Fighting Men of Rhodesia ep315 | Lt Col Nick Fawcett OLM, BCR | part 1 | 1 Cdo 1RLI & RAR
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- Опубликовано: 8 янв 2025
- BRONZE CROSS OF RHODESIA
Following the reported location of terrorist equipment on a farm in the North Mashonaland area, a composite force of 4 Troop, 1 Commando and a small Police Anti Terrorist Unit patrol under the command of Second Lieutenant Fawcett was sent to investigate.
Tracks for seven terrorists were found in the area and what was to be a two day follow-up was commenced. The terrorist tactics of anti tracking and setting ambushes on their resting places and night bases indicated that the gang was well trained and extremely alert. Despite this, Second Lieutenant Fawcett conducted the follow-up with such determination that by the morning of 10th April 1968, he had reduced the terrorists' lead from 48 to six hours.
At 1330 hours on that day as the force approached high ground on which a number of deep prospectors trenches had been dug, one terrorist was observed, at 30 yards range. Second Lieutenant Fawcett immediately deployed his force into assault formation and despite the open nature of the ground commenced crawling towards the terrorist hide. At 15 yards distance,
Second Lieutenant Fawcett and his signaler were observed by the terrorists who immediately opened fire with rifles and machine-guns. In the initial fire fight, three terrorists were killed and one Trooper killed and one Policeman wounded.
The latter was evacuated from the contact area on Second Lieutenant Fawcett's orders.
Throughout this and the subsequent engagement in which the remaining four terrorists were killed, Second Lieutenant Fawcett directed the assault from an exposed position which was covered by heavy terrorist fire including the use of a bazooka. His calmness, clear thinking and complete disregard for his own safety under these hazardous conditions was an example to all. His outstanding leadership of a composite force the majority of which had never been under fire
was of the highest order.
The terrorists had fought with determined aggressiveness and no thought of surrender from well dug in positions advantageous to the defenders. The fact that all were eliminated with so few casualties to his own force is entirely due to Second Lieutenant Fawcett's fine leadership while his personal gallantry throughout the difficult contact w as a splendid inspiration to his men.
You can contact me (John van Zyl) at fightingmenofrhodesia@gmail.com or Tony Ballinger at tonyballinger991@gmail.com.
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What an erudite speaker with a true insight of the practical issue's.
Look forward to part 2 , 3, and 4
Well done again.
Thanks Colonel, Tony and John for another great conversation about our fighting men of rhodesia.
A great part one from Nick and always a pleasure to learn of the Battalion’s activities in the earlier years (1965 onwards) especially. I echo Nick’s comments regarding the great strengths of the RAR troops. Warriors in battle. Hope John, Hannes and Tony and all those regulars who tune into every new episode have a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and peaceful New Year. 💪
Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings Nick, Tony, Rhodies and families & FMOR.
Re the 20mm on the K-Car and twin .303cal on the G-Car, the guns were MG151 (French Matra possibly made under license by the German manufacturer. The 20mm's from the retired Vamps were taken by the army, maily for use by the Selous Scouts on their vehicles. The Alouette had to be modified / floor beefed up to accept this fit . . . The unit was in kit form comprising of a platform having the dimensons of the Alo aft seating area, with a cradle for the gun, and gunners seat om the other side. The platform by the cradle had a blank space to allow the expended shells (doppies) and belt links to be gathered in a comparmrnt in the center left section of the under fuselage of the Alouette.with the Hoisying use floor section beng dropped down as done when using a hoist. The floor had to have nut rececptacles installed to bolt down / attache the platform assembly. and certain areas of the floor being beefed up for this requirement. Due to the fllor being construted of upper and lower sheet metal sandwiching a honey comb filling areas were injected with an araldite like epoxy resin filling. TO convert a Gkar to Kcar conig ona KCar ready fit Alo would take about 2-3 hours - platform & gun, ammo containers and then Gun and gunsight calibration/harmonization.
The Alo GKcar gun change from FN 7,62 MAG (same as the army issue) were replaced by the twin .303" Brownings taken from the phased out Provost Aircraft (replaced by the Lynx) in late 1976-1977. With the MAG I'd experienced several stoppages, possibly due to aqmmo belt twisting win the air flow. The Brownings rate of fire, ~1200 rounds per minute per gun, was phenomenal in flushing and attack fire. I'd received the first new fit whilst at Grand Reef FAF 8. During the Heliopter Acceptance and Gun firing Acceptance flight in the area cose to the FAF some the guns were test fired, this drawing out most of the FAF to the hard stand to see what this beast was. Whilst doing the post flight inspections a RLI troopie told me the guns sounded like a viscious dog barking!
My best wishes to all for a better and Happy New Year.
Thanks Nick. I was aware of the beefing up of the floor but not to the extent that you describe. Excellent comment & another great interview. Tatenda Tony
Interesting, I thoroughly enjoyed the talk by Nick, I'm sure there's more coming from him, thank you for going down the memory lane and narrating the history of Zimbabwe through the eyes of Rhodesian forces, dankie
At last! I can now put a face to a name! In the National Service cadets’ mess at School of Inf., there was plaque displaying the names of winners of the Sword of Honour for the Regular cadets’ courses. Some of them (like our interviewee today) would go on to become legends; some of them would make the ultimate sacrifice for their land). One of those names listed on the plaque was “2Lt. N.G.C. Fawcett”. So glad to “meet” you Nick after all these years! (Course Inf 160 - January 1978)
As a young rhodie great to learn form all these great men thank you all for making our foundation as young Rhodes so strong it has stood us in great steed through out our lives where ever we have landed n this world
Seasonal greetings to all Rhodies, Tony, John, and Hannes, and families. Blessings from a Mount Darwin OP’s Room survivor 73/75 those pins on the wall (hundreds) don’t let them give you nightmares.
What a great way to spend Christmas afternoon, listening to another fascinating episode of FMoR, cheers! 🍻
Thank you, guys! Merry Christmas John, Tony & Hannes, from miserable old England! You’ve brightened up my year ☺️
Same to you!
Very interesting to hear some of the situation during the earlier years of the conflict 👍
Seasons greetings to all and God Bless
Another great talk Gentleman, thank you
Hi Tony! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone 🎄🌟🥂 I'm sure I will enjoy listening to this new episode 🙏 thanks in advance!!
Just a correction, the cannon in the Alo helicopter was not the Espano 20mm, it was too heavy and too great a recoil action for the flor of the helo to handle. Some of thoes Vampire cannons made their way to Selous Scouts and Boat Sqn on Kariba.
great talk again guys very well told.
Fascinating. Great talk, guys.
I grew up on a farm in Natal and could speak isiZulu moderately well after school..
This and having Standard 10 passes in Maths, Science and English got me selected for EW, but none of our adversaries spoke isiZulu.
In 1976 our Ops Brush and Ops Falcon intercepted Zambian Army and Zambian Police out of Mpacha, as well as Chirundu and Binga for a while.
But the Zambian Army and Zambian Police always spoke (pidgin) English.
ZIPRA spoke isiZulu dialect Ndebele, but I never even heard them on the radio, even while doing search task. I've always wondered whether ZIPRA had radios.
SWAPO also never seemed to have HF radios, just some sticks had VHF handsets, bur one had to be pretty close to intercept that, which we did not do in 1976.
RMY
Nick, compliments of the season, and heartfelt gratitude for your service to a special country.
I hope you will explain in Part 2 the background to the unique parade in the Honde featured in two of the photos.
Yes, the parade will be explained in Part 2.
The qualities of officer and gentleman shine through.
A pity to be transfered out of RLI just as Fireforce was getting going.
RMY
Great to know you attended Avondale, so did I, hence my book, Avondale Junior School Days, Lulu Press.
Your a big softee Tony. Have a great Xmas.
I grew up in Natal and learned to speak some Zulu and Xhosa, mainly due to growing up in a semi rural area. Only farm kids were fluent. Most white kids from cities hardly learned a word past basic greetings.
It would have helped white kids in SA to learn black languages too.
I think everyone remembers the RSM , I know I was always scared stiff of them .
Gunships had the Matra 155 20 m cannon
Awesome
Respect
I wonder if the story about the vampire guns was a sanctions busting ruse.
you tube deleted my coment, I edited it and put in a link to the 20 mil, saved, and all gone !!!😡😡😡
@@NGT_C7 I was going to say it is still there but looking at the timeframes of your posts it looks like you have taken the time write the whole piece again which is interesting and informative. The Ouen who said the twin Browning sounded like a dog barking was dead right. Jeez man, we knew our stuff in the RLI 😂😂💪
Rhodies 😂