The Basic Tool of Fireforce:
The Alouette Helicopter
As has been said, once the Rhodesians adopted the helicopter in 1962, they fully exploited its agility, its ability to hover, to land and take off in almost impossible terrain. The helicopter has unique features to offer the military. Under anything but truly abnormal conditions, helicopters can ascend or descend at steep angles, allowing them to operate from confined and unimproved areas such as forest clearings and narrow valleys.
There was nothing new in the military use of helicopters. As soon as helicopters were available, the air forces and armies of the world gave them a multitude of tasks. The first workable machines appeared in the Second World War in the form of the American Sikorsky R-6A and the German Flettner F1 282 Kolibri. Thereafter, developing rapidly in capability, helicopters were engaged in casualty evacuation in Korea and moving troops and equipment to combat insurgents in Malaya, French Indo-China and in Kenya. In Algeria, the French created the first ‘gunships’, Alouette IIs armed with machine guns, to support parachute troops and helicopter-borne infantry carried in American-made Vertol H-21 twin-rotor helicopters.
There was a clear need for helicopters in Rhodesia but almost all of the terrain is over 2,000 feet above sea level and the climate is hot. As height and heat drastically reduced the efficiency of existing helicopter piston engines, a special helicopter was required. Such a helicopter was provided by the French who had taken the lead early in the race to design light turboshaft engines capable of flying at most required altitudes.
The man of vision in France was Joseph Szydlowski, who founded the Société Turboméca in 1938 and worked on small gas turbines throughout the Second World War despite the Nazi occupation of his factory. By 1949, he had manufactured the Artouste Mk II gas turbine, producing 400-shaft horsepower and, at 253lbs, weighing less than half of any equivalent piston engine. The American Boeing Company was also working on gas turbines and one powered the first gas-turbine helicopter in the world, the United States Navy’s Kaman K-225 twin-rotor ‘egg-beater’ which flew on 10 December 1951. Boeing, however, soon lost interest in light jet engines and left the field to the French.
In 1953, the Artouste Mark II replaced the radial piston engine of the Sud-Aviation (later Aérospatiale) SE3120 Alouette, a small crop-spraying helicopter. This gave the Alouette II such a unique performance that the Société Turboméca became the leading supplier of small turbine helicopter engines in the western world. The Alouette II had an open girder frame, an exposed engine, a skid landing gear and a bubble canopy. Aside from the pilot, it could carry four passengers, or two stretchers and two sitting wounded, or a 1,100lb load either in a sling under the fuselage or in the form of mounted guns, missiles or homing torpedoes. In June 1955 this little aircraft set a new world height record for helicopters by climbing to 26,932 feet and quickly found a ready market in 33 countries.
Turboméca’s next jet engine, the Astazou (de-rated from 530 to 350 shaft horsepower) gave constant power under any conditions of height and hot climate. It doubled the load-carrying capacity of the Alouette II and led to even wider sales. The Indian version, the HAL Cheetah, proved able to take off and land at heights above 24,600 feet in the Himalayas. In June 1958 the Alouette II set a height record for helicopters at 36,037 feet.
The arrival of the even more powerful Artouste engine (de-rated from 870 to 570 shaft horsepower) resulted in the bigger Alouette III. It first flew on 28 February 1959 and was soon performing spectacularly. Eschewing a throttle, its engine was governed to achieve a constant output of 33,500 revolutions per minute and its tail rotor spinning at precisely 2,001 rpm. Control of its speed was achieved by its rotor controls. In June 1960 it landed and took off carrying seven people at an altitude of 15,780 feet on Mont Blanc in the French Alps. In November 1960, carrying two crew members and a 550lbs load, it landed and took off at an altitude of 19,698 feet. This was unprecedented in the world of helicopters.
The Alouette III SA316B could accommodate the pilot and six fully equipped troops. Its passenger seats were easily removed, allowing the carriage of a variety of different loads. Experience in combat led the Rhodesians to remove the doors and to reverse the front passenger seats to widen the available floor space to make it easier to exit the helicopter quickly, to increase the cargo capacity and thereby gain flexibility.29 The new arrangement allowed the Alouette III to carry two stretcher cases and two seated wounded. A hoist could be fitted with a 380lb (175kg) capacity to allow casualties and other loads to be winched up. There was provision for an under-floor external sling for cargoes weighing up to 1,650lbs (750kgs). In emergencies, men could be ‘hot’ extracted from tight corners by trailing a trapeze bar underneath the aircraft onto which four men could clip themselves if they were wearing specially designed Pegasus harnesses. Those forced to use this method were not just buffeted by the slipstream and the downdraught but were often dragged through treetops as the pilots sought to evade ground fire. It was not an experience to be happily repeated.
Produced after first flying on 27 June 1968 and exported after 1970, the SA319B Alouette III was powered by the Astazou XIV (de-rated from 870 to 600 shaft horsepower) which was even more effective in ‘hot and high’ conditions and more economical. The SA319B had strengthened main- and tail-rotor transmissions. It weighed slightly more but could carry a heavier payload. It enjoyed a maximum speed of 124 mph at sea level and a cruising speed of 115 mph. Its service ceiling was 13,100 feet and its hovering ceiling in ground effect was 9,450 feet. Out of ground effect, the hovering ceiling was 5,000 feet. Its range at optimum altitude was 335 miles, slightly longer than its predecessor. In practice, however, it was considerably shorter. Under Rhodesian conditions, when loaded with troops, the Alouette would fly at 65 knots (or 75 mph) and at 84 knots (or 97 mph) with a light load. At 84 knots, its range was 242 miles (210 nautical miles). The Alouette III SA316B ‘K-Car’ gunship, armed with a 20mm cannon and ammunition, and a crew of three, had an endurance of an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half when loaded with 600lbs of fuel. The troop-carrying SA316B ‘G-Car’ with 400lbs of fuel, a crew of two and four fully equipped troops had an average endurance of 45 minutes.
The Rhodesians adopted the names, ‘G-Car’ and ‘K-Car’, for a number of reasons. ‘G’ stood for ‘General Duties’ in military parlance. ‘K’ was adopted for the cannon-armed Alouette III. There were also phonetic reasons given the often-poor radio reception. The addition of ‘Car’ was, perhaps, because the BSAP had called their patrol cars ‘B-Cars’. As the well-known BBC television police series, ‘Z-Cars’, was being screened in Rhodesia in the late 1960s and, as the international vehicle number plate for South Africa was ‘ZA’, the title ‘Z-Car’ was given to South African Police Alouettes.30
Both the Alouette III SA316B and SA319B were bought by Rhodesia while finding favour in 68 other countries.31 How many of each type Rhodesia possessed has not been revealed. Given international sanctions as a consequence of the unilateral declaration of independence by Ian Smith on 11 November 1965, clarity of records cannot be expected. As has been said: three were acquired in April 1962 (one damaged beyond repair on 17 January 1972), two in July 1962 and three (with hoists) in August 1963. After the UDI and despite the imposition of sanctions, four were acquired in August 1968 (two of them damaged beyond repair on 1 July 1970 and 20 November 1973 respectively), one in April 1972 (damaged beyond repair on 17 March 1977), five in December 1972, two in January 1974, one in July 1974, two in January 1975, two in March 1975, four in June 1975 (one of them shot down on 18 May 1977), one in February 1977; five were acquired at an unknown date, three in June 1979 and finally twelve at a further unknown date. How many on this list were actually owned by Rhodesia and how many were on loan from South Africa is not clear.32 At one stage, 27 South African helicopters were deployed in Rhodesia. Within No. 7 (Helicopter) Squadron, the South African Alouettes were designated Alpha Flight. In 1980, when Rhodesia had become Zimbabwe, the Air Force of Zimbabwe was left with eight Alouettes which gives some indication of what it really owned. There were many more helicopters brought down by fire from the ground than listed and some were rebuilt. In fact, all Alouettes are rebuilt totally in the course of their preventive-maintenance cycle. The engine would be changed after 1,200 flying hours and the airframe after 3,600.33 In the difficult times after 1965, many helicopters were built entirely from spares.34
By deft evasion of the international sanctions and the consequent arms embargo, eleven Italian Agusta-Bell 205A helicopters (the Rhodesians called them ‘Cheetahs’) were imported in August 1978. Two of the later model, the AB214 (which had a more powerful engine), were acquired shortly thereafter. The AB205A was the celebrated American ‘Huey’ of Vietnam fame built under licence in Italy. It had a range of 400 kilometres and a maximum speed of 126 miles per hour. It was designed to carry eleven passengers but because these particular AB205As were elderly, and after armour and twin .303in machine guns had been fitted, they could transport eight troops. Thus, they had a greater range and double the carrying capacity of the Alouettes. In 1979, the use of the AB205A Cheetahs on external operations into neighbouring countries meant that the Fireforces engaged in internal operations were not constantly robbed of their Alouette IIIs. This allowed the creation of large ‘Jumbo’ Fireforces which contributed to the increased casualties inflicted on the insurgent forces.
The purchase and immediate fate of the Rhodesian AB205As before they arrived in Rhodesia is not clear. They came to Rhodesia via the Comoro Islands, a common route for embargoed items. It is believed that a customer in Kuwait ordered 13 AB205As from Agusta in Italy. They were delivered by ship in Beirut, were unloaded and moved to Kaslik, a Maronite suburb of Beirut. Then they were bartered for arms from Israel for Major Haddad’s Christian militia in southern Lebanon. The Rhodesians were led to believe that they had purchased new aircraft but the AB205As they received were beyond their safe flying life. With vital parts corroded, the Rhodesians had a major task in restoring the aircraft to a flying condition. Early in their operational life, one AB205A was lost when its tail rotor sheared on 12 February 1979 but otherwise they were to make a significant contribution to the counter-insurgency operations.
The importance of helicopters to Rhodesia was such that, when its counterinsurgency war was at its height, No. 7 Squadron was the largest squadron in the world with 40 Rhodesian pilots and some 20 seconded South African Air Force pilots, flying 45 aircraft. Pilots served three-year tours on the different aircraft types of the Rhodesian Air Force. When, because of political pressures, South African pilots were withdrawn, the loss was made up by seconding senior qualified personnel from headquarters (after a five-hour re-familiarization course) and by calling up former pilots who had returned to civilian life.
29 Interview, Petter-Bowyer, 24 March 1992.
30 Interview, Petter-Bowyer, 24 March 1992.
31 Bill Gunston & John Batchelor, Phoebus History of the World Wars, Special, Helicopters 1900–1960, Phoebus Publishing, London, 1977, p. 45; Gunston, The Encyclopaedia of World Air Power, pp. 65–66.
32 W. A. Brent, Rhodesian Air Force: A Brief History 1947–1980, Freeworld Publications, Kwambonambi, 1987, pp. 13–14.
33 Telephone conversation with Squadron Leader W. E. Brown, 25 March 1992.
34 The airframe was tubular and filled with nitrogen. To detect cracks, soap would be spread over the airframe before the pressure of the gas was tested. The technician would look for telltale bubbles. Interview, Petter-Bowyer, 24 March 1992.