CHAPTER 24 VERY HOT WEATHER STOPS THE WAR AND OTHER STRANGE EVENTS

 When the Selous Scouts found another terrorist base camp inside Mozambique, we had three Dakota loads of paratroops on standby at Buffalo Range prepared to strike.The plan was to drop the troops on one side of the camp where they would lie in wait whilst air strikes and chopper-borne troops were put down on the other side. It was hoped all the air activity would drive the terrs into the paratroopers’ kill zone where they could be dealt with efficiently.

But the plan was scuttled when the advance Selous Scout team was discovered, and the terrorists and their Frelemo allies gave chase. Four brave men were now fleeing for their lives. If they were captured they would be tortured and killed.

Suddenly, the 60 paratroopers on standby at Buffalo Range changed from an attack force to a rescue mission. Fine. We were adaptable, and it was basically just another form of Fire Force: drop the troops, kill the bad guys, save the good guys, and go home for a cold beer. We were determined to get the job done and save these men.
 But, as always, there was a problem. This time it was the weather. It was not the usual high winds - to save one of our own we would risk most conditions, including high winds on the ground. This time it was the heat. It was an absolute stinker of a day – 47 degrees C in the shade, humid and exhausting. It was so hot that a planned rescue mission would certainly become a suicide mission.

Ron Reid Daly, the Selous Scouts boss, wanted me to put the 60 troops on board the Dakotas with the crews at cockpit readiness. Understandable from his view-point – these were his men and they were in danger, but if it was 47 degrees outside, temperatures inside the Dakota would have quickly climbed to over 60. Hot enough to cause organ failure. Hot enough to kill. Add to this the camouflague uniforms which retained heat and we were sure to kill more troops than the four we were going to rescue.

The temp 47 C in the shade just too hot to fight a war. The PJI's try to find a cool spot to catch up on some shut eye. This photo shows Sgt Paul Hogan from Australia sitting with Sgt Mike Wiltshire from London sleeping. I am unable to identify the one smoking.

I refused. I was threatened with disciplinary action for failure to obey orders and for insubordination, but what the hell, it was just too hot. Instead I found a nice spot in front of the Ops room air conditioner and put my head down for a bit of shut eye.
Luckily, I was not the only one. It was so hot that everybody, on both sides, decided to temporarily give up the war until it cooled down again. This gave the four Scouts a chance to escape and they were later picked up by chopper. The enemy base camp was abandoned and consequently, so was our mission.

It actually turned out a pretty good day. Everyone got home safe, I was not court-martialled, and I caught up on some sleep. To keep up morale, and to celebrate the cool change that evening, we did a fun jump from 1500 feet, a change from the usual 500 foot drop height.

 Then there was the time PTS were used as taxi service. An Air Task arrived at PTS which ordered us to fly to an airstrip called Mabalauta, pick up a stick of troops, and insert them by HALO into a spot inside Mozambique. We would also deliver a HALO box. Up till this stage it was a fairly usual request as it was a very busy period of the war.

But, when I asked how many parachutes were needed, I was told they were already there. This was definitely strange. I was responsible for all military parachutes and military jumps, and had not been told of any requests for free fall rigs to be sent to this odd bush location. Apparently, all I had to take were the portable oxygen sets, my own parachute and one for my PJI, our personal weapons, and the various maps and aerial photographs of the target area.

This satellite photograph shows the Mabalauta airfield and the borders of Mozambique, South Africa and Rhodesia. The area is billiard table flat and there are few navigation points to be seen from the back of the Dakota flying at over 15000ft .AGL.

I was used to the secrecy surrounding operations – the fewer who knew the better, but, at least when it came to parachuting ops, I was not used to being on the receiving end of this rule.

 We arrived at Mabalauta close to noon and went in search of the HALO stick. I recognised a couple of Selous Scouts - freefall trained chaps, but they were talking to two strangers, men I had never seen before. And these four were to be the stick for the operation.

Up to this point I had jumped with every freefall trained paratrooper in Rhodesia. I knew their abilities and was confident with their training. But I did not know these two and there was no way they were going to jump unless I got a satisfactory answer. Were they adequately prepared? Hell, did they even know how to parachute? I offered, what I thought was a very reasonable compromise. How ‘bout they went down in the HALO box? Surprisingly they declined my offer, a shame really as I was curious how this would work. Instead they suggested I contact COM OPS who would verify their credentials.

I stomped off, not a happy little OC PTS. In fact I was furious, I was not about to throw possibly inadequately trained men into the wilds of Mozambique on the whim of some chair-warmer. Were the Selous Scouts playing games again? Trying their own form of parachute training? I had my concerns – especially as one of my PJIs, an American, had recently transferred from PTS to the Scouts. This American was a reasonable freefall instructor but was always trying to find out what we were doing, in contravention of our need-to-know policy. I had my suspicions.

 In hind-sight, this man was probably a CIA spy. At this time the Yanks were very curious about what was happening in our corner of the World. Both China and Russia were poking around, backing various factions in our War and we also had a lot of very useful minerals. It would have been more surprising if they didn’t have spies amongst us.

Whether this was done with the knowledge of any others in our Forces I do not know. But, this particular man entered PTS as a sergeant PJI and went to the Selous Scouts as a Captain. A very rapid promotion indeed.

 Anyway, I got hold of the Air Force rep at COMOPS, who assured me these chaps were fully trained members of the South African ‘Recce Commando.’ We were merely giving them a one-way trip to Mozambique. The Selous Scouts had found a camp which contained members of a banned South African organisation, and we had offered the South Africans a lift to check it out.

 In the end, we carried out the drop in the usual, very standard manner, from about 20,000 feet AGL. All arrived safely on the ground at last light, and we returned to Buffalo Range for fuel before flying back to New Sarum.  I know one of our PJIs, Mike Wiltshire, was an ex-Londonbus driver, but this was ridiculous.

 Just to prove it was not always hard work, there was the time I travelled in style. I was required to go down to Buffalo Range from New Sarum in a hurry to carry out a parachute drop into Mozambique. All the usual, horribly uncomfortable, means of air transport in the Air Force were either on service or in use.That left one option: civilian air transport. Air Rhodesia had a daily flight to Buffalo Range by Viscount. Damn! I suppose I could take one for the team. So I bummed a ride down to FAF7 Buffalo Range in a Viscount, complete with air hostess and a cup of tea: what a way to fight a war!

I grabbed my gear, and with another PJI in tow, we were driven across the 060 runway to Salisbury Airport and climbed aboard the Viscount. In this day and age it would be inconceivable for two heavily armed men to hitch a ride on a civilian airliner but these passengers didn’t seem to mind. I don’t know who paid for that flight, but it was much more comfortable than the back of a Dakota.