In September 1962, there were a number of incidents among the local
tribesmen in the more remote areas of Southern Rhodesia. In 1961 a new
Constitution was negotiated between the Southern Rhodesian and British
governments which widened the franchise, allowing black Africans, with a
certain level of education and status to vote for the first time. This
franchise was originally agreed to by Joshua Nkomo, but he soon changed his
mind and demanded “one man one vote.”
This cry spread around the country. Various gangs proceeded to intimidate the local tribal people, burning down the stores, also damaging maize grinding mills
and cattle dipping facilities. There were a number of murders and
general civil disobedience started to escalate. This was the beginning of the
Nationalist movement, which would later turn into the Rhodesian Bush War, a
vicious terrorist war involving the entire population of this small African
country.
The first operational parachute drops by the SAS took place at Kutama
Mission Makwiro on September 22, 1962. Called Operation Mackerel, it consisted
of two sticks of ten troops dropped, from Dakota #704, flown by Flying Officer
Stewart. The silly thing about this operation was the day before the drop took
place, I was sent, by road, to carry out a DZ (drop zone) reconnaissance in the
area.
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My brief was to find a suitable DZ and to “please do it quietly.” At the
time I did not give the task much thought. Being young and a little ignorant of
the situation, all I had to do was exactly what I’d been taught at RAF Abingdon
ie. find a flat piece of ground 1000 metres by 1000 metres, devoid of trees,
fences, rocks, or any other obstacles, mark it on a map, and write down the
preferred run in direction.
Up to this time, us technical types in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force (I
had originally been trained as an instrument fitter) did not have much to do
with navigation or, for that matter, soldiering. This idea of plotting things
on a map for some "Officer Pilot" in a Dakota to find and then drop
paratroops thereupon was daunting. I had a vague idea of how to read a map and
take a compass bearing, and I knew the general area as I had been born in the local Kutama mission hospital, and my
family owned a ranch not far away.
I went to see Mrs Pam Broli, the
fearsome lady at the MT(Military Transport) Section , and after the usual
argument, with much reference to various written orders, was permitted to sign
out a Land Rover. I obtained a 1:50,000 map of the area from the New Sarum map
room, and called on the stores to sign out a prismatic compass. This was
classed as a valuable and attractive item and I almost had to sign my pension
over to get one.
Having prized the necessary pieces of equipment out of their various
residences, I set off towards Kutama Mission. This was supposed to be a secret
mission, but here I was driving into what was supposed to be an area in
turmoil, with all sorts of random lawless activity taking place, completely
unarmed. It did not take very long to find a suitable DZ close to a village,
which appeared to be peaceful. It met all the necessary requirements and I actually walked over the
entire piece of open grassland. The few locals who looked in my direction
didn’t show any interest in what that silly makewa
(white man) was doing, walking up and down all over the place. After plotting
the selected DZ on the map and marking the preferred dropping run, I climbed
back into the Land Rover and drove back to New Sarum. After returning the
precious compass and Land Rover I reported to my C.O. Flt/Lt R.T.D. Smith (Ron had
recently been promoted to Flt/Lt), who was the seconded RAF Boss of PTS, and
showed him the location on the map.
He told me to go to 3 Squadron pilots, show the pilot who was doing the
drop, and then report to Bill Maitland, the acting school Warrant Officer. Bill
was detailing the crew to fly on this, the first armed operational parachute
drop in the history of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
All the PJIs wanted to be in on this deal; it was the real thing, we
were going into action, and we might even be shot at. I was the spare PJI, as
the others were training static line course #11 and they would have had to
inflict serious injury to exclude me
from this.
I found the troops who were to do the jump the next morning, and
assisted them in packing their kit. In those days there was a suspended load
called a Parachutist Weapons Container (PWC) which involved much lacing of the
main pack and fitting .303 rifles into sleeves and securing them to the pack.
Having packed the PWCs, we fitted the suspension ropes and suspension hooks.
All the parachutes were then collected from Safety Equipment and each man
adjusted the harness of his X Type parachute to fit himself. (This was another
of the problems with the X
Type – the harness had to be adjusted to fit each individual, unlike the
PT10 or SAVIAC parachutes which had easy adjusting straps).
After many hours of preparation, we did what most warriors do, given the
opportunity – we went to the various messes to swallow a few beers. It was hard
to sleep on the mats in the PTS hangar with soldiers tripping over each other
during the night.
Early next morning the lights in the hangar were turned on and everybody
was given a briefing on Operation Mackerel. “Take Off” time was 0725hrs and
flight
time to the DZ was about 30 minutes. We didn’t do any ground training
before the drop -at later times; this became mandatory.
We were all nervous – it was the first true test of what we’d learned,
and everyone was anxious to prove themselves -a number of troops came up and
said “Please Sarge don’t let me hesitate, just give me a big push .” “Don’t worry,” I said “You’ll be fine.” And,
as always, they were.
In fact it would have been nearly
impossible to stop the stick exiting once it started to go out of the door,
especially if one of the old soldiers was at the end pushing.
On September 26, 1962, also on Operation Mackerel, we dropped two sticks
of seven and one stick of six at Chingagwe in the Inyanga area. The pilot for
this operational drop was Flt/Lt Alexander, and as we only had one para Dakota
it was #704 again. This time I didn’t do the DZ recce. Sergeant Jock Hutton,
one of the old soldiers who’d jumped at Normandy on “D” day, got stuck up a
very tall pine tree. Because of the X type parachute, he had great difficulty
getting down. However, he did manage to get to his water bottle and, like all
old soldiers, especially those of a Scots’ ancestry, he’d filled it with just a
wee dram or two. He would’ve been happy to
stay up the tree for a little longer if there wasn’t a war to fight.
What war? This was supposed to be an operational jump and nothing
happened. Jock getting stuck in the tree was the most exciting part of it. Not
a single shot was fired in anger, and as far as the PJIs were concerned, it was
a fizzer.
The notable thing about this whole episode was the amount of time it
took for the paratroopers to get ready with a weapon in a suspended load, which
could be 15 feet away from him when most needed. It was only about 17 years
after the end of the Second World War, and apart from the inclusion of a
reserve parachute, very little thought had been given to the improvement of
equipment. The main parachute was still the 28-foot diameter X type, and
weapons were still carried as a suspended load, which took far too long to get
out of the pack. There had to be a better way of doing things. But, as usual in
any military organization, it takes time for improvements and cost was always a
priority.
The Royal Rhodesian Air Force was responsible for the supply,
maintenance and repacking of all military parachutes, and we only had 100
static line X type parachutes available to us for both training and operations.
The result was that the parachutes used on Op Mackerel had to be picked up and
returned to the Safety Equipment Section ASAP, so we could continue training.
We did another drop on Op Mackerel on October 3, 1962, when we dropped
two sticks of ten at Dombashawa. This time the pilot was Flt/lt Johnson and
again it was from Dakota #704. Between these so called operational jumps, the
staff at PTS was trying to train basic course #11. With reference to my log
book, #11 Basic did their first jump out of Dakota 704 on September 25, 1962, their second
on the 26th, third and fourth on the 28th, fifth on the 29th, sixth on October
2, and seventh and eighth on October 4. With only 100 X Type parachutes
available, we kept the parachute packers very busy.
More operational jumps took place for Operation Gwebi's Gambol . On 11th Oct
1962 I did the DZ reconnaissance from an
Alouette III Helicopter flown by Flt/Lt
Rex Taylor of #7 Sqn. Things were improving with regards to the clandestine
deployment of Paratroops. At the very
least we were now checking the DZ from
the air a couple of days prior to the actual drop. This time I did not have to drive to the spot
then walk all over the place to check the landing area, or sign my life away to
get the necessary equipment for the reconnaissance.
On October 13, we dropped two
sticks of 20 out of Dakota #705 (704 must have been having a service) for
Operation Gwebi’s Gambol.
Between September 22 and October
20, 1962, over 300 jumps took place. Of these, 120 were operational jumps with
the remainder being Basic Course #11. The PJIs jumped at every opportunity, as
always.
In the Safety Equipment Section at that time there were only three
packing tables. It took the average packer 20 minutes to pack an X type
parachute. It took us only 1.5 seconds to unpack it. Assuming they were working
for eight hours a day, they produced approximately 24 parachutes per table,
giving us a total of 72 parachutes per day. This was truly a magnificent effort
from only about six or seven men. As well as packing our static line parachutes
they had to repair any damage and were
also required to service ejection seats and all other aircraft safety
equipment. Additionally, the reserve parachutes and dispatchers’ parachutes had
to be repacked every two months. In all my years at the Parachute Training
School there was not a single packing error - an incredible record.
The STANDING ORDERS FOR THE PARACHUTE TRAINING SCHOOL stated. It is the
responsibility of the staff to ensure
the safe arrival of all parachute troops onto the selected Drop Zones. The PTS
staff are required to develop techniques
and the necessary training of parachute
troops to ensure the minimum injury rate possible at all times during training
and operations. PTS took these orders very seriously and all military parachute
descents in the Rhodesian Bush War were approved by the PJI's on the Fire
Forces. This resulted in the lowest injury rate in the world for operational
parachute drops.
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