Thanks, Pardus. Great stuff.
One of the reasons the RLI went all-airborne was due to the UN sanctions. The RAF had Alouette IIIs, like in the above vids--some on loan from SA--but never enough. So to make up for the lack of air assault helos they started large-scale parachute training for regular ground units...and were combat jumping out of Dakotas sometimes as low as 300 feet. They eventually got a small number of broken down Hueys (Cheetahs) from Israel "smuggled" through the Comoros in defiance of sanctions.
It's one thing to have to fight a bush war against 3 or 4 different insurgent forces, quite another to have to do it with your hands tied behind your back.
No doubt about the fact ZANLA was thoroughly indocrinated by The Little Red Book...
Pamberi ne Chimurenga = Forward with the Liberation Struggle
There was undeniable proof of the insurgency's Communist agenda. And yet it was ignored by the same countries that were the long-standing ideological enemies of Communism. The US, Europe condemned Rhodesia, the UN passed madatory sanctions. And the Rhodies, who were fighting against Communist forces were understandably defiant.
Ian Smith
PK van der Byl, Defense Minister
One of the reasons the RLI went all-airborne was due to the UN sanctions. The RAF had Alouette IIIs, like in the above vids--some on loan from SA--but never enough. So to make up for the lack of air assault helos they started large-scale parachute training for regular ground units...and were combat jumping out of Dakotas sometimes as low as 300 feet. They eventually got a small number of broken down Hueys (Cheetahs) from Israel "smuggled" through the Comoros in defiance of sanctions.
It's one thing to have to fight a bush war against 3 or 4 different insurgent forces, quite another to have to do it with your hands tied behind your back.
No doubt about the fact ZANLA was thoroughly indocrinated by The Little Red Book...
Pamberi ne Chimurenga = Forward with the Liberation Struggle
There was undeniable proof of the insurgency's Communist agenda. And yet it was ignored by the same countries that were the long-standing ideological enemies of Communism. The US, Europe condemned Rhodesia, the UN passed madatory sanctions. And the Rhodies, who were fighting against Communist forces were understandably defiant.
Ian Smith
PK van der Byl, Defense Minister
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