Rhodesian Fireforce: history’s most lethal counterinsurgency tactic - Teaching Tactics

Fireforce was a daring tactic developed by the Rhodesian Security Forces during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1965-1980. Following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom, Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) became a heavily sanctioned pariah-state, condemned for its insistence on maintaining a system of minority rule in the face of a global wave of decolonization. A violent insurgency, supported by the Communist Bloc of the Cold War, sought to overthrow the Rhodesian government. The tiny Security Forces, chronically short on manpower and struggling to maintain an aging fleet of outdated vehicles, developed an aggressive Search&Destroy tactic to inflict devastating losses on the insurgents: Fireforce. These company-sized actions used small, unarmoured Alouette helicopters to insert 4-man teams in the path of the enemy, WWII-era C-47 transport planes to drop paratroopers directly into combat, and modified civilian aircraft to throw locally made ordnance in close support of ground forces.