Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80: 20 (Africa@War)

I enjoyed this work. Having read some of the reviews beforehand, I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy the work but Kerrin has a done a good job. As someone with a historical interest as well as a professional one, I found the book to be both engaging and credible. I would recommend it highly. It is an interesting and compelling foil to Fire Force.

Possibly a small footnote in 20th century history, but an interesting subject nevertheless. I really appreciate this book! Well written, fair/unjudgemental. On the same level as JRT Wood's work about recent Rhodesian history. Well worth reading!!!

A well explained insight into COIN ops during the Rhodesian bush war. Recommended for any student of African bush wars but would not be out of place in military colleges.

Simply say this is a must for anyone interested in the Rhodesian Bush War

Good information on the Rhodesian army's ability to adapt and make full use of their limited resources, against growing overwhelming numbers of terrorist forces.

Excellent, a great addition to the many other books on the subject, this one showing a theoretical composite Fireforce in action from start to finish.

I bought this new book not expecting a detailed commentary on the history of fireforce but accepting it for what it is as part of the Africa@War series of books which seem to be intended to offer a potted A4 sized history of post 1945 military conflict on the continent and looking forward to the photographs more than the narrative. I'm not sure exactly who the books are aimed at but there are a few titles relevant to the Rhodesian Bush War; 'Operation Dingo', 'Selous Scouts' and 'Zambezi Valley Insurgency' . There were some interesting photographs, one in particular of a BSAP Special Branch officer taking the serial number from a ZANLA insurgent's AK-47 offered to him for inspection by the said insurgent who in the picture is still carrying loaded magazines in his webbing!! but I didn't think the theoretical fireforce deployment was that interesting constituting the whole premise of the narrative yet being a piece of fiction. If you are looking for the briefest of overviews about what fireforce was as a concept then this might interest you but I felt the book suffered from some muddled schematics in the first chapter which were clearly reproduced in the wrong order and some photographs which were inaccurately labelled. Better proof reading might have helped. If you really want to study fireforce then I would recommend 'Counter Strike from the Sky' by the great Professor JRT Wood, available elsewhere on Amazon which incidentally comes with an excellent DVD which was scripted, directed, produced and edited by Miss Cocks herself, a far more detailed and informative product.

Just got this ..Looking forward to reading this as someone who was there...