Chapter 10: Fire Force 1974 the Beginning

My first trip on Fire Force was to Mt Darwin which consisted of a Police camp, Court house, Farmers Club, Army camp and a few trading stores ... Access to Darwin was a little dodgy as it was still a dirt road from Bindura that the Gooks had a habit of planting a few TMH's in for us to find ... Fire Force base was next to a football ground where the Choppers lived with their Pilots and Techs ... Our base was about the same size with bunkers in the corners and a few trees to pitch tents under ... Our first trip there we were still using a Long Drop (outhouse) but the engineers were busy building toilets and showers in one corner...

We had only 3 troop choppers and one gunship ... Allouette 3 with a 303 Browning for a G Car carrying pilot, tech and 4 Troopies ... K Kar, also an Allou 3 had pilot, Tech and ground troop commander with the tech manning a 20mm cannon...

Now considering we only had 26 guys in the Group (We only got Commando status a few years later) we were hard pushed to supply the 12 guys for first wave and could just make second wave as long as the cook went with and we abandoned our OPS room ... We had been decimated by Selous Scouts starting up with most of tracking troop, our CSM and a few others disappearing over the previous RNR... (My thoughts go to my old CSM's family as he passed away last week Apr 2016)...

We were a sorry looking bunch but we had mostly old experienced soldiers with a couple of new Troopies from training troop ... We didn't take over from anyone as this was a new Operation and we were to be the experiment to put it all together ... We set up camp that evening and got comfortable ... I must admit that an RLI troopy can make himself very comfortable ... As I was a new boy I was presented with the MAG ... At 26lbs this is not a present gladly received but it did have distinct advantages ... For me in that first FF camp was being allocated the corner bunker as my place of residence for the next 6 weeks ... This was a prime spot as two of us created a decent home ... the bunker was raised above the Berm with ½ meter slots looking out over the valley and police camp ... The walls were 4 sand bags thick and the roof was railway sleepers also with a 4 sand bag covering ... Each troop had a corner and the rest of the guys lived in tents which is not clever in 34c heat that can creep up to 40c...

The next morning we met with our pilots and techs and went over the drills for access and deplaning from the choppers, you know, silly little things like not putting your rifle barrel up in to the rotors or letting your foot rest on the handbrake (Collective) ... In later years there was a steel plate put up around the Collective as there were a few problems with guy's big feet ... After a pleasant day of stuffing around we were told we would be active and on standby for call out from the next day ... Ha, Ha, Ha ... We sat on our arses for 4 days cleaning weapons and did PT ... Our first OP wasn't even a FF call out but a night ambush with SB and an informer ... What a scream a minute but we managed to slay the area commander and a few others...