In 1975 The Rhodesian Air Force operated an Alouette 3 helicopter in Mocambique around the Malvernia and Troposcater area in the "Russian Front".
This Alouette was painted the same colour Yellow as a similar helicopter which was flown by the Mocambiquans and was dubbed The Yellow submarine.
I know that JR Blythe Wood and Dick Paxton flew missions in this helicopter.
I would be grateful for more information on this helicopter and its role and basically anything that is of interest.
Beaver
Howzit,
ReplyDeleteThe following from PB's book Winds of destruction
YELLOW SUBMARINE
Selous Scouts were committed to using noisy vehicles and experienced a variety of difficulties in their attempts to render the rail line from Maputo to the border town of Malvernia inoperable. Then, whilst they were working on this difficult task, they noticed that a yellow Alouette III came up the rail line from Maputo and turned northwards along the Cabora Bassa power line. Radio intercepts on FRELIMO’s radio network soon established that this was a regular run for a Maputo-based engineer to inspect a section of the power lines running from Cabora Bass to South Africa. Intercepted messages also showed that all FRELIMO posts were told not to shoot at the yellow Alouette. Ron Reid-Daly approached Norman Walsh to see if Air HQ would consider painting one of our own Alouettes canary yellow so that rail and train destruction parties and recce teams could fly unchallenged directly to their selected targets. Norman sorted this out without delay and John Blythe-Wood flew the aircraft, nicknamed Yellow Submarine, from its secret covers at New Sarum for a night flight to the Selous Scouts forward HQ. The rail wreckers enjoyed a trouble free period until FRELIMO finally tumbled to what was happening.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Neil