had maybe 5 combat jumps. The author had close to 40. I cannot say enought good things about this book. It's well written and easy to read. Very informative and full of good information. I'm reading these books to get insight on how to win against guerillas. The Rhodesians won militarily, but lost due to politics. It's the typical story of how the military does the right thing, fights well and wins, but is held back by gutless politicians. OK enough rant from me. The book is good. Lots of action, lots of detail. I'm not a professional reviewer (as if you couldn't tell), but this book was great! One of those that I didn't want to be over! The only better book I've read on the Rhodesian Bush War is At The Going Down Of The Sun, by Charlie Warren, another trooper that served with the author in the same unit. Both books are good and highly reccomended.

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Fireforce is the compelling, brutal but true account of Chris Cocks' service in 3 Commando, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, during Zimbabwe s bitter civil war of the '70s a war that came to be known almost innocuously as 'the bush war'. 'Fireforce', a tactic of total airborne envelopment, was developed and perfected by the RLI, together with the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian Air Force. Fireforce became the principal strike weapon of the beleaguered Rhodesian forces in their struggle against the overwhelming tide of the Communist-trained and -equipped ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas.The combat strain on a fighting soldier was almost unbelievable, for the Rhodesians, who were always desperately short of ground troops, were sometimes obliged to parachute the same men into action into as many as three enemy contacts a day. While estimates of enemy casualties vary, there seems little doubt that the RLI accounted for at least 12,000 ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas - but not without cost. Fireforce is not for the squeamish. Although it has been written with unforgettable pathos and humor, it tells of face-to-face combat in the bush and death at point-blank range. It is a book which does nothing to glorify or glamorize war, for as Chris Cocks found at such a young age, war is merely a catalogue of suffering, destruction and death.Fireforce has been described by critics as being to the Rhodesian War what All Quiet On The Western Front was to World War I and Dispatches was to Vietnam. Read it ... it will an experience you never forget.

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Pathfinder Company: 44 Parachute Brigade 'The Philistines' (Military History) Review

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(More customer reviews)During the war on terror that South Africa fought against its Marxist neighbors they established many specialized units and weapons. One such unit was the Pathfinder Company of the 44th Parachute Brigade. Following an airborne operation in Cassinga, Angola it was determined that a special unit, on par with the British and U.S. pathfinders, was needed in order to provide accurate jump information and to guide paratroopers to usable jump zones. Thus was born the "Philistines," a unit which resemble a foreign legion, including as it did British, American, Rhodesian and other nationalities. The short but colorful history of this unit and its actions against SWAPO and FAPLA are well worth reading, but mostly the book discusses small-unit actions and personalities involved in the fighting in Angola.

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Colonel Jan Breytenbach writes in the foreword: 'On Ascension Day, 1978, a composite South African parachute battalion jumped onto the tactical HQ of SWAPO's PLAN army, based at Cassinga, 250 kilometers north of the Angolan border to destroy the facility, their logistics, and to wipe out a strong concentration of SWAPO guerrillas. The airborne assault, part of Operation Reindeer, was an unqualified success; the whole base was destroyed. 608 PLAN fighters were killed, with many more wounded which pushed the final SWAPO death toll to well over a thousand. We lost only four paratroopers killed in action plus a dozen or so wounded. According to airborne experts in Britain and Australia, this was the most audacious parachute assault since the Second World War; the mounting airfield was well over 1,000 nautical miles away. I was the commander of that airborne assault, which although successful above all expectations, also highlighted many shortcomings, some of which nearly led to a disastrous outcome.'44 Parachute Brigade was formed later that year, with the need for a specialist Pathfinder Company patently clear. Into the ranks came professional veterans from the UK, USA, Australasia, Rhodesia and elsewhere, from such Special Forces units as the SAS, Selous Scouts and the RLI. 'This is their book, a collection of stories about the founding and deployment of a unit of 'Foreign Legionnaires', from different parts of the world who became welded together into a remarkable combat unit, unsurpassed by any other South African Defence Force unit in their positive and aggressive approach to battle. For me it was an honor to have faced incoming lead together with them.'

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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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