Fire Force: A Trooper's War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry

“a remarkable account that bears comparison with other classics on war … a tour de force” (Dr. Paul L. Moorcraft). Fire Force is the account of Chris Cocks’s service in 3 Commando, The Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), during Zimbabwe’s civil war of the 1970s—a war that came to be known, almost innocuously, as ‘the bush war’. Fire Force, a tactic of total airborne/airmobile envelopment, was developed by the RLI, and became the principal strike weapon of the beleaguered Rhodesian forces in their struggle against the tide of the communist-trained and -equipped ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas.

Fire Force is regarded as a classic military memoir, as gritty and honest as Robert Mason's Chickenhawk and Guy Sayer's, The Forgotten Soldier. Some books will always be relevant. As long as there is war and conflict, and ‘boots on the ground’, the soldier’s universal experience of combat will resonate with this classic, gritty memoir. First published in 1988, Chris Cocks’s Fire Force has been re-jacketed and re-released in this new edition due to sustained demand. It is now necessary to make a new generation of military readers and servicemen and -women aware of it.

‘I read Fire Force while I was in Iraq on my first tour as a platoon leader trying to figure out a different way to get at the bad guys without driving over IEDs. (My platoon wouldn’t believe me when I told them that the Husky, the RGs, and the Buffalos were all Rhodesian inventions from 25 years ago!) I can’t believe I never heard or read anything about Rhodesia while growing up. Your book had a huge impact on me. We’ve always had four-man fire teams but I started pushing down an M240 (MAG) to each of my “sticks” when we were on the ground (we originally had only the puny 5.56mm SAW but I bitched till I got extra 240s). I would take out my own stick for LP/OPs at night and leave the rest of my guys back. Four gumbas in the dark are a lot stealthier in town than four diesel-powered Humvees or a pair of Bradleys (i.e. the doctrinal way). And I used to tell everyone that would listen to me, “Look dude, read this book. It’s all right here.”’
— Captain Ted S. Roberts, S-3A/HHC 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division