Maggie’s A handful of hard men

wvfarrier

Ignorant wretch
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Dec 7, 2012
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If you have not read this book, you really need too. These have to be some of the bravest and most capable combat soldiers who ever walked the earth. 146 Rhodesian SAS soldiers on a shoestring budget soundly defeated 11,000 of Mugabe's "Terrs" who were being armed/trained by the US and Russia.
 
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I heard about this a few weeks ago from a buddy who was a Selous Scout... American who joined up after Vietnam because he didn't like being a civilian. He passed selection and then the Scouts were disbanded about 18 months later. After the Scouts were broken up, he did a bunch of years in the FFL Para Rep. Crazy motherfucker. Good crazy. @MarinePMI knows who I'm talking about!

The Bush wars were an interesting time. And under Carter, the US totally screwed up everything. What a surprise. Supported the wrong side literally every time. Put Gerald Bull in jail and sent him off to work for Saddam... Foreign policy idiots.

I'll definitely get a copy of this. Thanks for the reference!

While you are at it... look up Mirbat. The whole story has still never been told. But Labalaba, a Fijian in the SAS, should be awarded the VC. Not considered for it. Not contemplated. It should be awarded to him. Posthumously.

Thanks again!

Sirhr
 
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Yeah, it's real.

Not full auto obviously.
 
My Rhodesian FAL with Trilux sight and Halbek Device, a clamp-on muzzle brake designed by Rhodesians Douglas Hall and Marthinus Bekker. While Rhodesian troops were discouraged from firing their weapons on full-auto (instead, encouraged to shoot in controlled pairs), the device allowed the rather snappy FAL to be controllable should suppressing fire be needed.
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Attached is a PDF outlining the very advanced system of shooting that the Rhodesians employed. They called it "cover shooting" or "drake shooting".

It's worth the read. While much of what they did is common sense, they took it to a degree of finesse that has largely been lost today.
 

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Met an old guy in an airport lounge who was a scout. Hell of a discussion. He described some harrowing anti ambush operations. He looked like someone’s great grandfather but he was a no shitter even in his 80s.

One of my maternal grandmother’s sisters married a Rhodesian farmer in the 30s. When the country was about to fall they sold everything and she smuggled the diamonds out in her shoes in 77.