Fireforce : One Man's War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry (New ed)

Fireforce is the compelling, brutal account of Chris Cocks' service in 3 Commando, the Rhodesian Light Infantry, during Zimbabwe's bitter civil war of the 1970s - a conflict that came to be known simply as "the bush war".

The book's title refers to a tactic of total airborne envelopment developed and perfected by the RLI, together with the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian Air Force, that became the principal strike weapon of the beleaguered Rhodesian forces in their struggle against the overwhelming tide of the Communist-trained and -equipped ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas. The combat strain on a Rhodesian fighting soldier was almost unbelievable.

Always desperately short of ground troops, officers were sometimes obliged to parachute the same men into action into as many as three enemy contacts a day.

While estimates of enemy casualties vary, there seems little doubt that the RLI accounted for at least 12,000 ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas - but not without cost. This book is not for the squeamish. It blends the intrinsic pathos and humour peculiar to war with face-to-face combat in the bush and death at point-blank range.

A frank and moving factual account, the book takes the reader through three years of life in the RLI, with all its ferocity, pride, fear and survival recounted in a vivid, humble narrative.

Now, here is your chance to read what several critics have called the best book on the Rhodesian War ever written.