ONE of the toughest customers the Zimbabwe freedom fighters faced during our liberation war was the helicopter (chikopokopo).
Yes, it was a real tough nut to crack!
In this article we are going to look at the heavily-armed Rhodesian helicopter, which arguably was the toughest beast the freedom fighters faced on the battle field.
It was like dealing with a hyena.
When the liberation war started and was up and running with the liberation war fighters having the upper-hand, the Rhodesians decided to arrest the situation.
In the end, they settled for the helicopter to become their major weapon to fight freedom fighters.
The Rhodesians decided to adopt the helicopter because of ‘its agility – its ability to hover, to land and take-off in almost impossible terrain’.
The Rhodesians were not the first to use the helicopter for military operations.
As soon as helicopters were available, the air forces and armies of the world gave them a multitude of tasks.
They first appeared in the Second World War and helicopters found general use thereafter.
They were used for casualty evacuation in Korea and for moving forces to combat insurgents in Malaya, French Indo-China and in Kenya.
In Algeria, the French developed the use of armed helicopters, the first ‘gunships’ working with parachute troops and helicopter-borne infantry.
The Rhodesians decided to emulate the French, but they did not have the right type of helicopter.
They needed a special type of helicopter and once more, they looked up to the French for help.
They got the helicopter they wanted called ‘Aloutte 3’.
This was a massive military weapon.
It could use paraffin, diesel or even petrol in dire situations.
It was ‘capable of absorbing astonishing quantities of small arms and even higher anti-tank rockets’.
The Aloutte 3 helicopter could accommodate the pilot and six fully equipped troops.
The Rhodesian practice was to carry a technician to mount a machine gun.
Later the Rhodesians were able to convert the Aloutte 3 helicopter into a real viable gunship.
The reason was they had acquired the potent French Matra MG151, 20mm cannon and its floor fitting which catered for its weight and recoil.
Now with the helicopter, a formidable weapon in their hands, how were the Rhodies going to use it to great effect?
They created what they called ‘fire forces’.
These were based on moving troops in helicopters to where there was a contact with freedom fighters on the ground.
The helicopters helped to get troops to the battle speedily.
Each fire-force had a gunship – an Aloutte helicopter mounted with a 20mm cannon which was flown by a senior pilot, often a squadron leader.
It carried the commando OC who directed ground operations from an orbit high enough above the contact area to see what was happening.
Three-or-four troop-carrying Aloutte helicopters known as General cars ferried troops to and from a contact zone.
Once the General cars had disgorged the first wave of troops, they returned to base to collect the second.
The object was to deploy as many troops on the ground within a given area and in as short a time as possible.
At the height of the liberation war, the Rhodesians had lots of armed helicopters and operated a lot of ‘fire forces’.
The list gives a total of 50 Aloutte helicopters.
It is said at one stage, 27 South African helicopters were deployed in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
The importance of helicopters to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was such that at the height of the liberation war, No.7 Helicopter Squadron was the largest squadron in the world with 40 Rhodesian pilots and 20 seconded South African Air force pilots.
From the above narration, there is no doubt armed helicopters were a real force to reckon with in the Zimbabwe liberation war.
They gave terrible headaches to freedom fighters; nightmares nightmares even.
But in spite of everything, the courageous freedom fighters took them on.
For starters, the helicopter had its own limitations.
It consumed lots of fuel and in a combat situation, its speed became quite low. This gave freedom fighters an opportunity to aim and hit it.
The RP97 bazooka was the most effective, especially if it hit the helicopter’s engine which quickly brought the beast down.
Bullets were also effective.
Below we highlight a successful attack on a helicopter by freedom fighters.
“In December 1976, an Aloutte 3 helicopter was rocked by a volley of 7.62 rum rounds at 800 ft as it descended towards the tree savannah of central Rhodesia. The bullets, flashing up from a clearing in the trees, were fired by 27 members of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) whose base camp one Cook was about to overfly.
They severed the Alouttes tail rotor shaft and wounded Cook in the right foot and arms.
His technician Finch Bellringer was semi-conscious after being hit by two rounds which penetrated his body armour.”
The helicopter in the end came down.
The Rhodesians themselves acknowledge that a lot of helicopters were brought down by freedom fighter-fire.
Below are some stats.
“Three acquired in 1962, one damaged beyond repair on January 17 1972.
One acquired in April 1972.
One damaged beyond repair on March 17 1977.
Four acquired June 1975, one shot down on May 18 1977.”
There were many more helicopters brought down by freedom fighter-fire from the ground than the above list indicates.
For example, in the big battle of Mapai in Southern Mozambique in September 1979, a ZANLA fighter brought down a South African helicopter helping the Rhodesians in the battle.
All 19 soldiers on board that helicopter perished.
During the battle of Chimoio in November 1977, the Rhodesians tell us that they lost a helicopter evacuating their injured to their recovery base at Grand Reef air force base outside Mutare.
That helicopter dropped from the air before it could cross the border into Zimbabwe, having been hit by ground fire.
Up and down the country, freedom fighters now and again brought down helicopters in numerous battles, mostly by the use of the RPG 7 bazooka.
But there was no doubt about it, every freedom fighter will tell you that an engagement with the heavily armed helicopters was not a joke.
And this goes to show how much sacrifice freedom fighters made to overcome the Rhodesians and bring about freedom.