Rhodesian Helicopter operations.

At the beginning of the war in 1965 the Allouette III helicopters of the Rhodesian Air Force carried the single assegai marking of that period. Helicopters were used in penny packets initially with the odd machine armed with a single MAG mounting. At this stage the helicopters could carry from 6 to 5 men as they did not have machine guns.

At a later stage elephant ear large filters were added as well as anti Strella shrouds were added to protect the engines from ground fire and Strella shoulder launched anti aircraft missiles. At this stage the helicopters could carry 5 men.

In 1974 the helicopters were finally grouped into RLI Fire Forces and at a later stage twin 303 browning mounts were added. Due to the added weight of armoured seats etc, the normal stick would now be 4 men.

Now we had a 20mm cannon added which became the command helicopter called the K-car. Trooping helicopters were called G-cars and South African trooping helicopters were called z -cars. The quadruple 303 MG mount which was introduced later in the war  and was a back up for the K-car was called a Alpha-car.

I will sit down and do this blog again but with much more detail.